Installation guide

Filter a List View
You can filter the list view.
The list is updated based on whether filtering is on or off. For example, if you are in the Virtual Machines tab,
you have filtered the list, and the filtered text is “powered on”, you see a list only of virtual machines whose
state is set to powered on. If the state of any of these virtual machines changes to something else, they are
removed from the list. New virtual machines that are added are also being filtered. Filtering is persistent for
the user session.
Procedure
1 On any inventory panel displaying a list, click the arrow next to the filter box at the top right of the pane
and select the attributes on which to filter.
2 Type text directly into the filtering field to specify search criteria.
There is a one-second interval between keystrokes. If you type in the text and wait for one second, the
search starts automatically. The Filter field does not support boolean expressions or special characters and
is not case sensitive.
3 (Optional) Click Clear to change the filter.
Export a List
You can export a list.
Procedure
1 Select the list to export.
2 Select File > Export > Export List.
3 Type a filename, select a file type in the dialog box, and click Save.
Custom Attributes
Custom attributes can be used to associate user-specific meta-information with virtual machines and managed
hosts.
Attributes are the resources that are monitored and managed for all the managed hosts and virtual machines
in your vSphere environment. Attributes’ status and states appear on the various Inventory panels.
After you create the attributes, set the value for the attribute on each virtual machine or managed host, as
appropriate. This value is stored with vCenter Server and not with the virtual machine or managed host. Then
use the new attribute to filter information about your virtual machines and managed hosts. If you no longer
need the custom attribute, remove it. A custom attribute is always a string.
For example, suppose you have a set of products and you want to sort them by sales representative. Create a
custom attribute for sales person name, Name. Add the custom attribute, Name, column to one of the list views.
Add the appropriate name to each product entry. Click the column title Name to sort alphabetically.
The custom attributes feature is available only when connected to a vCenter Server system.
Chapter 4 Using the vSphere Client
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