Groups
Groups
Central Management's Groups are the basis on which a given Deployment operates. In Central Management, a Group may contain one or more computers and/or other groups. Currently, Central Management's groups are entirely self-contained, and cannot be directly mapped from Active Directory groups.
The Groups page can be accessed from the left-hand navigation menu on your Central Management Dashboard by selecting the Groups menu item. If you do not see this menu entry, verify with your administrator whether your Central Management account has the View Groups role assigned..
The All Computers (Automatic Group)
:choco-info: NOTE
This feature is available in Chocolatey Central Management starting with version 0.11.0.
All Computers present in Chocolatey Central Management are automatically added to a system managed group named All Computers (Automatic Group). This Group can not be edited or deleted.
The All Computers (Automatic Group) will have a blue lock icon next to the the name in the table. Hovering over this lock icon will display a tooltip with more information.
Creating a Group
On the main Groups page, select the + Create New Group button.
Fill in a Name for the group and (optionally) a Description in the appropriate fields in the Create New Group modal. Then, select the computer(s) or existing group(s) you would like to include in the new group and click the > button in the Available Groups/Computers column to add the selected items, or click the >> button to add all available groups and computers into the new group.
Click 💾 Save to close the modal and create the new group.
Editing a Group
:choco-info: NOTE
If you do not see the Edit menu entry or the ⚙️ Actions buttons, consult your administrator to determine if you have the Edit Groups role assigned.
On the main Groups page, find the group you want to edit. You can enter a search term in the text field to filter results by typing in part of their Name or Description and clicking the 🔍 button. Select the ⚙️ Actions button on the left-hand side of the group, and then select Edit to open the Edit Group modal.
From the Edit Group modal, you can modify the group name and description, and modify members by adding or removing groups and/or computers.
Deleting a Group
:choco-info: NOTE
If you do not see the Delete menu entry or the ⚙️ Actions buttons, consult your administrator to determine if you have the appropriate role assigned to your account.
On the main Groups page, find the group you want to edit. You can enter a search term in the text field to filter results by typing in part of their Name or Description and clicking the 🔍 button. Similar to the Edit Group action, select the ⚙️ Actions button on the left-hand side of the group, and instead select Delete. You will be prompted to confirm the deletion.
Eligibility for Deployments
The Create / Edit Group modals display Groups or Computers that are ineligible for Deployment Steps in either red or orange, depending on the reason for their ineligibility. All Groups and Computers in a given Group must have their eligibility clear in order for that group to be used as part of a Deployment Step. If a Deployment Step is targeting ineligible Groups, the Deployment Plan cannot be started until the eligibility status(es) of the affected computers has been resolved.
FAQ
Why do I see some machines have not opted in for Deployments?
If you are on the Groups screen, you may notice that some machines show up highlighted with a coloring, and one of those colorings is an orange - the legend below it mentions "Not Opted In For Deployments (Configuration)".
As you can see from the text, it is meant to help you figure out the issue:
The computer has not opted in or a group contains computers that have not opted in for deployments by configuration. Please ensure the computer has at least chocolatey-agent v0.10.0+ installed and the feature "useChocolateyCentralManagementDeployments" has been set to enabled on the client computer.
This is telling you that you need to ensure you set the client to allow for the the use of Deployments. As it is a security consideration, it requires an explicit opt-in on client machines. See Client Setup - Features for details on how to set it.
I have plenty of licenses, why do some machines show not opted in for deployments and also exceeds your current license count?
Once you upgrade to at least CCM v0.2.0, every machine will show that until they check in the next time. Once they check in, that will go away. So it's basically normal to see that until those machines check in again.
Common Errors and Resolutions
A computer or group is not showing as available for deployments but I have plenty of available licenses
Once you upgrade to Central Management v0.3.0+, you have upgraded the Agent on the machine to v0.11.0+, and it has successfully completed a check in, then that messaging should go away. Note that clients do not get a message back that there was a failure as a security feature - you'll need to consult the Central Management Service logs. You can find that at $env:ChocolateyInstall\logs\ccm-service.log, or if you are on a version of CCM prior to 0.2.0, the log will be located at $env:ChocolateyInstall\lib\chocolatey-management-service\tools\service\logs\chocolatey.service.host.log.