Group Hierarchy¶
Groups provide organization and access control to represent a collection of assets, devices, users, dashboards, and to organize groups of groups for entities such as customer, sites, regions, etc.
Functionality Summary¶
- Each group has a friendly name property, which does not have to be unique throughout the application.
- Groups are a container of:
- Assets
- Child sub-groups (and sub-groups of those sub-groups, etc)
- Devices, IoT Sources
- Asset Templates
- Users are assigned to a group, which assigns their access permission level in the hierarchy. Their assigned group is their home group, they do not have any indication of any other groups above or in parallel in the hierarchy.
- Group Dashboards can be created for viewing beyond the supported group / asset grid views.
Properties¶
| Property | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | The name of a group is purely a friendly name, as you might name folders on a computer. Group names are not required to be unique in the solution. TIP: It's recommended for Administrators creating the high level hierarchy to create unique names for organizational purposes. It's common for a group representing a customer to have child sub-groups that may be named similiarly (such as "West Building") but combined with the full group path, will ensure uniqueness. Users with access at one of those customer groups are not aware of each other. |
| Description | (optional) The description is helpful information that can be applied to a group, but is not required. |
| Customer ID | (optional) Used with an automation API. This must be unique within the application. |
| Parent Group | All groups except the root have a parent group. |
What's in a Group¶
Assets
Assets are always owned by a specific group (usually representing a customer or site or plant or location or region and even a large system within a plant). Any user with access to this group can interact with the Asset, dependent on their role permissions.
- Asset visibility and access flows up in the access hierarchy.
- Users in child sub-groups have no access (or awareness) to assets in a parent group.
- Users in parent groups can view assets in child groups in the hierarchy tree.
Devices
When devices are added into the solution, they are claimed or assigned ownership to a group. Devices can be used as a source for any Asset in that group or any child groups.
- Device sources flow down the access hierarchy.
- Device channels may be used for asset signal sources in the group or any child groups in the hierarchy tree.
Users
User's are invited and registered to a group. This is their Home level and they will know only of this home group and it's child sub-groups. This along with their Role defines their access permission to the solution.
- Users are able to access objects at their group and down the hierarchy, such as assets and child sub-groups.
- With User Management permission, a user may invite another user to their group or any child group.
- More information about User Management and Access can be found here: User Access & Roles Management
Can users have access to different groups at different places in the hierarchy?
Yes in some ExoSense solutions with access to the advanced Multi-Group Users feature. This feature allows users to be added to different groups in different levels of the tree.
Child Groups
Groups can contain child sub-groups, which can have their own child sub-groups. Depending on the application this can be used for large or small hierarchies of assets representing groups of customers, regions, factories, plants, buildings, and other systems.
- Group visibility and access flows up in the access hierarchy.
- Users in a group have access (awareness) to child sub-groups.
- Group management includes adding / editing / moving / removing child sub-groups
- The depth of the hierarchy is dependent on the ExoSense tier.
Groups are limited to 200 subgroups.
Asset Templates
Asset Templates can be used to create an asset in it's group, or by any user's in child sub-groups with Asset Management permission to create assets.
- The ability to use Asset Templates flows down the access hierarchy.
- A user in a child group is able to be aware of an asset template from a parent group and use this to create an Asset. The user can use the template and it's versions, but not edit it.
- Editing / Management of the asset templates flows up the access hierarchy tree.
Roles
User Roles can be applied to the group the role is defined at or any child sub-groups.
- The ability to use a User Role flows down the access hierarchy.
- A user in a child sub-group may invite another user with a role defined in the parent group, assuming they have user management permission.
- Editing / Management of the user role flows up the access hierarchy tree.
Group Dashboards
Custom dashboards may be created at a group level. These are available with the Asset grid view, asset lists, and asset fleet map views.
See Group Dashboards below for more information.
Typical Uses of Groups¶
Representing a collection of Assets
The primary use of groups is to be a collection of Assets representing your equipment, machines, and sensors. Typically this would be a location such as a factory or site or building.
Representing a collection of other Groups
The second use of groups is useful now that you have many groups representing a collection of Asset, these can now be organized as groups of groups.
Examples:
- A business has multiple sites of assets, each of these sites can be a group
- Groups can be used to organize other groups in a geographical or some business region, which can provide a sales or support organization access and ownership of those customers.
Can assets / users / devices / groups be moved to other groups?
Yes. Items that are owned by a group may be moved to other groups. This includes an entire parent and it's child groups and all of their assets and child groups. A user must have a role with the group management permission (moving groups) or management permission for the asset / template, etc to move that object.
Can groups be used to represent parts of a large machine / equipment system?
Yes, technically. An actual machine, if it contains a large set of signals and complex parts of the system could be represented as a group, with assets representing these sub parts.
Alternatively Assets support Subsystems which are like labels applied to signals within the Asset. Each subsystem has a dedicated dashboard and the subsystem status is available in the side-nav hierarchy and the asset grid view.
Group Views¶
Side Nav Tree Hierarchy
The main view of the group hierarchy is the ExoSense side navigation. Here all groups and child groups you have access to can be seen along with their assets and asset status.
| Asset Icon Color (Side Nav) | General Description |
|---|---|
| Asset Status associated as being normal or good. | |
| Asset Status used by some rules for noting that a condition is not normal or close too bad. This should be monitored appropriately or preemptive action taken. | |
| Asset Status used by some rules for noting that a condition is bad and action should be taken immediately. | |
| Asset Status indicating there is an issue acquiring the data at some level, prevents the rule from actually determining the current state. | |
| Asset Status indicating the asset is in a timeout state. |
Group Management¶
The creation, editing, moving, and deleting of groups along with many group functions is available in both the Side Navigation tree and the Group Management page.
Side Nav Tree Hierarchy
Groups and Assets may be edited in the side navigation tree including the ability to create assets, assign device ownership, and start bulk change workflows. You may also find the ability to move groups and assets here by using Edit.
Group Management
In the Group view, managers with specific role permissions may move and create assets, claim new devices, or move and create subgroups.
Group Dashboards¶
Dashboards can be created at the group level to summarize data from many assets or to show key indicators.
Example Dashboard added to the Group 
Creating Group Dashboards
Click on Management Dashboards to create new dashboards.
Use the edit dashboard functionality to add panels.
