I apologize for not giving credit for every borrowed label (honestly, I didn't keep track of my sources for labels) and if you see one that you know you developed, please know that I truly appreciate your original contribution and that I am only trying to help as well. My goal here is to analyze and illustrate *all* of my working labels so others have some real-world examples - not to claim authorship (although I did write a good number of them). In particular, a number of my Smart labels were inspired by, built around or outright copied from other contributors' offerings here on ITNinja. One disclaimer - I do not claim to be the originator of all of the labels listed here. And if nothing else, some Smart label queries you can throw on your own box. For clarity, there will be a decent degree of repetition and mind-numbing detail (as usual ^_^), but hopefully by the end you will have a solid understanding and some brilliant ideas for your own labels. This is the point of this article - to explain label types and then show you how I'm using them in my own organization. That being said, all organizations share *some* basic commonalities, so a number of approaches others take with labels *can* be applied to your own org. This is why explaining labels can be a slight challenge, as every organization is unique - what works great for my medium-sized network with all of its particular quirks probably won't be a cookie-cutter solution for your own. The good news is, the more you use the different parts of your K1000 and get used to the flow of things, the more label use cases will jump out at you.
#K1000 smart label wizard how to#
The potentially daunting part is figuring out how to employ them to your benefit, because (as every new K1000 admin is painfully aware) they are initially a blank slate with lots of options (and thus, possibilities) with little direction on effective usage. In more technical terms, just think of them as very flexible organizational tools (name tags, basically) that will allow you to organize and target specific groups of machines, software, patches, users and more. Of course, you will be creating them yourself and will have total control over them, so I guess good analogies would be bonsai trees, vegetable gardens or reef tanks - there are the obvious setup and maintenance tasks, but later (as things mature) you will get a "feel" for how to help them grow, as you see the overall system take shape. They are the most "organic" part of the K1000, in the sense that (once you are comfortable with them) they will almost seem to grow (and occasionally, need pruned) as you develop the other parts of your K1000. Labels are critical to the successful and efficient administration of the K1000, as they will either be referenced or act as the driving agents in practically every operation - the K1000's vascular system, if you will. Section III - Example Labels & Label Groups K1000 Labels - Effective Organization & Process Flow Using Manual, Smart & LDAP Labels and Label Groups