Organize objects with Groups

Configuring Sun Secure Global Desktop Applications in small environments (like at home) is very simple. It is easy to see which application is linked to which user and will run at which host.

When the amount of applications, host and/or users grow it can become quite a mess and rather unmanageable. For example adding an extra application server to run the same applications as an other application server (for load balancing purposes) the new application server needs to be added to all the applications.

Fortunately SSGD has Group objects. Group objects can be used to group all different types of SSGD objects (hosts, applications, application servers, profiles and groups). The SSGD groups can be seen as a container to put the objects in and it does not look at the type. It is possible to create a group with different types objects. However to keep everything easy try add only objects of the same type to the group and add the object type to the group name (like WinTermServGrp, FinanceApps or HelpdeskUsers).

Looking at the example above and the knowledge of having groups the example can be made easier to manage and keep everything well organized.

1. First create a group (ie: AppServGrp)
2. Add the 'old' application server to the group
3. Replace the link from all the applications to the 'old' application server with the group (AppServGrp)

If you want to add a new application server to all same the applications running on the 'old' application server the only step to take is:

1. Add the 'new' application server to the group (AppServGrp)

Because it is possible to group different types of objects a lot of possibilities are available to organize the objects well ordered, manageable and very easy :)

Don't forget to use the Organizational Units (OU) to organize the Objects as well.