Working with Groups and Smart Groups

What

Groups and Smart Groups are essentialcore organizational elementstools withinin FileWave.  They allowlet usyou towork look atwith devices by purpose, department, location, platform, deployment need, or any other structure that matters in your environment instead of managing everything one device at a higher level than on a device by device basis, such as by department, by location and even by company. time.

When/Why

WeUse aregroups goingwhen membership should be deliberate and administrator-controlled. Use Smart Groups when membership can be described by criteria and should update automatically as inventory, device details, or other matching data changes.

Good group design makes deployments, reporting, and day-to-day administration easier to useunderstand. groupsIt throughoutalso reduces one-off work because FileWave tocan helptarget usmeaningful organize, and to help us improve efficiency...which is the pointsets of FileWavedevices afterinstead all.of individual We'll use these group and smart group elements to help us perform actions in meaningful, efficient, and wholesale manner.endpoints.

How

Groups

TheA articlesgroup linkedis belowa willstatic givecontainer. You can place devices, other groups, and Smart Groups into it. Think of it like a folder: it is useful when you quiteneed thea overviewsimple, ofintentional these tools, and we think you'll find that groups and smart groups will become the backbone of your FileWave implementation:structure.

Manual

Creating a Group

Groupsgroups are a verygood importantfit conceptwhen withinthe FileWave.reason for Groupsmembership allowis usnot tosomething organize devices and even other groups.  YouFileWave can thinkreliably ofcalculate. themFor similarlyexample, toif foldersten inunrelated users purchased a filesystem.

licensed

We are going to use these (static/manual) groups whenever we have a need to organize in general or to group devices in some non-programmatic way.  For instance, if we need to deploy an application to random devices throughout the environment based on random license purchases, then we might use a manual group.

How

Creatingapplication, a manual group ismay asbe easycleaner asthan clickingforcing an artificial Smart Group rule.

To create a group, use the new groupgroup/folder iconcontrol, () and givinggive the group a nameunique (thename, nameand mustplace bedevices unique).or child Seegroups anwhere examplethey below:

belong.

Related Contentcontent

• Move to Group
• Copy to Group

CreatingSmart aGroups

A Smart Group

is criteria-based. Devices become members automatically when they match the rules you define. Smart groupsGroups are usually the brains,better choice when you can describe the target set clearly and mostwant ofFileWave theto power,keep behindthat FileWave.membership  In a nutshell smart groups are like regular groups, except devices end up in them automatically based on the criteria you specify.  Smart groups are essential in automating your workflows, and hence, reducing your work load.current.

WeCommon are going to use smart groups just about every time that we can define a rule in our heads for them: examples:

• Deploy an MSI to all Windows devices in the Accounting department...smart group
• Deploy a VPP app to all third grade iPads...smart group
• Deploy a PKG to all macOS devices...smart group
• Deploy Photoshop to theten random tenunrelated people throughoutacross the environment that— needthis it...is probably notbetter as a smartmanual group unless those users share reliable criteria.

How

There are multiple levels of complexity when creating smart groups (and reports), but we'll start simply.  Watch below as we define a a smart group that will contain all Windows devices.  Also, please check out all of the additional related content to go deeper into building complex smart groups!

Condition Groups

Condition Groups within Reports and Smart Groups are powerful, but the criteria should describe a methodstable target. Avoid rules based only on state that the associated deployment immediately changes, because that can create policy loops where a device repeatedly moves in and out of isolatingscope.

specific

Reports logicand condition groups

FileWave Central and FileWave Anywhere use Reports (formerly Queries) to return result sets. Smart Groups use similar criteria logic, but with a different purpose: Reports show information, while Smart Groups target devices for data queries.action.

Condition groups arelet alwaysyou usedisolate logic when you need to combine AND withand OR logicrules. withinIf you know SQL, condition groups serve the same report.basic purpose Ifas youparentheses. areA familiar with SQL, Condition Groups in FileWave are the equivalent of parentheses in SQL.  If you wanted asimple report that looked at allfor Windows or macOS devices,devices youmay wouldn'tnot need a condition group,group; buta rule such as soon as we look for something like (macOS or WindowsWindows) ANDand Microsoft Office is installed,installed then we need a condition group, because we need to combine AND with OR.

How

Following our example from above, watch below as we create the more complex smart group using condition groups:

Digging Deeper

Note that you'll find some quite complex examples of advanced condition groups in the Reports view under Sample Queries:

does.

