Custom properties

The following section describes how you can set custom properties using Device tags.

Device Tags

Device Tags are generally associated with Endpoint Troubleshooting and can be used when setting coverage to target Instructions to particular devices, but they can also be used to define Management Groups optionally used by all applications.

Device Tags must be defined by a Full Administrator before they can be used to tag devices or used to set the coverage of Instructions.

Device Tag properties

Device Tags are used as part of the tagging workflow in Endpoint Troubleshooting, where they can be applied to devices and subsequently used to set the coverage for questions. The following table shows the constraints of the text that can be used for property names and values.

Property	Constraints
Name	Consists of a combination of alphanumeric characters, underscores, and dots - spaces are not allowed. Case is not significant, so names "myname" and "MYNAME" correspond to the same property name. The maximum length of a property name entered using the Administration console is 16 characters.
Values	Consists of a combination of alphanumeric characters, underscores, dots, and spaces. Case is preserved. The maximum length of a property value entered via the Administration console is 32 characters.

The following headings show steps to add, edit and delete properties and set property values.

Add a property and values

The following steps can be used to create a property name:

1. Click the Add button.

2. Type in a name for the new device Tag.

3. You now need to add values to the property:

   1. In the edit field below the Values heading, type in a value for the property.

   2. If you want to add more values, click the + button beneath the Values heading.

4. Repeat step 4 to add as many values as you require for the selected property name.

5. When all the values have been added, click Add. (An error message is displayed if you exceed a maximum of 16 characters).

Edit a property

The following steps show how to edit the settings for an existing property:

1. Check the checkbox at the start of the row for the property you want to edit.

2. Click the Edit button.

3. You can change the Name or Property type and add and remove Values.

4. To add a value, click on the + icon and fill out the edit field.

5. To remove a value click on the trash can icon that appears when you hover the mouse to the right next to the value field you want to remove.

   

6. Clicking on the trash can removes the item immediately.

7. Click Save, when you have made all your changes.

Delete an entire property

The following steps show how to delete an existing property and all its values:

1. Check the checkbox at the start of the row for the property you want to delete, click Delete.

2. A notification will be displayed asking if you wish to proceed.

3. Click the Yes, delete device tag button to delete the property and all its values, or click the No button to abandon the deletion.

Working with Device Tags

Using Device Tags allows you to create custom labels and associate them with devices. An administrator with either the Full Administrator or Group Administrator role can set Device Tags to devices in their environment, they can also create Management Groups based on the tag name and value. For details about configuring 1E users, Roles, and Management Groups, refer to Permissions.

In the following example, we create a Device Tag for use with a planned phased deployment affecting devices in our All Managed Windows 10 Devices Management Group. We will have values for the devices used for Testing (TestGroup), Pilot (PilotGroup), Group1 and Group2. We will, set our Windows 10 devices as a Pilot group using tags, then ask a question using the Tag as our coverage parameter.

Create tags for a pilot group

1. To create our pilot group tag, our Full Administrator logs into 1E and switches to Settings > Configuration > Custom Properties > Device Tags

2. Then they click Add. In the Add Device Tag box type they type PhasedRollout in the Name field.

3. In the Values box, they add the following values by clicking the plus button, and click Add.

   • TestGroup

   • PilotGroup

   • Group1

   • Group2.

Apply Device Tags

Now our Full Administrator has set up the Device Tags for the planned deployment, they can assign the tags to every Windows 10 device in their environment in the All Managed Windows 10 Devices Management Group. Before they do this, they want to check what tags, if any, are already present in their environment.

1. Switch to the Endpoint Troubleshooting Application. Navigate to Home .

2. Click on All Instructions and searches for device tag, which brings back device tag related instructions which are in the 1E Explorer TachyonCore instruction set.

3. They select What are the device tags, the leave the parameters as they are.

4. Then they click Ask This Question.

The administrator views the results in Aggregated table view , at the moment there are no tags in the environment. In the results, you can see the || delimiter which will be used for the list of tags on each device.

Next, our administrator wants to run the question on the All Win10 Lab Workstations Management Group and set the tags for the rollout.

1. They ask the question again, but this time change the coverage to All Win10 Lab Workstations Management Group, then they click on Ask This Question.

2. Next, they click on Actions from the Question we just asked and click All Actions.

3. They select the Set device tag<tagname> to <tagvalue> action

4. They select PhasedRollout and PilotGroup and click Perform this Action.

5. Because this is an action, it requires approval, so prompts the administrator to confirm their password and then use an emailed confirmation code. In our environment, this requires approval from a user with the All Instructions Approver role. Once they have approved this action, the instruction is carried out.

6. Now, our administrator can see that they have two devices set as the PhasedRollout - PilotGroup.

To find out more about using loading and managing Instruction sets, refer to Instructions.

Ask a question using a Device Tag

Our administrator now has Device Tags applied to the Windows 10 devices that will be in the deployment pilot group. Using these Device Tags as coverage they can ask questions using Endpoint Troubleshooting, for example to confirm how many devices have Windows 10 as an OS with the How many of each operating system versions are installed? Instruction from the 1E Explorer TachyonCore product pack.

The administrator can also now cross-reference devices in the planned pilot group with any Management Groups they have created in 1E.

For example, our administrator wants to confirm if one of the Windows 10 devices is in the Executive Management Group, they can do this by running the How many of each operating system versions are installed? Instruction again.

This time they include the Executive Management Group as a coverage parameter in addition to the Device tags, PhasedRollout - PilotGroup.

Management Groups based on Device Tags

In the example Apply Device Tags, our administrator checked for the presence of Device Tags in their environment and then applied those Device Tags to their Windows 10 devices. Following this, they were able to use those Device Tags as coverage parameters, so they can ask related questions using Endpoint Troubleshooting. In addition, once our administrator has created and applied their Device Tags, they could create Management Groups based on those Device Tags.

For example, now our administrator knows their Windows 10 devices have the Phased Rollout and PilotGroup Device Tag applied to them, they can create a Management Group called Phased Rollout based on these criteria. Using Endpoint Troubleshooting they can apply instructions focused to Windows 10 devices using the Phased Rollout  Management Group as a coverage parameter.

Our administrator could then apply additional rules to their Management Group. For example, they could apply additional rules to narrow their focus to specific devices based on their hardware configuration . For example, they could add a Rule like Device Matched Model Equal to Device XPS , and then run Evaluate.

They could also use Software Tags, if they have created some, to focus group membership on devices with specific software titles if they are significant to the particular project.