Easy Configuration
The Easy Configuration feature is a favorite among network administrators. The concept is you specify one or more servers, and the monitor modules inspect the server(s) and then create appropriate monitors for each server based on default settings.
You can access the feature by right clicking an existing computer and selecting "Smart Configuration". Or, for the ultimate in quickly configuring a system, press the Easy Configuration button to be shown the dialog below. You can paste a list of server names or IP addresses into an edit box. You can specify a username and password to use when accessing the server by entering any line in the form: server_name,username,password (for another example, open the dialog below in the Console, and let your mouse hover over the server list window for a helpful hint). If no username/password is given, the configuration procedure will try to connect to the servers using the currently logged in user, and the when the service runs, it will attempt to connect to the server using the service's Login As user (which can be changed in Preferences).
The next step is to select which monitor modules should inspect the server(s)/device(s) and press "Begin the Smart Config Process". In a few moments you'll have monitors automatically configured for your specific environment. Naturally the auto-created monitors can be changed or deleted just like any other monitor in the system.
In addition to auto-configuration, the dialog below lets you save a particular server's configuration (list of monitors and actions) to a file. You can then import that file to be used as the default configuration for existing computers or new computers entered as a list like the example above.
For both the auto-configuration process and the importing of an existing configuration, existing monitors and actions are not modified--new monitors and new actions are created while leaving the existing monitors and actions alone.
