Group Context

Last updated on 2017-05-10 13:05:43

Grouping Barracuda Networks products enables you to manage settings and apply policies across multiple Barracuda Networks products of the same type from one web interface. You can also use "grouping" to organize your Barracuda Networks products by location, company, department, etc., and you can include products of different types.

Grouping happens in one of two ways:

By default, Barracuda Cloud Control groups Barracuda Networks products by product type. For example, if you have two or more Barracuda Web Application Firewalls connected to Barracuda Cloud Control, they are automatically grouped as such. You can then click on that product type in the Appliance Control pane and see one web interface with aggregated statistics and settings for all of the devices within that group. From the web interface, you can set policies for all of the products in the group at the same time since they are the same product type. This group context also enables reporting on aggregated statistics across a group.
You can create a grouping of two or more different types of products, using tags. Refer to How to Use Tags to Organize Connected Appliances.

Additional benefits of managing products in the group context include:

If you have many devices in one or more locations, managing them with a central console enables you to easily track firmware versions across products and keep them up to date.
Grouping devices by location helps you keep track of where each device is physically located in case it needs service. As long as the unit is joined to Barracuda Cloud Control, you do not need to look up the admin password to configure or update the product.
Grouping devices of the same type enables viewing 'exceptions' in which values for the same setting differ across the devices.
Grouping either devices of the same type or of different types provides a performance and traffic statistic snapshot on the Dashboard page for each device in the group. Statistics are aggregated for devices of the same type. For example, if you have several Barracuda Networks products in your London office and several in your New York office, click on that group to quickly view the traffic and performance statistics.

Exceptions to Using Group Context

Some features must be configured on each individual device within a group. Examples include IP Address, Quarantine settings on the Barracuda Email Security Gateway, Services on the Barracuda Web Application Firewall, and Default Host Name on various product types. Note that some tabs or pages of the web interface (in the ) for a product may be dimmed (unavailable) for this reason, or because the features on that tab or page are not supported in the group context.