Developing Labels for Hierarchical Organization
The benefit of using Smart labels is that they will
automatically be applied (and removed) from devices as the devices meet (or no longer
meet) the specified matching criteria.
All K1000 labels support hierarchies, but planning is both necessary and recommended. The nice part is that once the hierarchy is defined (through Smart label criteria and label groups), only the lowest-level of the hierarchy needs to be specific – the rest of the hierarchy simply leverages the names of the labels lower in the hierarchical structure.
To clarify, here is an example using locations from very
specific (classrooms) to very broad (region).
When configured correctly, devices and their associated labels can be
easily viewed at any level of the hierarchy.
And keeping track of hundreds and thousands of labels is entirely
possible and relatively easy to do.
Example Scenario
A customer wants to create labels for tracking devices at all locations, from regional down to individual classrooms. Labels listed on the Labels page should be easy to read and logically grouped. It should also be possible to easily view all devices associated with labels at any level of the hierarchy.
| Note: The example provided here only includes a minimal sample for each level of the hierarchy for illustrative purposes. Any actual implementation will typically contain many more objects at the different levels. |
Configuration Steps
1) Develop a naming scheme that assists with identification and organization. This step is absolutely critical for the label hierarchy to function properly and will help considerably with label and label group creation.
Suggested implementation
- First, develop a list of the location
hierarchies, from most general to most specific.
For example:
- Region
- Country
- State
- City
- Site
- Building
- Classroom
Second, create a list of the exact locations that correspond to these groups.
For example:
- Region
- EMEA
- North America
- Country
- Belgium
- Germany
- State
- Bavaria
- Saxony
- City
- Ingolstadt
- Munich
- Site
- Munich University of Applied Sciences
- Technische Universitaet Muenchen
- Building
- A
- T
- Classroom
- Room 101
- Room 102
| Note: K1000 label groups can only be nested to a single level. For example, this approach (which we will use below in our example) works fine:
In the example below, the different location levels are associated with a top-level Location label group. Although it does require some administrative effort to plan and design, the results will be easy to work with. |
- Location
- Location-Region
- Location-Country
- Location-State
- Location-City
- Location-Site
- Location-Building
- Location-Classroom
- Use the New Label Group option in the Choose Action menu of the Labels page to create them.
- Next, use the Apply Label Groups option in the Choose Action menu of the Labels page to associate the bottom-level label groups with the top-level Location label group.
| In the Field: Prefixing the bottom-level label groups with the top-level label group's name will help considerably with the organization of the Labels page, as we will see later. |
3) Develop Smart labels that target these locations by using corresponding criteria.
| Note: When developing Smart labels, start at the lowest level of the hierarchy (the classroom level, in this example) and then move up in the hierarchy by using the lower-level labels for the next level label's criteria (Label Names = ____). Prefixing label names is also recommended. |
- Location-Classroom-T-Room 101
- Location-Classroom-T-Room 201
| Note: Including a building identifier (“T” in this example) along with the room number will help differentiate identically-named classrooms. |
| In the Field: Aside from the previous planning and hierarchy development steps, determining what to use for the Smart label criteria for the lowest level of the hierarchy is the most critical aspect of this entire configuration. Some suggested approaches include:
To ease the administrative burden in the future (and to avoid resorting to manual labels), a breadcrumb can be placed on computers (in the form of a file or registry entry) via K1000 scripts that could be leveraged by a K1000 custom inventory rule (which could then be used as the Smart label criteria). The target computers in the K1000 scripts would still need to be specified manually, but label application could still be automated as outlined here. |
- Location-Building-T
- Location-Site-Munich University of Applied Sciences
- Location-City-Munich
- Location-State-Bavaria
- Location-Country-Germany
- Location-Region-EMEA
4) Associate
the Smart labels created in step 3 with the label groups created in step 2.
First, associate the labels with the bottom-level label groups:
- Location-Classroom
- Location-Classroom-T-Room 101
- Location-Classroom-T-Room 201
- Location-Building
- Location-Building-A
- Location-Building-T
- Location-Site
- Location-Site-Munich University of Applied Sciences
- Location-Site-Technische Universitaet Muenchen
- Location-City
- Location-City-Ingolstadt
- Location-City-Munich
- Location-State
- Location-State-Bavaria
- Location-State-Saxony
- Location-Country
- Location-Country-Belgium
- Location-Country-Germany
- Location-Region
- Location-Region-EMEA
- Location-Region-North America
Second, associate the bottom-level label groups with the top-level label group:
- Location
- Location-Building
- Location-City
- Location-Classroom
- Location-Country
- Location-Region
- Location-Site
- Location-State
5) As
devices perform inventory, they will be associated with the appropriate
bottom-level Smart label (Location-Classroom-____)
and will then "roll up" into the higher-level Smart labels.
For example, a device with an IP address of 192.168.77.66 will automatically have the following Smart labels applied:
- Location-Classroom-T-Room 201
- Location-Building-T
- Location-Site-Munich University of Applied Sciences
- Location-City-Munich
- Location-State-Bavaria
- Location-Country-Germany
- Location-Region-EMEA
With this type of naming convention and label grouping structure in place, the organization of the Labels page is intuitive. Associated label groups are indicated in brackets following the label (or label group) name. For example, the Location-City-Munich label belongs to the bottom-level Location-City label group, while the Location-City label group belongs to the top-level Location label group.
Similarly, opening the Label Detail page for a label will list all of the devices associated with that label.
Conclusion
Although setting up a hierarchal labeling scheme does require planning and time to initially configure, once these steps have been completed device organization is completely automated.
In summary, it is worth investing the time up front as
these labels can then be used to drive the automation of tasks
(software/script/patch deployment and so on) throughout the rest of the K1000,
and reporting on discrete groups of devices (using the K1000’s Reporting
module) becomes extremely easy as you only need to filter on the desired label
name.
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