Configuring Device Filters

Device filters allow you to filter reports so that only the network information you want is displayed. You can customize the filter to display information about:

All of your devices, including endpoint devices, such as servers and workstations.
Only your network devices.
Only those devices that have SNMP credentials.

You can create filters for categories of devices, individual IP addresses, IP ranges, subnets, VLANs, or combinations of these elements.

Device Categories

Device categories are used in filters to narrow your report to a specific group of network devices. The default categories list includes network devices, end devices, and devices with specific operating systems. You can add custom device categories for use in grouping devices in ways not available with the default device categories. When you create a custom device category, it will appear on the list and you will be able to select it when you are creating device filters. For more information on device categories, see Device Category Configuration.

Advanced Filtering

Device filters provide advanced filtering options that allow you to filter device lists, topology maps, and reports to provide information for individual IP addresses, ranges of IP addresses, subnets and VLANs.

Click Hosts/IPs to add hostnames or IP addresses to the filter. You can filter your report on specific hostnames, for example you could filter a report to display only information about your payroll database server, payroll.company.com, or you could list a group of servers by hostname, such as the servers in a DMZ, dmz.firewall1.company.com, dmz.externalweb.company.com, and dmz.externalweb.backup.company.com. You can also filter using a single IP address, or multiple IP addresses. You can filter on an IP range such as 10.0.3.1 - 10.0.3.200 or a specific subnet. You can list a subnet using standard notation (192.168.5.0/255.255.255.0) or CIDR notation (192.168.5.0/24).

Click VLANs to add VLANs to the filter. When filtering on VLANs you can list one or more VLANs by VLAN name or index. The name of the VLAN, for example VLAN1, or the index for the VLAN, is entered in the Device Filter - VLANs dialog.

Creating, editing, copying or deleting a Device Filter

The following procedures provide instructions on how to create, edit, copy and delete device filters using the Device Filters dialog.

How to get to the Device Filters list dialog:

From the WhatsConnected menu, select Configure > Device Filters. The Device Filters list dialog appears.

Tip: Alternatively, select the ... browse button on any of the reports to which a device filter can be applied to get to the Device Filters list dialog.

The Device Filters list dialog displays the name of each filter and the associated pseudo code representing what the filter will return.

To create or edit a device filter:

If you are creating a new filter, click New to create a new device filter. The Device Filter definition dialog appears.
If you want to edit an existing device filter, select a device filter, then click Edit to edit an existing device filter. The Device Filter definition dialog for the selected filter appears.
In the Name box, enter the name you want to use to refer to the filter. This name is displayed in the Device Filter lists on all reports and maps that have filtering available.
Select the range of devices you want to include in the filter in the Include devices matching area. This option sets the device range by restricting the devices filtered to one of the following groups of devices:
- All Devices. Select this option if you want the filter to be applied to all of the devices in the current discovery file.
- SNMP Devices Only. Select this option if you want the filter to be applied only to those devices with an SNMP credential in the credential library.
- Network Devices Only. Select this option if you want the filter only to be applied to network devices.
Use the options in the Advanced section to select specific hosts or VLANs to include in the filter.
Advanced. The Advanced filtering options filter for individual or ranges of IP addresses, host names, NetBIOS names, subnets, or VLANs. The following buttons invoke dialogs to enter values for the advanced filtering criteria.
1. To restrict the filter to specific hostnames, IP addresses, IP address ranges or subnets, click Hosts/IPs . The Device Filter - Host/IP Address Include Scope dialog appears. Enter the hosts, IP addresses, and subnets you want to include in your filter, then click OK. The Device Filter - Host/IP Address Include Scope dialog closes.
  - Host / System / NetBIOS Names. Enter the hostname, system name or NetBIOS name of the device or devices you want the filter to select. When you list a name in this box, the filter will return only those devices with that name in the box. You can use a * character as a wildcard in this box. Click Clear to clear the Host / System / NetBIOS Names box.
  - IP addresses / Subnets. Enter the IP address, IP address range or subnet address (CIDR format) of the device or devices you want the filter to select. When you list one or more addresses or and address range in this box, the filter will return only those devices that match or fall within the indicated address range. Click Clear to clear the IP addresses / Subnets box.
2. Click VLANs to open the Device Filter - VLANs dialog.
  Enter the VLAN name or index from which you want the filter to select devices. Click Clear to clear the VLAN names or indexes.
Select the categories of devices you want to include in your device filter.
If you select any category, only devices that match that category will appear. If you have not selected any devices, all devices that meet the other filter criteria will appear.
- Click Select All to select all of the categories. With all of the categories selected, WhatsConnected will return all devices.
- Click Unselect All to de-select all of the categories. With all of the categories de-selected, WhatsConnected will return all devices within the device range.
- Filter summary. Provides a pseudo-code representation of the filter.
Click Preview to see the list of devices returned by the filter. This list of devices appears in the map or report that uses this filter.
Click OK. The Device Filter definition dialog closes, and the device filter appears on the Device Filter list dialog.

To delete a device filter:

Select a device filter, then click Delete to delete an existing device filter. The selected device filter is removed from the Device Filters dialog.

To copy an existing device filter:

Select a device filter, then click Copy to copy an existing device filter. The Device Filter definition dialog appears with Copy of <filter_name> in the Name field where <filter_name> is the name of the filter you selected to copy. All of the filter criteria associated with the selected device filter is automatically selected.