Working with tags

Owned by Philippe JASPARD
Last updated: Jun 05, 2020
4 min read

Presentation

In some cases, you may need to dynamically group devices with criterias that are not available in the dynamic group criterias. Tags can be used to customize the values you want to use to dynamically group your devices. Static and especialy dynamic tags are an extreemely powerful way to group your devices.

Along with the possibility for grouping dynamically, tags can also used to simply associate a value to a device in the device list. In this context, dynamic tags can also be used to collect important inventory information that are not collected by default by the proVconnect agent. 

To 

To access the tags command, you need to double click on the device and go to "Agent administration" and select "Inventory Tags" (see the Agent Tags vue below)

Static tags

  • allows you to set a fixed value for grouping devices. For example, you could allocate Tag1 to set the city the devices are in, Tag2 for the service (accounting etc..) etc...
  • Once the static tags are set on the agents, you can create a dynamic group on the selected tag, all devices will be automatically grouped based on the Tag values
  • You can set the tag value manualy within the agent (by double click on the specific device) - (see the Agent Tags vue below)
  • Or you can push the tag value on multiple devices by selecting programming the Tag value into a task from the console (see the task programming  and planning section)

Dynamic tags

  • Allows you to set a dynamic value for grouping devices. For example you could allocate dynamic Tag 1 to a WMI command, dynamic tag 2 to a powershell script, dynamic tag 3 to a shell command etc..
  • Once the dynamic tags are set on the agents, you can create a dynamic group on the selected dynamic tag, all devices will be automatically grouped based on the result of the command contained in the dynamic tags
  • You can set the dynamic tag command manualy within the agent (by double click on the specific device) - (see the Agent Tags vue below)
  • Or you can push the dynamic tag command on multiple devices by selecting programming the dynamic Tag command into a task from the console (see Inventory Tags section in the Agent Administration page)


Methods for Applying Tags

There are 2 methods for applying Tags to devices.

From the main console when you need to apply a Tag value to multiple devices. 

By double clicking on a specific device to apply a tag value on one single device (Single device View)




Dynamic grouping with static Tags

These fields can be used to manually enter data such as location, date, numbers relevant for sorting purposes, etc.

In the example below, we have entered the value "New-York City" in the tag 1 and the value "Accounting" in the tag 2 of the device called POS 1

We have created a dynamic group based on tag 1 and we see that the "New-York City" group has been automatically created and when we click on the group, we see that POS 1 is in the group

We have created a dynamic group based on tag 2 and we see that the "Accounting" group has been automatically created and when we click on the group, we see that POS 1 is in the group

Dynamic grouping with dynamic Tags

Dynamic (Calculated)- proVconnect’s powerful dynamic grouping technology lets administrators apply dynamic tags based on query results. proVconnect can run DOS or WMIC commands on the target device(s), gather the generated values, and use those values to populate a dynamic tag field. This allows dynamic groups based on, say, the time zone or display resolution of the remote devices.

In the example below, we query for the version of the installed OS.







Agent Tags vue


proVconnect allows tags to be applied to devices to make grouping easier. By default, the tags are numbered 1 thru 5. Tags can be given a friendly name via the Personalize menu.

From the device Single View, select Agent Administration > Inventory Tags.




Please note that the tags can also be provided by a DHCP Server. For further details, please refer to DHCP Scope Options.



As another example, the query below enables to capture the username of the user currently logged in onto the device.

WMIC ComputerSystem Get UserName |find /V "UserName" |findstr /r /v "^$"


Take care when using queries to populate dynamic tag fields, as they can be populated with a lot of data. Further information on these WMIC are available in the /wiki/spaces/CRWP/pages/590017.