Question about Groups in Business Dashboard

[hee]

Hi,

I downloaded the dashboard and have installed it on Hyper V and set it up so far. The VM is the local probe and is on the same network as the switches.
In the network are different switches (SG350, Meraki) and other devices for management, which should not be for the dashboard.

All devices are placed in the same organization, network and group.
But I would like to distinguish the devices e.g. as SG350 important / SG350 unimportant / Meraki / no switch.

But I can't assign the devices to another group, because I can only move all of them. Am I doing something wrong or is this intentional?

Hope someone can help me with this - maybe dumb - question..

[David Harper]

Hi there,

You can absolutely split the devices into multiple groups.  When you create a new network, you also create or select a device group that is the default device group, which is the group that any newly discovered devices will be added to.  But you can also add additional groups using the Administration > Device Groups page, and you can move devices into that group either on the device group page itself by adding devices to the group, or by opening the device details page for a specific device and changing the group there.

Cheers,

Dave.

[hee]

Hi Dave,

thanks! found my mistake... I had only created new networks with only one group. So of course I can't assign anything (or just to this group..) (:

I have another small question: We have for example 8 Merakis in use. 4 of them I can assign to a network, the other 4 are only displayed to me and can do nothing with it (not assign, not monitor, etc.) - but they are all configured the same. Also by hand I can not add the devices, because the serial number can only be 11 characters long - any way to add the devices?

[David Harper]

Bear in mind that CBD is only designed to manage Cisco Business and Cisco Small Business branded devices, so even though you are able to add the Meraki devices to a group, you won't be able to configure or monitor them to any real extent.  CBD does try its best to identify non-Cisco (Small) Business devices, and anything that is identified as a network device will end up in a device group by default, but that doesn't mean that you will be able to do anything with it.

As for why some of the Meraki devices are able to be added to a device group and some are not, this is most likely due to how the devices have been discovered and the device type they have been identified as.  I'm guessing a bit here because I don't know how your network is set up, but I think it is likely that the four devices that can be added to a group are probably directly connected to a Cisco (Small) Business switch or router and so can be identified from the LLDP neighbour table on that device.  The other four are most likely not directly attached, and so have only been able to be identified as IP address/Mac address pairs - essentially as hosts - in which case, they will not belong to a group.  As I said, that's a guess, but seems likely.  If that's not the case, then you can PM me a network topology diagram and screenshots of the device info panel for a device of each type, and I should be able to tell you more.

Cheers,

Dave.