Groups Management
The Groups Management feature creates Contact-, Host-, and Service-Groups in Checkmk based on attributes from your hosts.
Go to: Modules → Checkmk → Manage Host-/Contact-/Service-Groups
Object Cache
The Syncer maintains a local cache of all groups it has created (Rules → Checkmk → Object Cache). This allows it to safely remove groups from Checkmk when they are no longer needed — without deleting groups that were created manually by a user.
If you delete a cache entry, the Syncer will only re-take ownership of that group when it is provided again by the source data.
Note
Checkmk does not allow two groups of different types to share the same name. You cannot have a Contact Group and a Host Group with identical names. Use the Rewrite feature to add a prefix if needed.
Rule Parameters
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Group Name | Type of group to create: Contact Group, Host Group, or Service Group |
| Foreach Type | Iterate by attribute name, by attribute values, or by objects |
| Foreach | Attribute name or value to iterate. Use * at the end as a wildcard (e.g. dhcp*) |
| Rewrite | Jinja template for the group ID. {{name}} refers to the found value |
| Rewrite Title | Jinja template for the group display title |
The Rewrite fields support all custom Syncer Jinja Functions.
Example
Your hosts have an attribute application that indicates their role. You want to create a Checkmk Contact Group for each unique application value, prefixed with cg_.
- Set Group Name to Contact Groups
- Set Foreach Type to Foreach Attribute
- Set Foreach to
application - Set Rewrite to
cg_{{name|lower}} - Set Rewrite Title to
{{name}}
After committing changes, run:
./cmdbsyncer checkmk export_groups ACCOUNTNAME
Wildcard Values
If your attribute values follow a naming pattern — for example contact_1, contact_2, contact_3 — you can use contact_* as the Foreach value to match all values starting with that string. The wildcard only works at the end of the string.