Custom fields are the parameters that are used to describe additional properties about an entity. They provide identifiable information about your devices, and are customizable according to your requirement. This set of custom device fields and interface fields also help the user maintain an inventory note and database of the network infrastructure. You can find this feature at Settings > Configuration > Custom Fields.
Learn more on how to configure Custom Fields here.
The predefined device custom fields are as follows:
The custom field Serial Number is populated during device discovery using either the the WMI or the SNMP protocol. To learn more about inventory listing using this custom field, refer to this page.
The custom field VMware_Tags is available only for VMWare Hosts and VMs. The tags are user-defined names associated to various entities of the Vcenter virtual machines (VMs) and ESX hosts. These tags are retrieved from the Vsphere client and are updated periodically according to the time interval configured for Inventory update.
The predefined interface custom fields are as follows:
You can choose to associate the custom fields available with the product, or create your own. A few of the fields are enabled by default, while some others have to be enabled by manual selection.
On the OpManager Enterprise Edition, you can add custom fields only from the Central server. This action is not permitted on the Probe servers. However, the user can import the custom fields created on the Central server, and update them on the Probe.
You can find the Custom Fields widget at the bottom of every device/interface snapshot page by default. You can use this widget to view, add, update, or delete data in the custom fields individually. For bulk update of the custom fields, you can import values from an external CSV file and map them to your product.
Apart from using custom fields to just demonstrate additional data about devices and interfaces, custom fields can also be used for a wide range of critical functions. You can organize and catalogue your devices on the basis of the custom fields defined for each device. Some of the functionalities made possible by the implementation of custom fields are:
1. Generate Reports: You can generate custom reports like health and performance, availability and response, system reports, and so on, using custom fields as the basis of segregation. To do so, navigate to Reports > OpManager > Advanced Report. Select Create New Report and add the necessary descriptions. Now, from the 'Available Column Groups', choose the custom fields you want within the report and the monitors you want the data on. You can preview the report, edit the fields, or schedule the report for a later time. Refer to this example to learn more about how to use custom fields to generate custom reports.
2. Device Grouping using custom fields: OpManager lets you bunch similar devices and interfaces into groups. This can be done manually or by criteria. To group devices according to the custom fields configured in your application, navigate to Settings > Configuration > Groups. Select "Add" and when prompted, choose the custom fields as the requirement criteria for grouping. From the list of devices that match the criteria, select one device upon which the health of the group would depend. Check you inventory for the group containing all the devices satisfying the matching criteria.
Automatic Device Grouping: During network discovery and re-discovery, devices that belong to the criteria configured to the existing groups, are automatically added to the respective group on the basis of the custom fields.