Business Units

In this article:

Introduction - Overview of Business Units

Business Unit Hierarchy - Overview of Business Unit Trees

General Settings - General Business Unit settings

Business Unit Scopes - Define the scope used to control the device membership of this Business Unit

Rollouts - Set the scope of the Deployment Channel deployment

Windows - Define the Maintenance Window that will be used for this Business Unit

Interaction Settings - Set how end-users interact with the deployment and are notified

Approval Chains - Control how Approvals are handled

Notification Chain - Define who should be notified and how

Content Prestaging Settings - Whether content gets predownloaded on devices

Related Business Units - Other Business Units that this Business Unit references, or that reference this Business Unit

Further Information - Where to go for further information

 

Introduction

Business Units are a fundamental organizational unit in Adaptiva's systems management platform, providing the ability to logically group and manage devices, settings, and other resources within a hierarchical structure. They allow administrators to organize devices and resources according to their business needs, such as by geographic location, department, or business function.

Each Business Unit can have its own unique settings and policies that are applied to its member devices. These settings can include rollouts, interaction settings, and more. Additionally, settings can be inherited from parent Business Units to reduce the administrative burden of managing settings across multiple units.

Business Units can be created using a variety of methods, including manually selecting devices, creating scopes based on offices, groups, or SQL queries, or using sensor-based criteria. 

Overall, Business Units provide a powerful mechanism for organizing and managing devices and resources within an enterprise, allowing for efficient and effective management of systems at scale.

 

Business Unit Hierarchy

Business Units are organized in a topology similar to the Adaptiva Network Topology, which allows for cascading inheritance of settings. By creating a parent-child hierarchy, child Business Units can inherit settings from their parent Business Unit, which reduces the administrative burden of setting the same configurations in multiple places.

When constructing a Business Unit hierarchy, it's important to consider this inheritance model and utilize it to your advantage.

To add a child Business Unit, click the ellipsis button next to an existing Business Unit, and select Add Child Business Unit from the menu.

Additionally, you can configure parent-child relationships in the Relationships section within the Business Unit object.

 

 

General Settings

The general settings section is for basic identifiable information, Name and Description as well as the schedule on which the Business Unit membership should be evaluated.

Name: The name used to identify this Deployment Channel

Description: (Optional) A description used to describe the purpose or functionality of the channel.

 

Evaluation Schedules

The Evaluation Schedules determine when the membership of a Business Unit should be evaluated. This feature is only necessary for Business Units whose membership is dynamic and may change over time. Such Business Units could include Location-based scopes where devices can move between Locations, or Sensor-based scopes where the Sensor results can change over time.

 

To add an existing schedule, or to create a new one in-place, select the Add Schedules button.

 

Business Unit Scopes

Business Unit Scopes determine the device membership of a Business Unit. A Business Unit can consist of one or multiple Scopes, each of which may contain numerous conditions. You may choose to use one or a combination of the following options:

• Locations
• SQL Queries
• Devices
• Sensors
• Base Scope

Locations

By adding a Location-based scope, all devices currently present within one of the selected Adaptiva Locations will be included in the Business Unit. For instance, if an Adaptiva Office with an IP range of 10.0.0.0-10.0.0.255 is selected, all Adaptiva Clients within that range will become part of this Business Unit.

However, if the selected Locations contain devices that roam to other offices, it's essential to consider the Evaluation Schedule mentioned above to ensure that membership is re-evaluated accurately.

To add one or more Locations, select the Locations scope type and then select Add Locations. In the overlay that appears, choose the Locations that you wish to add.

 

SQL Queries

It's possible to create a group scope and add members by using SQL queries that retrieve client IDs from the Adaptiva database. This can be done by executing queries from any Adaptiva table, such as CLIENT_MACHINE_NAMES, CLIENT_IP_INFO_TABLE, or CLIENT_MAC_ADDRESSES.

To add a SQL Query, simply select the SQL Queries scope type and click on the Add Query button. Then, enter a name and an optional description for the query, and type or paste the SQL query into the Query section.

Note that the query must return a single column containing the client IDs to use as the basis for membership.

An example query could be something like:

SELECT CLIENT_ID FROM CLIENT_MACHINE_NAMES WHERE MACHINE_NAME LIKE 'ATM%'

 

Devices

To include devices directly, you can use the Devices Scope option.

To do this, select the Devices scope type and then click on Add Devices. From the available devices, select the ones you want to add to the Business Unit.

 

Sensors

Adaptiva provides a powerful Sensor-based scope option that utilizes the Sensor-based inventory system to bring back any desired data from devices. This data can be used as a basis for Business Unit scopes.

To add a Sensor Group Scope, select the Sensors scope type and then click Add Sensor Group Scope. In the overlay that appears, provide a name and optional description for the Scope and select the desired Sensor.

Once a Sensor is selected, a filter condition must be added. Each sensor returns a predefined set of columns, and the filter condition allows you to filter the sensor results to only those devices that match the filter condition. You can combine conditions using AND, OR, or NOT logic, or use a single condition.

To add an operator, select Add Operator and choose either AND, OR, or NOT.

 

 

To add an operator, select Add Operator and choose either AND, OR, or NOT.

To add an operating condition, select Add Operating Condition. In the next overlay, you will be prompted to provide three items:

• • Data Column: The column to use for the filter condition
  • Operating Condition: Context-specific operating condition. For example, for text values, this could be 'Contains', 'Equals', 'Begins with', 'Ends with', etc. For Boolean values, it will be either true or false, and for numeric values, this could be 'Greater than', 'Less than', etc. Choose the appropriate condition.
  • Value/Values: If 'Any' is selected in the Operating Condition, you can add one or more values that the column data should match. For all other operating conditions, you must specify the value that will be evaluated against the column data and operating condition.

