Sanity check - safe to rename Smart Computer Groups in v8 and v9?

[donmontalvo]

I did a quick test on v8 and v9 test environmets, and it seems renaming a Smart Computer Group does not "break" any links to Policies or EA's. I wanted to bounce this off the community, is there any harm/danger in renamging Smart Computer Groups?

I need to add a prefix to the Smart Computer Groups, but I can't risk breaking anything linked to it. Anyone know from experience? In the past we renamed and didn't have any problems, but haven't done this in live v8 or v9 environments.

TIA
Don

[JPDyson · Accepted solution]

My understanding was that it isn't the name that is actually used in targeting, but the group ID. Therefore, safe.

I've also tested this backwards (create a policy, target a smart group, delete the group, create a new one with the same name). The new group was NOT associated with the policy; name seems irrelevant.

[kstrick · Accepted solution]

I've had no problem renaming smart groups in either V8 or V9 environment….
I believe that JPDyson is right about groups being referenced by in JSS by ID not by Name…

[John_Wetter · Accepted solution]

In our v8 environment we change names all the time on groups and have had no adverse effects.

[JPDyson · Accepted solution]

My understanding was that it isn't the name that is actually used in targeting, but the group ID. Therefore, safe.

I've also tested this backwards (create a policy, target a smart group, delete the group, create a new one with the same name). The new group was NOT associated with the policy; name seems irrelevant.

[kstrick · Accepted solution]

I've had no problem renaming smart groups in either V8 or V9 environment….
I believe that JPDyson is right about groups being referenced by in JSS by ID not by Name…

[John_Wetter · Accepted solution]

In our v8 environment we change names all the time on groups and have had no adverse effects.

[mm2270 · Accepted solution]

Yep, as others have pointed out, we rename our groups in production when needed and they don't break the link to any policies they're scoped to. The JSS uses internal identifiers for them, not the name. Just like if a Mac gets renamed, it still shows up in Scope for any policies it was added to. It would be pretty fragile if it used the name for that.

[donmontalvo]

@JPDyson, @kstrick, @john_wetter and @mm2270, you guys rock, thanks for confirming! :D

[cdenesha]

Using v9.22 I renamed a Smart Group that was being referenced by other SGs, and they broke. Seems to be using just the name. Not sure about policies.

[cdenesha]

I stumbled over this thread again so I'll add an update to clarify what I was trying to say in my previous post.

If you have Nested Smart Groups (SGs referencing other SGs) you will need to be careful when renaming them. This is because they are not Scopes but Criteria, with 'member of' or 'not member of', and a text field. The text field is populated by clicking the button with the ellipsis and doing a lookup, but this is not a live link.

I have written the following query that details my nested groups. I named it 'Nested Device Group Dependencies'.

select mdg.mobile_device_group_name, 'Has Criteria', smdgc.search_type, smdgc.criteria from mobile_device_groups mdg inner join smart_mobile_device_group_criteria smdgc on mdg.mobile_device_group_id=smdgc.mobile_device_group_id where smdgc.search_type like "%member of" order by smdgc.criteria, mdg.mobile_device_group_name;

[donmontalvo]

I missed your 5/29 post, thanks for the detailed FYI, very much appreciated. We'll have to test this on our side to make sure we don't break things.