Managing Collector Groups

What's a Collector Group?

Collector Groups are a useful way to divide your on premise collectors into strategic groups. On premise Collectors in a Collector Group work in tandem to speed up the discovery process. Planning your Collector Groups will help prevent issues and improve performance.

All Collectors in a Collector Group must be able to access each host where the group has been assigned, therefore:

1. Each Connector must have network connectivity to each Host.
2. The credentials must be valid from each Collector to each Host.

NOTE:

All Collectors in a Collector Group must be able to access data sources on the assigned hosts with the same credentials.

Guidance:

Collectors in a Collector Group should be co-located (e.g., in the same data center) so that their network bandwidth & latency characteristics in accessing assigned Hosts are comparable.

Related Articles: Collector and Collector Groups Overview, Collector Installation Guide

How to Setup a Collector Group

1. Select the Discovery tab.

2. Select Collectors from the drop-down menu.

3. Click Create Group.

4. Name the Group in a way that will be useful for you and click Submit.

5. Once the Group is created, you should see a new Collector Install ID related to this Group. Whenever you install new collectors onto your system, you will use this Collector Install ID to connect the Collector to that Group. See the Collector Installation Guide for further information.

Edit a Collector Group Name

NOTE: The Default Group cannot be renamed.

To change a Collector Group's Name: 

1. Select the Discovery tab.

2. Select Collectors from the drop-down menu.

3. Click the Edit button next to the Group Name to be renamed.

4. Enter a new name.

5. Click Save and Close.

Delete an Empty Collector Group

NOTE: Only empty groups can be deleted; the Default Group cannot be deleted.

1. Select the Discovery tab.

2. Select Collectors from the drop-down menu.

3. Click the x on the empty Group to be deleted.

4. Click the Confirm button to proceed.

Managing Collector Group Activity

Each Collector Group can be Paused. This means that any Data Source Discovery actions will not execute until the assigned Collector Group is Resumed. In addition to manual pause, you can define Blackout Periods.

Manual Pause and Resume

From the Discovery > Collectors page, choose the Collector type (Windows File Share, iManage Work or Cloud Collectors).

From the Collector Group menu or the Actions menu for a Cloud Collector, choose the Pause or Pause Group command. This will present a confirmation screen that allows you to add a reason for pausing the Collector Group or online Collector.

The reason for the pause and the date will be displayed under the name of the Collector Group or in the Cloud Collectors table.

When you are ready to continue discovery activities on a paused collector, choose Resume Group or Resume. You will be presented with a confirmation screen.

If a discovery activity is in progress when the associated Cloud Collector or on premise Collector Group is paused, the remaining work assigned to the Collectors will restart when the Cloud Collector or Collector Group is resumed.

Collector Blackouts

On premise Collector Groups and online Cloud Collectors can be paused automatically using a blackout schedule. The Add Blackout command under the Collector Group menu or the Cloud Collectors Action menu will present a screen that allows you to define the blackout schedule for the target Collectors.

Typically, the blackouts are used to reduce network traffic and processing while end users are using the target repositories. For example, you may want to pause ActiveNav Cloud activity on an iManage Work server during regular working hours on weekdays. The Blackout Schedule allows you to choose a black out period start time and duration and the days of the week for the blackout. Note that the blackout time is defined for the chosen time zone.

If a discovery activity is in progress when a blackout period starts for the associated Cloud Collector or Collector Group, the remaining work assigned to the Collectors will restart when the blackout period ends.