A group is a user-defined collection of instances from the Global Manager’s topology. A group consists of members or child groups. A member is a topological element such as a switch. A child group (or subgroup) is another group, which may be a collection of members or additional subgroups. A group that contains child groups is referred to as the parent group.
Parent and child groups are organized into a tree structure. At the root of each tree is a top-level group. Each top-level group is a distinct organization of groups and members—its configuration or removal does not effect other top-level groups.
In the Map Console, top-level groups are displayed directly beneath the icon for the Global Manager:
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A member is also a member of the groups above it within the same group hierarchy.
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Within a single group hierarchy, an element cannot be a member of more than one group. An element can belong to two or more groups that descend from different top-level groups.
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You cannot create a circular group where a group is specified as a subgroup of itself or one of its subgroups.
Before we explain how to create groups, you may find it helpful to understand how groups are displayed in the Map Console.
