Devices and Groups

erharj

After my upgrade I am also trying to wrap my mind around the new organization of Devices and Groups in v9.

I had many Groups in v8.5 that were simple, in that each Group included ONLY monitors for one computer, with a Dependency of a PING on that computer--and then that Group is part of an Email Alert.  Those did move into v9.

However, when I create a new Device in v9, I can create it with multiple monitors for that Device or Computer similar to v8.5 Groups, with a Dependency of a PING--and add that to an Email Alert....So, what would be the difference between the two scenarios...A Group of monitors for a single device with a PING dependency, OR a Device of monitors with a PING dependency?  Do I even need to take that extra step in v9 to create a Group like I did in v8.5 in this scenario?  If not, then that leaves me with a mixture of configurations of Devices with no groups and my upgraded Devices WITH Groups from 8.5. ...Make sense?

Thanks!

chris.lapoint

hen I create a new Device in v9, I can create it with multiple monitors for that Device or Computer similar to v8.5 Groups, with a Dependency of a PING--and add that to an Email Alert....So, what would be the difference between the two scenarios...A Group of monitors for a single device with a PING dependency, OR a Device of monitors with a PING dependency?

 

They are essentially the same.  We wanted to formalize the concept of a device and its relationship with monitors and provide a container to store device-specific attributes from our improved discovery engine (e.g. L3 subnet, vendor, location, etc.).   So devices are really specialized groups whose members can only be monitors.   You can still create new groups and add *existing* monitors to them if you want.

Do I even need to take that extra step in v9 to create a Group like I did in v8.5 in this scenario?

Nope.  That's the cool thing is that you can now use groups purely for logical organization of your devices (and take advantage of the newly added Groups within Groups feature).

If not, then that leaves me with a mixture of configurations of Devices with no groups and my upgraded Devices WITH Groups from 8.5. ...Make sense?

I think I hear you.  If you're saying that monitors with the same device/IP address in v8.5 were mapped to a device in v9, then you are correct.   In your particular scenario, you had groups = devices so during the upgrade there was a 1:1 correlation.