Creating Device Views

You have now learned how to add and import devices using the inventory management tasks. To run reports, you can use the default device views or create your own.

The Essentials package features two types of views:

Static---Composed of a user-specified list of devices. The view contents are fixed. They change only when an administrator reconfigures the view. For example, a network administrator might have a set of devices critical to network operation. These devices can be grouped into a static view for easier monitoring. The devices in a static view have an arbitrary relationship to one another based on user-defined parameters.
Dynamic ---Based on common attributes, such as device type or product line. For example, the All Routers dynamic view contains all devices in the Essentials network inventory that are Cisco routers.

The following sections are presented in this chapter:

For detailed information on Creating Device Views, refer to the online help.

Scenario: You have several devices in your network inventory that are critical to the network. You want to refer to this specific set of devices easily, so you decide to create a view of these devices so that you can configure reports to monitor their status. Because the devices you want to put into your view have no direct relationship to each other, you create a static view.

To create a static view, perform the following steps:

Step 1 Select Admin > Device Views > Add Static Views.

The Add Static Views dialog box appears. (See Figure 3-1.) The Views column displays the list of dynamic views.

Figure 3-1: Add Static Views Dialog Box

Step 2 Click All in the Views column, then from the Devices column, select the devices you want in your static view.

Step 3 Click Next when you are finished.

The Save Static View dialog box appears.

Step 4 Enter the View Name and View Description in the Save Static View dialog box. View Names should not contain special characters.

Step 5 Click Finish.

The view is created. The Add Static Views dialog box remains on the desktop so that you can add more views.

Creating a Dynamic View

Scenario: You have several Cisco devices of the same type in your network inventory. You want to configure a view to monitor these devices, so you create a dynamic view.

To create a dynamic view, perform the following steps:

Step 1 Select Admin > Device Views > Add Dynamic Views.

The Add Dynamic Views dialog box appears. (See Figure 3-2.)

Step 2 Click any of the views in the Existing Dynamic Views column to see their contents in the Devices column.

Figure 3-2: Add Dynamic Views Dialog Box

Step 3 Click Filter to select the device attributes for your dynamic view.

The Filter Select Devices dialog box appears. (See Figure 3-3.)

Figure 3-3: Filter Select Devices Dialog Box

Step 4 Select your filtering options from the available fields .

For example, select cisco.com as the domain name and Cisco 4000 series routers, Cisco 7000 series routers, and Cisco Catalyst 5000 switches as the device types.

Step 5 Click Preview to see which devices are filtered.

The filtered devices appear in the devices column of the Add Dynamic Views dialog box.

Step 6 Click Finish.

The Filter Select Devices dialog box closes.

Step 7 Click Next on the Add Dynamic Views dialog box.

The Save Dynamic View dialog box appears.

Step 8 Enter the view name and view description, then click Finish.

The view is created.

This completes the chapter on Device Views.

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