Group creation-related rules
When a Group Family discovers a grouping that is not linked to any group, it creates a new group, links the new group to the grouping, and adds the members of the grouping to that group. The Group Family configuration specifies a number of rules on how to set up certain properties for new groups.
The rules that control the group creation process are defined when the Group Family configuration is created. You can examine or modify those rules by using the Manage Rules button on the Controlled Groups tab, in the Properties dialog box of the Group Family configuration storage group.
- The Manage Rules button gives you access to a series of pages that are similar to those of the New Group Family wizard discussed earlier in this chapter. Clicking Manage Rules starts a step-by-step process organized into these pages:
- Group Naming Rule Group Family uses this rule to generate the Group name, Display name, Group name (pre-Windows 2000), and E-mail alias when creating new groups. For details, refer to the Group naming rule section earlier in this chapter.
- Group Type and Scope The group type and group scope that is assigned to the groups created by the Group Family.
- Location of Groups The rule that determines the container in which the Group Family creates new groups. For details, refer to the Location of groups section earlier in this chapter.
- Exchange-related Settings The rule that determines whether the groups created by the Group Family are mail-enabled, and a number of options pertinent to mail-enabled groups. For details, refer to the Exchange-related settings section earlier in this chapter.
You can navigate through these pages by using the Back and Next buttons. The Finish button on the last page commits the changes, if any, from all pages to the Properties dialog box, and completes the task of managing the group creation rules. The changes are applied when you click OK or Apply in the Properties dialog box, and can be discarded by clicking Cancel.
Groupings tab
From the Groupings tab, you can view or change the Group Family settings that control the Group Family calculation processes.
During each run, the Group Family re-calculates groupings by breaking up the set of managed objects (scope) into sub-sets, with each sub-set consisting of the objects that have a particular combination of values assigned to the group-by properties.
The scope and the group-by properties are specified when the Group Family configuration is created, and can be changed on the pages that appear when you click Configure on the Groupings tab. By clicking the Configure button, you can view or change the following settings:
- Location of Managed Objects The containers that hold the objects to be managed by this Group Family. For details, see Location of managed objects earlier in this chapter.
- Selection of Managed Objects The rules that determine what objects are to be managed by this Group Family. For details, see Selection of managed objects earlier in this chapter.
- Group-by Properties The list of properties based on which the Group Family calculates groupings. For details, see Group-by properties earlier in this chapter.
If you add or remove a group-by property, the naming rules that currently exist are replaced with the default naming rule and the list of groups to capture is erased.
Schedule tab
The Schedule tab displays Group Family schedule-related information, and allows you to view or modify scheduling settings.
The tab displays the following information:
- Schedule The Group Family is scheduled to run as indicated by this statement.
- Run on this server The Administration Service that performs all operations needed to run the Group Family.
- Last run time The date and time the Group Family was last run.
- Next run time The date and time that the Group Family is next scheduled to run.
You can use the Configure button to examine the Group Family schedule in more detail, and make changes to the schedule as needed.
Clicking Configure displays the Group Family Scheduling page, similar to that of the New Group Family wizard discussed earlier in this chapter (see the Group Family scheduling section). View or modify the schedule settings on that page, and click the Finish button to commit your changes to the Properties dialog box. The changes are applied when you click the OK or Apply button, and can be discarded by clicking Cancel.
Action Summary tab
The Action Summary tab displays quantitative information about the Group Family run.
Use the Action Summary tab to see the following information about the last run of the Group Family:
- Last run started The date and time the run was started.
- Last run finished The date and time the run was finished.
- Managed objects The number of objects found in the Group Family scope.
- Valid groupings The number of groupings calculated during the run.
- Failed groupings The number of groupings the Group Family failed to identify due to invalid combinations of group-by property values. An example of an invalid combination occurs when values for one or more properties are missing from the combination.
- Groups created The number of groups the Group Family created during the run.
- Groups updated The number of groups for which the Group Family updated the membership lists during the run.
- Updates in group memberships The number of objects the Group Family added or removed from groups during the run.
- Errors The number of error encountered during the run.
To examine this information in more detail, click the View Log button.