Creating Dynamic Groups

The owner of a dynamic group specifies the membership criteria during dynamic group creation (or modification) and membership in the group is determined solely by the criteria specified. Membership in a dynamic group cannot be modified directly. Enterprise Manager automatically adds targets that match membership criteria when a dynamic group is created. It also updates group membership as new targets are added or target properties are changed and the targets match the group's membership criteria.

To create a dynamic group, follow these steps:

  1. From the Groups page, click Create and then select Dynamic Group from the drop-down list. Alternately, you can choose Add Target from the Setup menu and then select Group.
  2. On the General tab of the Create Dynamic Group page, enter the Name of the Dynamic Group you want to create. If you want to make this a privilege propagating dynamic group, then enable the Privilege Propagation option by clicking Enabled. If you enable Privilege Propagation for the group, the target privileges granted on the group to an administrator or a role are propagated to the member targets. As with regular groups with privilege propagation, the Create Privilege Propagating Group privilege is required for creation of privilege propagating dynamic groups. In addition, the Full any Target privilege is required to enable privilege propagation because only targets on which the owner has Full Target privileges can be members, and any target can potentially match the criteria and a system wide Full privilege is required. To create a regular dynamic group, the View any Target system wide privilege is required as the group owner must be able to view any target that can potentially match the membership criteria.

    The privilege propagating group feature contains two privileges:

    • Create Privilege Propagating Group

      This privileged activity allows the administrators to create the privilege propagating groups. Administrators with this privilege can create propagating groups and delegate the group administration activity to other users.

    • Group Administration

      Grant this privilege to an administrator or role that enables him to become group administrator for the group. This means he can perform operations on the group, share privileges on the group with other administrators, etc.

      The Group Administration Privilege is available for both Privilege Propagating Groups and conventional groups. If you are granted this privilege, you can grant full privilege access to the group to other Enterprise Manager users without having to be the SuperAdministrator to grant the privilege.

  3. In the Define Membership Criteria section, define the criteria for the dynamic group membership by clicking Define Membership Criteria.

    The Define Membership Criteria page appears where you can Add or Remove properties of targets to be included in the group. Group members must match one value in each of the populated target properties. Use the Member Preview section to review a list of targets that match the criteria. Click OK to return to the General page.

    At least one of the criteria on the Define Membership Criteria page must be specified. You cannot create a Dynamic group without at least one of the target types, on hosts or target properties specified. Use the following criteria for dynamic groups:

    • Target type(s)

    • Department

    • On Host

    • Target Version

    • Lifecycle Status

    • Operating System

    • Line of Business

    • Platform

    • Location

    • CSI

    • Cost Center

    • Contact

    • Comment

    You can add or remove properties using the Add or Remove Target Properties button on the Define Membership Criteria page.

    The Indirect Members drop-down menu provides the option to include or exclude any indirect member targets as part of the dynamic group. Indirect members are targets whose target properties DO NOT match dynamic group criteria. However, they have been added to the dynamic group because their parent target is a direct member of the dynamic group. Whenever aggregate targets, such as targets that have member targets, are added to a dynamic group, all members of the aggregate target are, by default, also added to the group. An example of an aggregate target is Oracle WebLogic Server. If that target is added to a group, then all Application Deployment targets on it are also pulled into the group, even if their properties do not satisfy the group criteria.

  4. Enter the Time Zone. The time zone you select is used for scheduling operations such as jobs and blackouts on this group. The groups statistics charts will also use this time zone.
  5. Click the Charts tab. Specify the charts that will be shown in the Dynamic Group Charts page. By default, the commonly used charts for the target types contained in the Dynamic Group are added.
  6. Click the Columns tab to add columns and abbreviations that will be seen in the Members page and also in the Dashboard.
  7. Click the Dashboard tab to specify the parameters for the System Dashboard. The System Dashboard displays the current status and incidents and compliance violations associated with the members of the Dynamic Group in graphical format.
  8. Click the Access tab. Use the Access page to administer access privileges for the group. On the Access page you can grant target access to Enterprise Manager roles and grant target access to Enterprise Manager administrators.
  9. Click OK to create the Dynamic Group.