In Operations Manager 2007, you can create a group that populates dynamically based on its members having a common attribute. A management pack can contain several predefined attributes. When creating a group, you can use these predefined attributes or create a new attribute that is based on data such as a common registry value.

To dynamically populate a group based on a custom attribute, you can use the following procedures to first create the custom attribute and then create a group whose membership is based on having that custom attribute.

To create a new attribute

  1. Log on to the computer with a user account that is a member of the Operations Manager Administrator role for the Operations Manager 2007 management group.

  2. In the Operations console, click Authoring. Right-click the Attributes node in the Authoring pane and then click Create a new attribute. The Create Attribute Wizard starts.

  3. On the General Properties page, type a descriptive name for the attribute and a brief description.

  4. On the Choose a Discovery method page, in the Discovery Type dropdown menu, select Registry.

  5. Click Browse next to the Target box. The Select a Target Type dialog box opens. Select the type of object that will have the attribute you are creating and click OK.

  6. Click the Management Pack arrow, and select an unsealed management pack or click the New button to create a new management pack. Click Next.

    Note
    When you create an attribute, you must select a target for it. If the target you select is from a sealed management pack, the object type also is sealed and the new attribute cannot be added. Instead, Operations Manager creates a new object type to which it adds the new attribute. This new object type contains all the attributes of the original object type, in addition to the attribute you are creating. By default, this new object type is named after the original object type with _Extended appended to the original name of the object type.By default, when you create a management pack object, disable a rule or monitor, or create an override, Operations Manager saves the setting to the Default Management Pack. As a best practice, you should create a separate management pack for each sealed management pack you want to customize, rather than saving your customized settings to the Default Management Pack. For more information, see Default Management Pack.

  7. In the Key or Value Type section, select Key or Value to determine whether the attribute data is found in a registry key or is a registry value. In the Properties section, type the path to the registry entry that contains the attribute data. Click to expand the Attribute Type drop-down list, and then click the data type that corresponds to the data for the attribute.

    Note
    After the attribute is created, the value in Attribute Type cannot be changed.

  8. Click Finish.

To create a group whose membership is based on an attribute

  1. Log on to the computer with a user account that is a member of the Operations Manager Administrator role for the Operations Manager 2007 management group.

  2. In the Operations console, click Authoring. Right-click the Groups node in the Monitoring pane and then click Create a new group. The Create Group Wizard starts.

  3. On the General Properties page, type a descriptive name for the group and a brief description. Click Next.

  4. Click the Management Pack arrow, and select an unsealed management pack or click the New button to create a new management pack. Click Next.

    Note
    By default, when you create a management pack object, disable a rule or monitor, or create an override, Operations Manager saves the setting to the Default Management Pack. As a best practice, you should create a separate management pack for each sealed management pack you want to customize, rather than saving your customized settings to the Default Management Pack. For more information, see Default Management Pack.

  5. On the Choose Members from a List page, click Next.

  6. On the Create a Membership Formula page, click the Create/Edit rules button.

  7. On the Query Builder page, click the down arrow to display a list of object types. Click the object type that is the target of the attribute you created. Click the Add button. In the Property column, click the drop-down arrow, and then click the name of the attribute you created. Click the down arrows in the Operator and Value columns, and select the appropriate values. Click OK to close the Query Builder.

  8. Click Next in the Add Subgroups page.

  9. Click Finish.

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