Managing Device Collections
Device collections provide the ability to create and manage logical groups of target devices. A device collection could represent a physical location, a subnet range, or a logical grouping of target devices. Creating device collections simplifies device management by performing actions at the collection level rather than at the target-device level.
Device collections are created and managed by farm administrators, site administrators that have security privileges to that site, or device administrators that have security privileges to that collection. For more information on administrator roles, refer to “Managing Administrative Roles”.
Expanding a Device Collections folder in the Console’s tree allows you to view members of a device collection. To display or edit a device collection’s
properties, right-click on an existing device collection in the Console, then select the Properties menu option. The “Device Collection Properties” dialog displays and allows you to view or make modifications to that collection.
To perform actions on members of a device collection, such as rebooting all target devices members in this collection, refer to “Device Collection Management Tasks”.
Device Collection Properties
Device collection properties are described in the tables that follow.
General Tab
Security Tab
Options Tab
Field/Button Description
Name The name of this device collection. Description Describes this device collection. Template target
device To use the settings of an existing target device as the template to apply to all target devices that are added to this collection, select that device from the drop-down menu, then click OK.
Field/Button Description Groups with ‘Device
Administrator’ access Assign or unassign device administrators to this collection. Device administrators can perform tasks on all device collections to which they have privileges.
Groups with ‘Device
Operator’ access Assign or unassign device operators to this collection.Device operators have the following privileges: — Boot and reboot a target device
— Shut down a target device — View target device properties
— View vDisk properties for assigned target devices
Field/Button Description
User Groups Enable or disable User Groups from logging into target devices in this collection.
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Device Collection Management Tasks
To manage device collections, select from the following: • “Creating a Device Collection”
• “Importing Target Devices into Collections”
• “Deleting Collections”
• “Refresh”
• “Boot Target Devices in a Collection”
• “Restart Target Devices in a Collection”
• “Shutdown Target Devices in a Collection”
• “Send Messages to Target Devices in a Collection”
• “Move Collections”
• Active Directory
To use the Device Collections feature with the Active Directory Management feature, refer to “Managing Domain Computer Accounts”. • “Accessing Audit Information” for a collection
Creating a Device Collection
To create a new device collection1. In the Console, right-click on the Device Collections folder where the new collection will exist, then select the Create device collection menu option. The Device Collection Properties dialog appears.
2. On the General tab, type a name for this new device collection in the Name text box, and a description of this collection in the Description text box, then click the Security tab.
3. Under the Device Administrators list, click Add. The Add Security Group dialog appears.
4. To assign a group with the Device Administrator role, type or select the appropriate domain and group name in the text box, then click OK. Optionally, repeat steps 2 and 3 to continue assigning groups as device administrators.
5. Under the Device Operators list, click Add. The Add Security Group dialog appears.
6. To assign a group with the Device Operator role, type or select the appropriate domain and group name in the text box, then click OK. Optionally, repeat steps 2 and 3 to continue assigning groups as device operators.
7. Click OK to close the dialog box.
Importing Target Devices into Collections
The Import Target Devices Wizard allows you to import target device information from a file. The target device information must first be saved as a.csv file, it can then be imported into a device collection.The wizard can be accessed from the farm, site, and device collection right-click menus. If accessed from the site or collection, only those target devices in the import file that match the site and collection by name, will be included in the import list.
The wizard also provides the option to automatically create the site or collection using the information in the file, if either does not already exist. There is also the option to use the default collection’s device template, if it exists for that
collection.
A log file is generated with an audit trail of the import actions. The file is located in:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Citrix\Provisioning Services\log
Note The .csv text file can be created with a .txt file, NotePad.exe or Excel. It contains one line per target device, which is formatted as follows:
DeviceName,MAC-
Address,SiteName,CollectionName,Description
where;
DeviceName=Name of new target device
MAC-Address= MAC address of new device; such as 001122334455, 00-11-22-33-44-55, or 00:11:22:33:44:55.
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To import target devices into a device collection
1. In the Console, right-click on the device collection that the target devices should be imported to, then click Target Device>Import devices. The Import Target Devices Wizard displays.
2. Type or browse for the file to import. The target device information is read from the file and displays in the table below. Information can include the target device name, MAC address, and optionally description.
3. Highlight one or more target devices to import.
4. If applying the collection template to the imported target devices, select the
Apply collection template device when creating devices checkbox. 5. Click Import to import the .csv text file containing target device
information, into the selected collection. The status column indicates if the import was successful.
Deleting Collections
Deleting a collection deletes any target device member records within the collection. The records can be recreated by manually adding them or using the Auto-add feature.
If target devices are members of collections within the same site, the members of one collection can be dragged and dropped to other collections, then the original collection can be deleted.
If a device collection needs to be moved to a different site or that site becomes obsolete, you can use the export and import features to add the devices to a collection in another site, then the original collection can be deleted. To delete a collection
1. In the Console tree, right-click on the collection folder that you want to delete, then select the Delete menu option. A confirmation message appears.
2. Click OK to delete this collection. The collection no longer displays in the Console tree.
Note Deleting a target device also deletes that device from any views that it was associated with.
Refresh
After making changes to a collection, it may be necessary to refresh the collection before those changes appear in the Console. To refresh, right-click on the collection in the tree, then select the Refresh menu option.
Boot Target Devices in a Collection
To boot target devices within a collection1. Right-click on the collection in the Console tree, then select the Target Device>Boot menu option. The Target Device Control dialog displays with the Boot devices menu option selected in the Settings drop-down menu. 2. Target devices display in the Device table. Click the Boot devices button to
boot target devices. The Status column displays the Boot Signal status until the target device successfully receives the signal, then status changes to Success.
Restart Target Devices in a Collection
To restart target devices within a collection1. Right-click on the collection in the Console tree, then select the Target Device>Restart devices menu option. The Target Device Control dialog displays with the Restart devices menu option selected in the Settings drop-down menu. Devices display in the Device table.
2. Type the number of seconds to wait before restarting target devices in the
Delay text box.
3. Type a message to display on target devices in the Message text box. 4. Click the Restart devices button to restart target devices. The Status
column displays the Restart Signal status until the target device successfully receives the signal, then status changes to Success.
Shutdown Target Devices in a Collection
To shutdown target devices members within a collection1. Right-click on the collection in the Console tree, then select the Target Device>Shutdown devices menu option. The Target Device Control dialog displays with the Shutdown devices menu option selected in the Settings drop-down menu. Target devices display in the Device table.
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2. Type the number of seconds to wait before shutting down target devices in the Delay text box.
3. Type a message to display on target devices in the Message text box. 4. Click the Shutdown devices button to shutdown target devices. The Status
column displays the Shutdown Signal status until the target device shuts down. As each target device successfully shuts down, the status changes to Success.
Send Messages to Target Devices in a Collection
To send a message to target devices members within a collection1. Right-click on the view in the Console tree, then select the Target Device>Send message menu option. The Target Device Control dialog displays with the Message to devices menu option selected in the Settings drop-down menu. Target devices are display in the Device table.
2. Type a message to display on target devices in the Message text box. 3. Click the Send message button. The Status column displays the Message
Signal status until target devices successfully receives the message, the status changes to Success.
Move Collections
Target devices can be moved from one collection to another collection within the same site.
To move a collection
1. In the Console, expand the collection, right-click on the target device, then select the Move menu option.
2. From the drop-down menu, select the collection to move this target device into, then click OK to close the dialog.