Conditions

Conditions are used to define whatwhich devices or other elementsobjects will showappear in the resultsresult. ofMost ourSmart smartGroups groupand or report.

We will almost alwaysReports use at least one condition inso athe smartresult groupis narrowed from “everything” to the exact set you need.

Examples include platform, operating system version, installed application name, FileWave Client version, department, location, enrollment state, or reportcustom (unless we wanted to see literally every device).  The conditions allow us to refine the list down from "everything" to just specific devices, such as "Windows devices that have an older FileWave client".

How

Watch below as we specify criteria (conditions) to match our example above:

fields.

FieldsPreview in Smart Groups (Preview)fields

When weyou build a Smart Group or Report, use the preview to validate the result before trusting it. If you are buildingtargeting smart groups and reports, it is very helpful to have a live representation of what our query is returning.  This data preview (the bottom half of the smart group/report definition window) gives us this data live as we edit the query.  Frequently though, we want different fields in this preview than what are given to usdevices by default.

Let's assume for a moment that we want a smart group or report that contains information on FileWave clients that have not been upgraded to version 14.  Now, we can edit our conditions to say "FileWave Client Version"version, ≠ 14.0, and we can just trust that this works and we have the proper results.  Yeah, we wouldn't trust that either!  Much better to actually putadd the FileWave Client Version field intoto ourthe preview so that weyou can "eyeball"see whether the datacriteria toare makereturning surethe devices you expect.

That quick check is often better than assuming the rule is correct just because it issaved right.

How

Watch below as we remove some of the default provided fields and add FileWave Client Version:

Note that in Version 14, smart groups do not have preview fields, but this will be added shortly.successfully.

Finding Fieldsfields for yourcondition Condition Statementsstatements

When it comes to creating smart groups and reports, we will always want to filter by some criteria.  This article explains how you can find the data elements available for these filters.

If you know the field namename, start typing and use type-ahead. If you aredo lookingnot for, you can always just type it in and allowknow the type-ahead to help you.  Alternatively, we can browse through all of the fields to find specific elements.

Sometimes it is helpful to have context to find aexact field name...thatname, is, having the data showing withbrowse the field name.list and Theuse easiestfield waydescriptions to doconfirm thatthe isright todata gosource.

look

When atyou need context, open the Device Details page for anya particularrepresentative clientclient. whereSeeing the field name and real data together makes it easier to choose the right condition.

Example conditions

Advanced Smart Group criteria are easier to build when you can see the fields and the data together.

How

Type-ahead is useful (albeit a bit cramped), so the full field browser is a bit easier, and includes field descriptions.  Let's look below as we look for any software developed by Microsoft:

Smart Group/Report Example Conditions

The world of advanced smart groups can be a little daunting at first blush.  That is why we try to help you get started with examples pre-built into FileWave.

Sometimes the smart group criteria can be quite complex, but it almost always pays off to try to map out a sentence that mirrors your needs.  If you can write the requirement as a sentence, then youtranslate canthat alsosentence buildinto the smart group.

How

Here are some good examples to get your creative juices flowing:conditions.

• I want to upgrade allUpgrade Windows devicesclients tobelow the target FileWave clientClient version 14.  Therefore the conditions are going to be that theversion: OS Type is WindowsWindows, AND theand FileWave Client Version does not begin with "14."the target version prefix.

Find devices with Microsoft Office installed: use condition groups to match Office application names and version patterns across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and other relevant Office applications. Find Windows devices missing 7-Zip: match Windows devices and use a NOT condition against the 7-Zip application name so the result returns devices where the application is absent.

Related content

• IUnderstanding wantFileWave Clients, Groups, and Smart Groups

Fast Smart Group Evaluation Create a Smart Group with all devices that have Office 365 installed.  Any machine that has version 16.x of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, etc will befrom an indicationInventory that "Office" is installed.  To accomplish this, we will have to use condition groups like this "SQLish" statement...Query (IfReport) ExcelDuplicating ANDSmart versionGroups 16.x),View or- Reports Overview Fields in Reports (if Outlook and version 16.x), or... Preview)

I want to create a report, or a smart group of all devices that are "missing" certain software.  In this case, "7-Zip" for Windows devices. Note that in this case we use a "NOT" to indicate we want our query to return all devices that DO NOT have an app called 7-Zip Installed.  (You'll see results below with and without this NOT...see how the results are opposite?):

.