Linking Files to a Machine Group

Security Controls provides a dynamic mechanism for keeping a machine group current. This is especially useful if your machine list changes from time to time and you want an easy way to update it. Linking a file to a machine group is different than importing its contents. Importing contents is a one-time operation after which the information from the file becomes a part of the machine group.

When you link files to a machine group, any changes that you make to the files are reflected upon the next scan. In other words, if you add machines to and delete machines from a linked file between scans, any new machines added to the file will be scanned while any machines removed will not.

When defining a machine group you can link to files containing machine names, domains, IP addresses, and virtual machines. The following table describes how to create each particular link file, which you can then use by clicking Link to file on the appropriate tab on the Machine Group dialog.

Action	Description
Link Machine File	Provide the name of a file containing machine names. One machine name per line with a carriage return at the end. Sample: machine1 machine2 dc mail dbserver
Link Domain File	Provide the name of a file containing domain names. One domain name per line with a carriage return at the end. Sample: example yourcompany corp redmond dmz
Link Virtual Machine File	Provide the name of a file containing virtual machines. One virtual machine name per line with a carriage return at the end, or separate each name by a comma. Sample: D:\VMware Images\VM-MAF-FR-XPP\winXPPro.vmx, D:\VMware Images\VM-QA-EN-2KS-4\win2000Serv.vmx Z:\VMware Images\WinXP_EN_gold_2\winXPPro.vmx
Link IP Address File	Provide the name of a file containing IP addresses. One IP address per line with a carriage return at the end. You cannot combine individual IP addresses and IP ranges in the same file. Sample: 192.168.29.132 10.1.1.10 172.16.1.5
Link IP Range File	Provide the name of a file containing IP ranges. IP ranges in the format of x.x.x.x-y.y.y.y are acceptable. One per line with a carriage return at the end. Sample: 192.168.29.1-192.168.29.5 172.16.2.20-172.16.2.99