We don't do that, but I like that idea a lot. I've entered it into my feature request database.
Based on your message, I assume you are using "basic" and not "advanced" alerts. The basic alerting engine requires one to manually go into every alert in order to make changes to the devices associated with each one. This is bad enough with only a few alerts, but it's a real pain in the hiney when you have a complex, multi-tiered alert scheme, and often make a lot of device changes.
On the other hand, the beauty of using the advanced alerting engine lies with the ability to tie the alerts to custom properties. All you have to do is create all of your alerts and tie them to suitable custom properties. Then, as you add new devices, or as other changes occur, you simply make the appropriate changes in Custom Property Editor, and you never have to touch the alerts themselves. We use custom properties for everything from alerting, to controlling which elements appear in various views and reports, so it's all controlled from one place. Keep in mind that there are some known issues with the advanced alerting engine prior to v8.1, but it appears that these issues have been resolved in 8.1.
Vic
This too is a good idea. I had used the Advanced Alert engine for version 7 and it was pretty bruital at times. Also, I found it very difficult to alert on only certain devices, but by creating custom properties, I can see how this would be much easier. Thanks for the tip.
