Extreme Networks EPICenter 6.0, Reference Manual

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EPICenter Reference Guide
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8 The Grouping Manager
This chapter describes how to use the Grouping Manager to do the following:
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Create new groups
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Create new user or host resources
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Add resources or groups to a parent group
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Define relationships between resources
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Add attributes to a resource or a group
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Search for resources
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Import users and hosts from Windows Domain Controller, NIS, an LDAP directory, or a file
Overview of the Grouping Manager
The Grouping Manager allows you to collect network “resources” (devices, ports, users, hosts, and
VLANs) into groups that can be manipulated or managed as a single entity.
A group is a hierarchical collection of resources that have been grouped together for some common
purpose. A group can contain individual resources as well as other (subordinate) groups. Groups
(except for Device Groups) are not exclusive—a resource can be a member (child) of more than one
group.
Resources are individual elements in your network, such as a device, port, host (end station), user, or
VLAN. Device, port, and VLAN resources are defined externally to the Grouping Manager, through the
EPICenter discovery capability and the Inventory and VLAN applets. User and host resources are
defined within the Grouping Manager, either by importing the information from an external source
(such as an LDAP directory, NT Domain Controller, NIS server, or a file) or by creating the resources
within the Grouping Manager. A group can also be considered a resource when it is used as an entity
in the same way as an individual resource would be used—such as in a Policy definition within the
EPICenter Policy Manager, an optional, separately licensed product.
With the exception of Device Groups and Port Groups, the group and resource definitions you create
through the Grouping applet are primarily useful within the Policy Manager applet. For more
information on how groups are used within that function, see
Chapter 18 “Using the Policy Manager” .
You can define groups and add resources to them to create an organizational structure that facilitates
managing your network. The EPICenter software provides several predefined groups:
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Custom Applications
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Device Groups
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Hosts
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Import Sources
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Port Groups
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Users