Designing and Managing Behavior Models - Defining Property Groups and Properties - Creating a New Property Group - Based on an Existing Property Group -
Creating a New Property Group      Assigning a Property Group to a Node

Based on an Existing Property Group

Earlier, we mentioned that you could create a property group for campus routers by copying the predefined property group Router, naming the copy CampusRouter, and adding to the new property group the unique property campusRouter.

 
  To create a new behavior model based on an existing one:

1. From the client's Admin menu, select Property Group List.

   The Property Group List window is displayed.

   

2. From the Property Group list, select the property group that you want to copy.

   The properties contained in this property group are displayed in the Property list.

3. Type a name for the new property group in the New Property Group text field.

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      The maximum length for property group names is 255 characters.

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4. Select the Copy button, located below the New Property Group text field.

   Your new property group appears in the Property Group list and is highlighted.

5. Use the procedure explained in the section Creating a Property to add one or more new properties to your property group.
6. Select the Save button.

Based on the Contents of MIBs

If you purchase a new device that comes with a new vendor MIB, your NerveCenter administrator should incorporate the new MIB into NerveCenter's compiled MIB so that you can take advantage of the new information provided by the vendor. In addition, you should create a new property group that contains properties for all the base objects in the new MIB. Why? Recall that a node's property group must contain properties for each of the MIB base objects you monitor on the node. If you want to poll the new device for the values of the attributes belonging to the new MIB objects, you need properties for the new base objects in the device's property group.

 
  To create a new property group based on the contents of one or more MIBs:

1. From the client's Admin menu, select Property Group List.

   The Property Group List window is displayed.

   

2. Select the MIB to Group button at the bottom of the window.

   NerveCenter displays the MIB to Property Group window.

   

   All of the MIBs in NerveCenter's compiled MIB are displayed in the MIB list. If you select one of the MIBs in the list, the names of the base objects for that MIB are displayed in the Base Objects list.

3. Select from the MIB list a MIB whose base objects you want to become properties in your new property group.
4. Enter a name for your property group in the Property Group Name text field. Or leave there the default name that NerveCenter has supplied.
5. Select the OK button.

   The MIB to Property Group window is dismissed, and the name of your new property group appears in the Property Group list in the Property Group List window. If you wanted to base your property group on just one MIB, you're finished. If you want the new property group to contain the names of the base objects from more than one MIB, continue with step 6.

6. In the Property Group List window, select the MIB to Group button again.

   The MIB to Property Group window is displayed.

7. In the MIB to Property Group window, select from the MIB list another MIB whose base objects you want included in your property group.
8. Enter in the Property Group Name field the same name you used in step 4.
9. Select the OK button.

   The Merge or Overwrite Property Group window is displayed.

   

10. Select the Merge button.
11. Repeat step 6 through step 10 if necessary.
12. Select the Save button.

Adding Properties Manually

If you need a property group that contains only a few properties -- maybe a couple of base object names and one user-defined property -- you can create an empty property group and then add properties to it by hand.

 
  To create an empty property group and then add properties to it:

1. From the client's Admin menu, select Property Group List.

   The Property Group List window is displayed.

   

2. Type the name of your new property group in the New Property Group text field.
3. Select the Add button under the New Property Group text field.

   Your new property group appears in the Property Group list and is highlighted. Note that no properties are listed in the Property list since the property group is empty.

4. To add one or more properties to the new property group, perform the steps covered in the section Creating a Property.
5. Select the Save button.