A network device is any server, workstation, router, switch or other device that resides on your network with its own IP address. With Tembria Server Monitor you typically start by adding your network devices.

To do this, right-click on the "Network Devices" item the tree on the left and choose the option to "Add Network Devices". In the dialog box that appears, enter the names of the devices you want to add. When adding a device you can specify either its name or you can use its IP address if you prefer.

To add multiple devices, just separate them with commas. For example, "server01, server02, server03". Although the text field is not that big you can in fact add lots of devices. Just use Notepad to format them all on one line and then paste them into the text box and you can add hundreds if you choose.

Tembria Server Monitor lets you assign display names to your devices. When you assign a display name to a device it will appear in the Tembria user interface under that name but all monitoring actions will use the actual device name. For example you might add a device using its IP address "192.168.0.100" but using a display name you can have it displayed as "Secondary Router" or whatever value you choose. It's sometimes handy if your server names are complicated along the lines of "supsqlbkp" which could use a display name like "Support Backup SQL Server".

When you are adding devices you can give them display names by putting the display name in brackets after the device name. For example, "192.168.0.100 (Secondary Router)". After you've added a network device you can always add, change or remove a display name by going to the "Properties" tab for the device.

Tembria Server Monitor lets you organize your devices into groups. To add a group, just right-click on the "Network Devices" item in the tree and select the option to add a subgroup. Groups can have their own subgroups and there's no limit as to how deep the hierarchy can go.

There are many ways to organize your network devices and the best way is the one that feels the most natural to you. Some organizations group their devices according to the device type. They'll put their servers in one group, their workstations in another and their switches in yet another. Other groups organization their devices by their physical location. Still others organize them by their role, putting all database servers together, all e-mail servers together, etc. Start with whatever organization feels best to you and adjust it as you go. You can always move devices around later on if you decide on a different structure.

Here's a handy tip: Navigate in the tree to "Network Devices > Views > View All Devices". Tick off the devices you want to move and then use the drop down arrow to move them to the new group.

Tembria Server Monitor can also scan your network to automatically detect network devices and let you choose which ones to add. To use the Device Finder open the "Tools" section of the tree and select the "Device Finder" option listed there.