Ranking Device Groups

For device groups, NetMRI uses the Rank setting to determine how and when each device is processed after it is discovered on the network. Also, device groups use Rank as a way of determining the actions to take on a device that is a member of more than one group. If a device is a member of two groups, one that is enabled for config collection, and in another that is not, the group with the highest rank determines if the configs should be collected for that device. Ranking for child device groups in the device group tree is hierarchical. Child groups ranking is always higher than the ranking of its parent. Group Ranking is also used as the default sort order for all group-related tables, with the highest rank shown first.

The default groups organize devices essentially into "network" and "non-network" devices, based on their type and assurance level. Network devices usually have SNMP and Config collection and analysis enabled, while non-network devices do not. This reduces unnecessary data collection and processing loads, allowing the appliance to work more efficiently for devices that matter most.

By selectively enabling and disabling data collection, you can fine-tune NetMRI performance, or ensure that NetMRI processes the most important devices when a Device Limit or Interface Limit, based on licensing, is exceeded. In such cases, the Rank associated with each group is used to determine which devices are within the limits (devices with the highest rank) and which are outside the limits (devices with a lower rank). In this way, the most important devices, as indicated by the group rank, are processed while others are not.