Repeat this for any other operating conditions.

 

Base Scope

The Base Scope allows you to include one or more existing Adaptiva Groups as a member of the Business Unit. You can combine operators to perform advanced selection of Group members, such as devices that are in either Group A OR Group B but NOT in Group C.

To begin, select the Base Scope type and select Add Operator. If you only want to reference the members of one or more groups without advanced logic, select the AND Operator.

Next, select Add Group and choose the Group you want to reference.

Repeat this process for any additional Operators or Groups you want to include.

 

Rollouts

In the Rollouts section, a Rollout Process can be defined for a specific Business Unit and any inheriting child Business Units. The Rollout Process controls the deployment of updates to systems within the Business Unit, including load levelling, staggered deployments, custom approvals, and other logic or processes specific to the organization or group of devices. The Rollout Process can also be used for specific automated use cases, such as patching high availability devices, where one machine must be fully patched and rebooted before the next can be updated. This allows for a more controlled and efficient deployment of updates, tailored to the specific needs of the Business Unit.

 

The Rollout Process is an Adaptiva Workflow that executes on the Adaptiva Server.

By default, a standard process is included that should meet the needs of most users. However, in cases where the default process is inadequate, users can create custom Rollout Processes that address specific needs by either authoring a new process or extending the existing one.

To select an existing Rollout Process or create a new one from an existing workflow, click on the Browse button.

For help creating or extending Rollout Processes, please log a support ticket and a member of the Adaptiva Support Team will be happy to provide assistance.

 

Windows

The Windows section allows the configuration of a Maintenance Window for devices in the Business Unit. By limiting device updates and reboots to this window, end-user and business system disruptions can be minimized. Interaction Settings can be configured to operate only within these Windows.

To add or create a new Maintenance Window, click the Browse button.

 

Interaction Settings

Interaction Settings determine the user experience during software deployment and the notifications they receive. To add or create a new Interaction Setting, click the Browse button.

 

Approval Chains

Approval Chains can be assigned to a Business Unit as needed. These Chains are used during the Rollout Process execution to seek approval from one or more designated Chains. The provided Approval Chain personas, such as Patch Management, Security, Test Lab, Business Owner, and Change Management, are mere suggestions. The Approval Chains and Roles added to these fields can be customized to meet specific requirements. It is essential to note that the Rollout Process workflow will reference these Approval Chains. Therefore, they should correspond to the Process defined in the workflow.

To assign an Approval Chain, click the Browse button next to the relevant Approval Chain, and either select an existing chain or create a new one.

 

To create a custom Approval Chain, select Create Custom Approval Chain and give the chain an appropriate purpose. The Custom Approval Chain can also be referenced in the Business Unit Rollout Process. If the Custom Approval Chain is not referenced, any value entered in this field will be ignored.

 

 

Notification Chain

During a notification process, it may be necessary to inform members of a Business Unit. If members of Business Units need to be notified, the designated value in the Notification Chain field will receive the notification, provided this field has been specified.

 

The Notification Chain is the roles containing the administrators that should be notified about the patch.

Select the Browse button to either add an existing Notification Chain, or create a new one.

 

Content Prestaging Settings

Content Prestaging is a feature that enables sending the deployment content to devices ahead of time. By doing so, the content is available on the device locally when the deployment time arrives, eliminating the need to transfer the content over the network at the time of deployment. This reduces the deployment time and minimizes the chances of service windows being missed or devices going offline before the content is downloaded.

There are two independent options available for Content Prestaging:

1. Server Content Push: This option is similar to OneSite's IntelliStage. The Adaptiva Server will send the content to the best-suited sources in all locations where the content is needed. This type of prestaging is recommended when the deployment targets only a subset of devices. High-availability machines will receive the content and act as local sources during discovery and deployment.
2. Client Content Pull: This option enables any client that requires the content to download and cache it before deployment. This option is suitable when the deployment targets all clients that need the updated content. It is recommended that Server Content Push should not be used when Client Content Pull is enabled.

There are three options available for both of these settings:

1. Not enabled
2. Handled by System (Recommended): The Adaptiva Autonomous Patch system will handle the prestaging automatically.
3. Handled by Workflow: Prestaging will only occur if the Deployment Channel Process Workflow handles it. The Workflow must perform the prestaging in this case.

If this Business Unit should inherit its Prestaging Settings from its parent, toggle the Prestaging Settings Inheritance to enabled.

 

 

Related Business Units

The Related Business Units section lets you manage the relationships between this Business Unit and other Business Units.

The Parent and Child Business Units allow you to control the structure of the Business Unit Tree, where modifying the Parent Business Unit will update the location of this Business Unit in the topology, and adding Child Business Units will move those Business Units directly underneath this Business Unit.

You can also add a Lab Business Unit for application or upgrade testing, and this field can be referenced from within any Process Workflow to launch a lab rollout.

Similarly, Custom Lab Business Units can also be added for any custom purpose, but they will only be used if referenced from within a Process Workflow.

 

 

Further Information

For further information, please see the other resources in the Technical Reference Library or speak to a member of Adaptiva Support.

If you experience any issues or suspect there is a bug in Patch Deployment Bots, please log a support ticket and a member of the Adaptiva support team will be touch as soon as possible.