You can associate one collection with another by specifying a subcollection. If collection B is a subcollection of collection A, then operations performed on collection A can be performed on collection B as well. For example, a program advertised to collection A can also be advertised to collection B and all the subcollections of B. With this linkage, you can build a useful collection hierarchy that closely resembles a management structure at your organization.
Subcollections do not inherit the attributes of the parent collection. Subcollections function in the same way as nested distribution lists within an e-mail system. The nested distribution list has its own identity and is simply a convenient way of gathering the diverse set of groups that form the distribution list. In the same way, subcollections are a convenient way to gather several diverse groups of clients into a single group to be acted on in some way.
Members of subcollections are not considered to be members of the containing collection. Rather, any operation applied to a collection also is applied optionally to its subcollections. This is important, because collections can appear in several places in the hierarchy as a subcollection of any other collection.
Note When you view Collections in the SMS Administrator console tree, you might see the same collection name more than once. Each time, the name refers to the same collection.
Related Topics
About Collection and Resource Security
Using Collections to Manage Resources Overview