5.7

Table Of Contents
What to do next
Set the rules that determine which objects belong to the group or select these objects manually.
Define Group Members
You can populate groups either automatically based on rules or manually.
The mechanism for adding group members depends on the option that you select from the Membership
Type drop-down menu on the Edit group details page.
Table 7-1. Defining Group Members Depending on the Membership Type
Membership Type Procedure to Follow
Dynamic Define Group Membership Criteria
Manual Select Group Members Manually
Define the Rules for Group Membership
You create rules to define which objects belong to a group. Based on these rules,
vCenter Operations Manager adds or removes group members.
You define the rules for group membership in the New Group wizard. You can modify the rules that you
created for a group in the Edit Group dialog box.
Each criterion defines a set of objects that needs to be considered for group membership. The format of all
criteria is Scope:Property:Condition:Value.
A group of criteria is called a rule set. You add new criteria to the rule set by using the Add a new criteria
button. The logical operator between criteria in a rule set is AND.
A rule group contains two or more rule sets. You add rule sets by using the Add a new rule set button. The
logical operator between rule groups is OR.
Prerequisites
Verify that Dynamic membership type is selected on the Edit group details page of the New Group wizard.
Procedure
1 On the Define membership page, use the drop-down menus to create the rules that determine which
objects belong to the group.
The logical operation between criteria in a rule is AND. The logical operation between rule sets is OR.
NOTE The custom group criteria use the last stored value from the vCenter Operations Manager database.
For example, the last recorded state of virtual machines from a host is powered-on. The host is
disconnected from the vCenter Server and all virtual machines on the host were powered off. If you create
a group that must contain only powered-on virtual machines, the powered-off machines from the
disconnected host are added as group members because their last known state is powered-on.
2 (Optional) Create lists of exceptions to the rules.
You can select the objects to include and objects to exclude from the group despite the rules that you
defined.
3 (Optional) To view the list of objects that match the membership rules that you defined, click Preview.
4 Click Next.
What to do next
You can review the settings for the new group.
Chapter 7 Working with Groups
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