Overview

This document describes the design aspects of User Defined Groups filtering enhancement, which was introduced in version 8.20 of Deep Freeze Enterprise Console.

Introduction

In Deep Freeze Console versions below 8.20 there was a User Defined Group filter option, that was solely based on Workstation name, where “?’ and “*” wildcards could be used. In version 8.20 User Defined Groups have been enhanced, allowing to use filters based on workstation statuses shown in other columns on Deep Freeze Console. When the workstation status in a specific column(s) changes, the filter dynamically adds or removes workstations from filtered Groups based on the filter criteria.

Group filters description

Group filters can be created based on the following values that appeared in the Enterprise Console columns:

• Workstation

• Workgroup

• IP Address

• Status

• Configuration

• Configuration date

• Installation File

• Version

• Operating System

• MAC Address

• Login Name

 

Depending on the Column, the filter can use various types of comparisons:

• Equals

• Not Equal To

• Less Than

• Less Then or Equal To

• Greater Than

• Greater Then or Equal To

• Regular Expression

 

Group filter now allows the addition of a second filtering rule combined with the first rule using OR/AND logic.

Filter Column types and values

Internally Column values are split into the following types:

String type. In this case, the Group filter compares against the plain string value entered in the User Group Add/Edit dialog. The following columns have string-type values:

• Workstation

• Workgroup

• IP Address

• Status

• Configuration

• Installation File

• Operating System

• MAC Address

• Login Name

The comparison type can be “Equal”, “Not Equal To” or “Regular Expression”. For “Equal”, “Not Equal To” comparisons the value string can use “?” and “*” wildcards the same as in previous versions. The status column filter has only “Equals” and “Not Equal To” comparisons and cannot use wildcards since the value string is selected from a drop-down list of pre-defined Status values specific to the current UI language set in the Deep Freeze Console. When switching the Console UI language, the “Status” Column filter does not update with values in the corresponding language. In this case, the filer must be re-created or edited with new corresponding values of a given language.

Numeric type. The version column is of a numeric type. The comparison type can be “Equals”, “Not Equal To”, “Less Than”, “Less Then or Equal To”, “Greater Than” or “Greater Then or Equal To”. Since a higher version always has a higher build number, internally the filter compares just against the build number (last four digits in the version number) and ignores the rest of the digits which includes the major/minor version number and product code. Therefore, it is not necessary to provide the full version number in a value string, but a four digits build number only – it will have the same effect as providing the full version. As for a numeric type the filter will not recognize wildcards.

Date type. The Configuration Date column is of a date type. The comparison type can be “Equals”, “Not Equal To”, “Less Than”, “Less Then or Equal To”, “Greater Than” or “Greater Then or Equal To”. The filter value is entered using a date picker and internally stored as a numeric value counting the number of days since 1900. Since the Configuration Date filter is internally represented with a numeric value, it is not affected by changing the Console UI language or system date format.

Blank values in Group filters

In some cases, the specific column may show blank for the given workstation. This may happen, for example, when the older version of the workstation does not support a specific status, since it was introduced in later versions (eg. Operating System, Login Name). For Group filters the blank column is treated as a “blank” value. If it is required to use a filter based on the blank value criteria, the value field in the Group Add/Edit dialog must be left blank and the Comparison type must be set to “Equals” or “Not Equal To”.  Other comparison types are not applicable to a blank value.

Console Upgrade and Exporting User Defined Group

During an upgrade from previous versions of Deep Freeze Console to version 8.20 onwards, User Defined Groups will be converted to the new format. Filtered groups from previous versions will be represented with a new filter based on the Workstation column with “Equals” comparison and the same string value as it was in the old Group including wildcards. Therefore the behavior of converted filtered Groups of previous versions remains the same.

Similarly, importing Groups of previous versions will correctly convert them into the new format of version 8.20.

However, Groups are not backward compatible. Therefore, when the user would downgrade the Console to the previous version or imports Groups into an older version of the Console, the Group structure will not be shown in Deep Freeze Console.

Remote Console setup

When remotely connecting the Console of version 8.20 onwards to Deep Freeze Server Service of version 8.12 and below, it will correctly pull the Group structure from Server Service and convert to a new format similar to Group importing.

However, when remotely connecting the Console of version 8.12 and below to Deep Freeze Server Service of version 8.20 onwards, it will not show Groups due to the backward incompatibility mentioned above.