Manage Groups

A group is a set of assets inside one environment, and it is what a policy attaches to. Groups come in two types: a static group holds a list of assets you choose, and a dynamic group holds every asset matching a filter, including ones that register after you created the group. You pick the type when you create the group and it cannot be changed afterwards, so that is the decision to make first.

Should the group be static or dynamic?

Dynamic is the default choice for anything you want to keep working without maintenance. The main reason to pick static is that asset registration rules target static groups: if you want newly installed forwarders to land in a group and pick up its policy on first check-in, that group has to be static.

Before you create a group, create the policy you intend to attach to it. The policy is selected during group creation, so having it ready saves a second edit.

How do I create a group?

1. Log in to app.stairwell.com.
2. Open Settings from the left menu.
3. Under Environments, open Asset groups.
4. Select the environment the group belongs to, using the environment filter at the top of the list.
5. Click Create group.
6. Enter a name.
7. Under Policy configuration, choose the policy to apply to every asset in this group.
8. Under Group type, choose Dynamic or Static. The product will remind you that this cannot be changed after creation.
9. For a dynamic group, set the filter under Dynamic group filter options.
10. Click Save.

How do I fill a dynamic group?

With the filter options, which are the same filters as the Assets list:

• Operating system.
• Asset name. This is a case-insensitive regular expression, not a literal substring, which is more useful than it first appears. See the next section.
• Forwarder version. Useful for a group of machines still on an old version, so an upgrade group maintains itself.
• Asset status and update status.
• Last check-in over ninety days, for finding assets that have gone quiet.

A dynamic group re-evaluates, so a machine that changes OS, gets renamed, or is upgraded moves in or out of the group without you doing anything.

Matching a list of machines by name

Because the asset name filter is a regular expression, a pipe-delimited pattern matches any name in a list:

assetname1|servername2|workstationname3

That is the way to build a group from a list of hostnames that share no common prefix and no filterable property. It is also the way to match a family of names, for example ^build-\d+$ for every numbered build server, which keeps working as build servers are added.

How do I fill a static group?

Open the group and add assets from its asset view. Select the assets you want and save.

For a large static group, the practical path is to filter the Assets list down to the machines you want first, then select them there. Static membership is a list, so it does not update itself: a machine rebuilt under a new asset ID has to be added again.

How do I change a group later?

1. Open Settings, then Asset groups under Environments.
2. Select the environment containing the group.
3. Click the ... icon next to the group under Actions and select Edit.
4. Change the name, the policy, or the membership. For a dynamic group, change the filter.
5. Click Save.

You can change everything about a group except its type. If you need a static group to become dynamic, create the dynamic group, attach the same policy, confirm it matches the machines you expect, then delete the static one.

What happens to an asset in more than one group?

It receives every group's policy, merged. The merge is not "last one wins" and the rules differ per setting, so read the stacking table in Groups and Policies before you deliberately overlap groups.

The short version: overlapping groups give an asset the union of the extension lists, the union of the exclusions, and the tightest of every resource limit. Adding a group can restrict an asset and can add file types to collect. It cannot loosen a limit or remove an exclusion.

What can I do with a group besides apply a policy?

Groups are the unit for several fleet actions, which is a good reason to have them even where the policy is the default:

• Push a forwarder upgrade to everything in the group. See Update the Forwarders in a Group.
• Run a one-time backscan across the group, from the group's context menu on the Assets page.
• Wake or sleep every forwarder in the group at once.
• Receive newly registered assets automatically, through an asset registration rule pointed at a static group.

What should I read next?

• Create and Edit Policies, for what you attach to the group.
• Groups and Policies, for the stacking rules and how to structure groups.
• Assets, for the asset list these filters are built on.