5.4 Managing Devices - BlueCat Infrastructure Assurance - 25.2.0

Grouping Devices using Labels

Labels allow you to group your devices together, making them easier to manage. You have the option to apply labels to new devices when adding the devices.

Grouping devices helps in carrying out certain common operations with ease. These operations are reporting, device configuration backup, analytic dashboards, or custom alerts. Labels are also very useful as filters when you review your issues, or widgets in the Dashboard. You can also use labels to create a segmentation of data between users to limit device visibility to certain users. See the 6.1 Roles and Device Permissions for more information.

There are two types of labels: system labels and custom labels.

System Labels

These labels are created out of the box. System-all consists of all the devices managed by the system. When a new device is added, the label system-all is automatically applied. Conversely, when a device is removed, the system will automatically update all relevant system labels.

System-<vendor-name> consists of devices from the vendor. For example, system-blue consists of Bluecoat ProxySG and Bluecoat CAS devices. When a new vendor device is added for the first time, the system-<vendor-name> label is created automatically. The new device will be added to both the system-all and system-<vendor-name> labels.

System labels are managed by the system. They cannot be modified manually.

Custom Labels

An administrator can create any labels using any naming convention. They can be based on the structure of your organization, or on the criticality of your operations. Or they can be just a random collection of devices. For example, you may wish to create groups such as a group containing all the security devices in a physical location. Devices can belong to multiple labels that meet your organization’s needs.

Create a Label

Select Devices in the sidebar. Then, from the Devices tab that is displayed, select the checkbox for one or more devices you want included in the new label. A device summary drawer appears on the right side of the page, with the Labels section displaying details of the labels associated with the selected devices. To create a new label for the selected devices, click New. In the New User Labels field that is displayed, enter a name for the new label, then click Apply.

The following image shows an example of the Labels section within the device summary drawer.

To remove a label associated with a device, select the device to view the device summary drawer on the right side of the page. Click the x mark next to the label name you want to remove, as shown in the following image. The device is removed from the selected label.

View/Verify a Label

Click the hamburger icon next to the Labels column to view the list of labels. Select the checkbox corresponding to the label associated with the devices you want to view, as shown in the following image.

The system will display the list of devices associated with the selected label(s).

Rename a Device

From the Devices tab, select the device you want to rename. From the device summary drawer that appears on the right, click the vertical ellipsis icon and select Edit Device, as shown in the following image.

In the Edit Device window that opens, enter the new device name. The device name change will generate an audit entry in the log.

Suspend Data Collection in Maintenance Mode

If you need to put automation on hold while you take care of things like system maintenance and device upgrades, you can temporarily suspend a device. Suspension takes effect immediately and data collection halts. Maintenance mode enables you to avoid any alerts or errors that might occur when a device is taken offline for maintenance. Don’t forget to resume the device manually once the device is online again, or specify the duration to automatically resume data collection.

Suspend Alerting while data collection continues

You have the option to stop receiving alerts while data is being collected. If you need to put automation on hold but you do not want to halt data collection, use the Suppress Issues option instead of the Suspend option.

Start Alerting

If you did not specify the duration of how long you want alerting to be suspended, you can manually change the setting.

1. Locate the device.

2. Select the device (you can select multiple devices), uncheck to start receiving alerts again.

Upgrading the firewall hardware or changing the device name/IP address

It is sometimes necessary that the firewall hardware be upgraded to ensure optimal firewall performance. Depending on your requirements, you can use the following procedures to place the device into maintenance mode before the upgrade or change. Generally speaking, it is recommended that you suspend the device during maintenance while the device might be down for a period of time to prevent alert messages.