Endpoint Central provides an option to create custom group of computers and users, which can be used as targets for applying the configurations. The advantages of custom groups are:
You can have any number of custom groups to group computers and users of a specific department. You can create this once and can use these groups as targets for deploying the configurations.
You can add or remove users/computers from groups at any point of time.
Groups once created can be used in any number of configurations.
Creating Unique Custom groups, will leverage user management by defining specific scope (unique Custom Groups) to specific users.
Custom groups with computers or users that belong to different domains and workgroups can be created. For configurations that have to be deployed to computers or users belonging to different domains and workgroups, this custom group can be used.
In version 10.0.598 and above, custom groups can be created by technicians with write permission for deployment activities. However these custom groups can be created only on the basis of computers and not users.The managed computers can be filtered by the created custom groups using Custom Group Filters.
This document will explain you on the three types of custom groups, they are:
The following links will help you in creation of custom groups:
You can define a static group, when you have a definite set of users/computers from a single or different domains to be added to this group. If you want to add or remove users/computers in this group, it has to be done manually. A computer can be a part of more than one static custom group. These groups are created as target, for deploying configurations.
A Static unique group is a static group, where the computers belonging to this group cannot be added to any other groups. Computers added to a Static Unique group once, will not be listed, when you try to create another group of the same kind. The main purpose of the creating a Static unique group is to associate these groups as Scope for the users. All the privileges to manage this group can be defined only by the administrator.
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You can also import a csv file to add computers to a static or static unique group. The csv should contain the name of the computer followed by the domain name as explained below: Computer Name,Domain Name system101,companyorg |
A Dynamic Group is the one that is created with a set of rules or criteria. Based on the defined criteria, the computers gets automatically added to this group. Any new computer matching the criteria will automatically get added to this group. The computers belonging to this group are generated only during the execution configuration. The defined queries will be applied and the result will be published as the Dynamic Custom Group.
To create a custom group, follow the steps below:
Select the Admin tab
Click the Custom Groups link available under the Global Settings. This will list all the Custom Groups that have been created.
Click the Create New Group button and specify the following values:
Specify a name for the custom group. This should be unique.
Select the Domain or the Workgroup from the list.
Select the Group Type as Computers or Users. This will list the available computers/users in the selected domain.
Note: By default, the users/computers will be displayed in Tree View. Use List View link to view users/computers as a list. Manual entry of computers/users is possible using Manual Input option.
Select the computers/users and move them to the Added list.
Click Submit to create the group.
Note: Administrators and technicians can create Custom Groups with the computers that belong to their scope.
Click on the List View link for the users/computers to be displayed as a list.
Click on a particular alphabet to view the users/computers with names that begin with alphabet specified. Use All link to list all the users/computers.
Click on the Sort link to sort the listed user/computer names.
You have successfully created a custom group, which can be used for management purposes.
Custom group settings allow an administrator to provide access to Custom Groups to all technicians handling the various scope of computers, for deploying patches, applications, and configurations. Custom groups created by administrators can be viewed and accessed by a technician only when the custom group settings is Enabled.
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