13.4. Manage Computer Groups (Package/Registry Deployment)

You can classify Computers into groups. Some of the use cases where having Computer Groups can be convenient are as follows:

  • You want to deploy patches/packages/registry updates in Computers belonging to a particular department of a Remote Office. You can create a Computer Group having all the Computers of that department, and quickly create a Deployment Request with the Remote Office as the target and the Computer Group as the include filter.

  • If you want to deny a specific set of Computers of certain patches, then you can create a Computer Group and decline the group of those patches.

13.4.1. Create a Computer Group

  • Go to the Package/Registry List View.

  • Click on All Computers Group from the Package menu.

figure 11

  • The Computer Group page opens. Here you can view all existing groups if any. Click on Create Computer Group situated in the top right corner of the page.

  • A new page opens. Here you can view all the Computers in the Endpoint scope. You get options to select Computers manually and automatically from a Remote Office (which can be filtered using include and exclude conditions).

figure 12

  • In spf-12, enter a name and description of the group.

  • In whatever way you select Computers, they all become part of the group. Add a remote office to the first scope if you want Computers from the Remote Office to be added automatically. Learn how to add a Remote Office.

  • You can add additional computers from the list, if any. You can create a group without a Remote office by manually selecting all computers from the given list. Learn how to add Additional Computers

  • You can create multiple scopes, each having their own Remote Office and additional computers, and the group will be a cumulative of all the Scopes. Learn more about Scopes.

  • When done, click on Create to save the group.

You can review computers in each Scope before adding them to the group. You also preview computers of a group (after creation) from Computer Group page.

figure 13.1
figure 13.2
figure 13.3

You can search the preview list of a Group and Scope using a search bar (spf-13.3) that supports Advance Search and is similar to the one used for searching Computers in Endpoint Scope. You can open the details of any Computer by click on it.

Edit/Delete Groups

You can edit and delete any Computer Group.

figure 14

13.4.2. View Archived Groups

When a group is deleted, we store the group in a separate section for future reference. It is because even when a group gets deleted, it stays active in associated Deployment Requests.

You can view all archived groups in the Computer Group page by clicking on Archive Computer Group (refer P-14). You can also preview the Computer list of an archived group.