Apps Groups

The Apps Groups view shows the flows of your infrastructure between groups of resources that you define, rather than between individual resources. A group, called an apps group, gathers virtual machines, hosts, IP addresses, IP networks and even other apps groups, and the view draws the traffic exchanged between these groups. You can then bring back as much detail as you need by asking a group to show its members.

The screenshot below shows the relations between several groups defined by a user. Double-click a box to see the flows of that group and its neighbours, and double-click a line to see the flows it stands for.

Apps groups files

Apps groups are stored in files. DC Netscope builds three of them itself, which appear in the Generated folder:

• by_name.yml: groups resources whose names are close to each other.
• networks.yml: groups resources by the /24 network their IP address belongs to.
• tags.yml: groups the virtual machines that carry the same tag, for the tags and the categories tracked on your connected infrastructures.

You can define your own files as well, which appear in the Custom folder. Type a name in the field at the bottom of the panel and click New file.

Defining apps groups

Once a file is selected, a second panel appears below the list of files. It holds the apps groups of that file, and lets you add, edit and delete them, as well as choose how each of them is displayed.

Each apps group is a row of this panel, showing from left to right:

• an arrow to unfold the group,
• an eye icon to hide the whole group from the view, and the flows of its members with it,
• its name, and the number of its members,
• its display mode, described in Choosing what is displayed,
• a ⋮ menu holding the settings that are changed less often: Show flows inside this apps group and Delete this apps group.

Click New app group at the bottom of the panel to add a group to the file.

Renaming a group

Unfold a group, then click its name: it becomes editable in place. A name can only hold letters, digits and _. An invalid name is outlined in red and the file cannot be saved until it is fixed.

The groups of the same file that include the renamed group follow the new name automatically.

Adding and removing members

Once a group is unfolded, everything it is made of appears as chips in a single field:

• the apps groups it includes, labelled group,
• the members you picked one by one. Virtual machines show their name only. The other kinds of members are labelled with their kind (host, ip, network...), so that they stand out,
• the members matched by name, drawn with a dashed border (see Matching members by name).

To add a member, type at the end of the field. It offers:

• the virtual machines and the hosts of your infrastructure, searchable by name or by IP address,
• the external IPs you configured in the External IPs view,
• any IP address you type, even one that belongs to no known resource,
• any IP network you type in CIDR notation, such as 192.168.10.0/24: the group then holds every address that falls inside it,
• the other apps groups, whose members then belong to this group as well. The apps groups of the other files are offered too, so that a group can be built on top of groups defined elsewhere. A group that already includes this one is not offered, as the two would then contain each other.

To remove a chip, click its ×. On an included apps group, this stops including it. On a member matched by name, the button is ⊘ instead, since removing it would not last: the patterns would match it again. It is excluded from the patterns instead, by adding its exact name to the exclude patterns.

An included apps group that cannot be found anymore, because it was renamed or deleted in its own file, is shown in amber: it brings no member until you remove it or restore it.

Matching members by name

Instead of picking every member by hand, a group can gather the virtual machines and hosts whose names match patterns. Unfold Match by name, below the members field. It is unfolded by default on the groups that already have patterns.

The field holds two kinds of patterns:

• include patterns, in green: a resource whose name matches one of them joins the group,
• exclude patterns, in red: a resource whose name matches one of them is left out, even if it matches an include pattern.

Choose the kind with the + include / − exclude switch, then type the pattern and press Enter or ,. Several patterns can be pasted at once, separated by commas. Backspace in the empty field removes the last pattern of the selected kind, and the × of a chip removes that pattern.

Patterns are globs, matched against the whole name, whatever the case:

As you type, the number of matching virtual machines and hosts is shown next to Match by name. Click it to list them. The matched members appear in the members field with a dashed border, and can be shown or folded in the view like any other member.

Exclude patterns alone match nothing: a group needs at least one include pattern for its patterns to bring members. A group holds at most 50 patterns of each kind, of at most 200 characters each.

Choosing what is displayed

Every apps group holds a display mode, which is a shortcut for setting the visibility of all of its members at once:

• Summarized: fold every member into the group. The flows its members exchange with other groups are gathered and drawn as a single link between the groups.
• Show sub-groups: draw the apps groups it includes as boxes of their own, the members staying folded. This mode is only offered to groups that include other apps groups.
• Show exposing ports: show the members that expose a port to another apps group.
• Show active: show the members that exchange flows with another apps group, as a server or as a client.
• Show all members: show every member, including those that took part in no flow at all.
• Show all traffic (inside + outside): show every member, and draw the flows exchanged inside the group as well.

A mode is only a starting point: once it is applied, you can show or fold any member by clicking its chip in the members field. A filled chip is shown as a node of its own in the view, an empty one is folded into its group. Clicking an included apps group works the same way: shown, it is drawn as a box of its own inside the group; folded, its members are drawn as the group's own.

Two more choices are available on every group:

• the eye icon next to its name hides the whole group, and the flows of its members with it,
• Show flows inside this apps group, in the ⋮ menu, draws the flows its members exchange with each other. They are hidden by default, as a group usually talks to itself a lot and those links would bury the flows exchanged between groups.

The display choices apply to the groups of the generated files too, even though their content cannot be edited.

Finally, the settings of a group drawn in the view are one click away: click the cog shaped icon of the group, and the panel opens on it.