Discussion Forums/AA Console/Feature Requests
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Collections: match criteria like software name and version
Adam Ruth
suggested this on November 13, 2009 14:18
Hi,
When defining a collection filter with the two definitions "Software Name starts with Adobe Reader" and "Software Version contains 9.2.0"
and "Match All" I get all systems that have Adobe Reader and any software /w version number 9.2.0. That's neither intuitive nor very useful.
We needed a filter "Software Name starts with Adobe Reader" and "Software Version of adobe reader contains 9.2.0".
Thank you, Frank
Comments
Agreed, this is a problem with how Admin Arsenal generates the underlying SQL. You can achieve what you want, though, with a collection folder. Create two collections under it, one filtering on Adobe Reader and one filtering on 9.2.0. Then roll-up the collections to the folder. More details in this blog post:
http://blog.adminarsenal.com/2009/03/collection-folder-rollup/
Dear Adam,
I'm sorry but you're wrong. In theory (what you explain on that blog page) as in reality your collections do not behave different than "Software Name starts with Adobe Reader" and "Software Version contains 9.2.0" and "Match All" (Collection --> All Children) or "Match Any" (Collection --> Any Children).
But if it's just an UI issue (how you build the SQL query) you should be able to add/change it pretty simple.
Thank you, Frank
I'm sorry, you are correct, I misread your question.
The functionality you're asking for is very high on our list, as it's probably the most requested for collection filters.
This feature has been added in version 1.5.0.9. When you need to group Software Name and Version use the filter: Software Name & Version. So if you wanted to grab all versions of Adobe Reader 9.0.3 you could have the filter "Software Name & Version" = Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0.3
If you wanted all versions of Adobe Reader 9 then you could have the filter look like "Software Name & Version" starts with Adobe Acrobat Reader 9
Shane, I'm still having some issues, but I don't think it's necessarily related to the new "Software Name & Version" feature recently added. In my case, I'm looking for machines that do NOT have "Java(TM) 6 Update 22" installed. I can do a match for "Software Name" contains "Update 22" and it seems correct. But when I reverse that & say "does not contain" (or even "does not end with"), it does not select the inverse as expected. Machines with "Update 22" installed remain visible in the list. Help! --Matt
Matt, this happens because the collection is looking for computers with software that doesn't contain Update 22 which would match on all of the other software on the computers with Update 22.
To get what you're looking for change Match to "Not All" which will then reverse the filter.
Nope. I now have the following:
Match: "Not All"
"Software Name" "does not contain" "Update 22"
The only computers it shows are ones that don't exist anymore, but are still listed in AD (no inventory collected).
9 days left in my trial... :-( I need more time! --Matt
Try Match "Not All"
and your filter should say "Contains"
This way you are saying Match none of the computers which have a software name that contains ...
Shane - It does appear that this works! Thanks for the information! On a related note, does AA support regex matching? Or just the * & ? characters?
No we don't support Regular Expressions at this time.
Have you written any custom SQL for Collections or for new Inventory reports? This ability can get you pretty much any data that you want in our DB.
Haven't looked into custom SQL much yet. I'll keep it in mind. Thanks!
Okay, new question: The "Not Match" filters we created a while back to get me machines that don't have a particular Java Update installed also matches machines that don't have *any* Java installed. What is the easiest way around this. Basically, where Java is installed, but not Update 22.
Also, do Dynamic Collections "cascade"? In other words, can I assume that I can "further" a filter with sub-collections by entering just one more criteria instead of all criteria that got me to where I am? Hope this makes sense.
Thanks,
Matt
First question:
You would need to use a collection folder to get this functionality. If you had two dynamic collections inside of it, one that contained all of the computers without Update 22 and another with all of the computers with Java then the collection folder (if rollup is set to All Child Collections) would be the intersection of those two collections. Or, all computers without Update 22 that also have Java.
Second Question:
Are you talking about using the "Collection Member of" and "Collection not member of" filters? If so, then it depends on whether you are using Match All or Match Any. When matching All then each additional filter will restrict the resulting set of computers and matching Any will expand the resulting set of computers.
First Question: I didn't know about the Rollup option. I think I get it, but it's not working for me as you describe. I have a collection with dynamic collections inside for "Has Java" (80 computers) and "Not Update 22" (95 computers). The Main Collection is set to rollup "Computers in All Child Collections". Unfortunately, all 95 computers are appearing in the rolled up collection, which doesn't make sense to me if I'm supposed to be seeing an intersection. It seems to me that it's simply showing all computers that match any as opposed to "all". My rollup includes computers that do not have any version of Java installed.
Second Question: I'm sorry, but I don't have enough experience with this to fully understand your followup question in relation to mine. The problem is that I *think* I understand how certain features work, so some questions/answers are easily lost in translation. ;-)
Matt
You're right, that's not how it's supposed to be working. If you want to export the folder (it will include the two child collections) and e-mail to support@adminarsenal.com then I can look to see if there's something specific to you criteria that's triggering a bug.
As for your second question, can you provide an example? As you say, it's easy for things to get lost in translation with all this stuff.
E-mail with my XML file sent. As for the second question, I guess what I mean is I didn't know there was a second question, really. My issue mainly lies with wanting to "intersect" collections like what we're working on right now, but a more intuitive method for me would be to have Admin Arsenal automatically take its input from the above collection, then filter further. In this paradigm, We would have one dynamic collection named "Has Java" with a SUB dynamic collection named "NOT Update 22". Whereas before, "NOT Update 22" would match machines without any Java installed, since it's not a SUB collection of "Has Java", we only see the intersection of the two. Note that this paradigm is identical to how Windows Group Policies are applied to OUs in Active Directory (hence it's more intuitive to me and probably others).
For only two collections, you current "rollup" paradigm is just fine, but when I'm trying to deal with "Adobe Flash" that has a "Plugin" installation separate from an "ActiveX" installation, and I then want to check differences between those individual program versions, it gets pretty hairy having to create a ton of separate "rollup" collections for each individual case. With sub-collections, though, I can intuitively create sub-filters as necessary to "drill down" specific combinations of elements--with the source data all stemming from a single collection's results.
Anyway, I look forward to your e-mail response to my rollup bug.
Thanks --Matt
Okay, I see what you're saying. Yes, actually, that makes perfect sense. It does seem intuitive to "drill down" rather than "drill up" the way we're doing it.
We're currently working on our next inventory release and this is good timing to look at implementing something along those lines. I'll make sure that it's put in the works.
Thanks, Adam! --Matt