A machine group container is used to view and create machine groups in the current site's site database. The machine group container is analogous to the Machine Groups window in the SMS Administrator. Thus, a machine group container contains, at the topmost level, machine group folders. Machine group folders contain machine folders which, in turn, contain group folders. Machine group folders can also contain other machine group folders.
A machine group serves as an alias for a set of computers. Machine groups can be used to specify the job targets and distribution servers for Run Command On Workstation and Share Package On Server jobs.
A machine group folder can be created within a machine group container, but not within another machine group (this is an SDK restriction, not an SMS one). Machines can be copied from the machine or site container into a newly-created machine group folder using the SmsDupFolder function. Machine folders cannot be created any other way in a machine group (or in any other folder). Once created, the folder must be linked to its parent and committed to the site database in the same manner as when creating any other type of folder.
A machine group container has the following properties:
| Property | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Tag | "MachineGroup container" | String. A description of the container type. |
| Container type | C_MACHINEGROUP | Integer. Container type. |
| Applied filters | GROUP_FILTER | Integer. Filters that can be applied to the container type. |
| Active filters | None. | Integer. Filters that are directly activated on the container. These filter types are used to retrieve the top-level folders in the container. |
| Immediate subfolders | F_MACHINEGROUP | Integer. Types of subfolders that the container type can contain. |