Device Labels

Device Labels enable you to apply a label to each of the devices that your organization has registered with Kentik Detect (see Device Admin). The management of device labels in the Kentik Detect portal is discussed in the following topics:

• About Device Labels
• Device Labels Page
• Using Device Labels

A device label is simply a property whose value is text. You can apply a label to one or more device to create a group of devices. The devices in a group would typically be (but are not required to be) alike in some way; a label allows you to refer to them all together rather than individually. Labels are not mutually exclusive, so you can apply multiple labels to any device.

Device labels are visible in the Device List on the Admin » Devices page and are also particularly useful when choosing devices to include in a query; you can now include devices based on their label rather than individually (see Devices Pane Settings). When a query is defined using a device label then the devices whose flow data will be included in the query are determined at run time based on which devices have that label. This means that if you refer to devices via labels when building components such as dashboards, saved views, reports, and saved filters then you can change the devices that a given component covers without going back and revising the component itself.

Note: If you change the group of devices to which a given label is applied (adding the label to or removing it from any device) then a query that uses that label will look at traffic from the revised group of devices across the entire time-range of the query, without regard to whether the label was or wasn’t applied to any of those devices at any given point in that time-range.

Device labels are managed on the Device Labels page. To access the page, choose Admin from the Kentik navbar, then Device Labels from the sidebar at left. The page is covered in the following topics:

• Device Labels Page UI
• Device Labels List
• Add Label Controls
• Manage Labels Controls

The Device Labels page includes the following UI elements:

• Filter field: Filters the Device Labels list to show only rows containing the entered text in the following columns: Name, Labels.
  Note: Any change to the Filter field will uncheck all checked rows in the Device Labels list.
• Clear Labels button (active only when one or more checkboxes are checked in the Device Labels list): Removes all labels from any row of the Device Labels list whose checkbox is currently checked.
• Apply Labels menu (active only when one or more checkboxes are checked in the Device Labels list): Click to drop down a menu listing all of your organization’s currently defined labels:
  - Any label that is already applied to a row that is checked in the Device Labels list will have a checkmark in the Apply Labels menu.
  - Click on an unchecked label in the menu to apply that label to all checked rows in the Device list.
  - Click on a checked label in the menu to remove that label from all checked rows in the Device list.
  - If you make no change to a given label in the menu (neither check nor uncheck it) there is no change with respect to that label in the checked rows of the Device list.
• Show Unlabeled Devices button: Filters the Device Labels list to show only devices that have no labels (filter = “no label”). If the filter is already applied then instead the Show All Devices button is shown, which removes the “no label” filter.
• Device Labels list: A table listing your organization’s currently defined device labels (see Device Labels List).
• Add Label controls: Buttons and fields that enable you to add a label (see Add Label Controls).
• Manage Labels controls: Buttons and fields that enable you to manage existing labels (see Manage Labels Controls).

The Device Labels list is a table that lists all of your organization’s existing devices and shows the labels applied to each. Each row of the table provides the following information and options for one device:

• Checkbox: Enables the labels of a given device to be acted upon by the Clear Labels or Apply Labels controls (see Device Labels Page UI).
  Note: Any change to the Filter field will uncheck all checked rows in the Device Labels list.
• Name: The name of the device.
• Labels: The labels that have been applied to the device.

Click on a column heading to sort the list (ascending or descending).

The Add Label controls enable you to add a new label to your organization’s collection of labels:

• Color button: Click the swatch to open a popup color selector from which you can choose a color to associate with the label (default is gray).
• Name field: Enter a name for the new label.
• Add button (active only when text is present in the Name field): Adds a new label with the specified name and color. The new label will appear in the label list under the Manage Labels heading.

The Manage Labels controls enable you to change the properties (name and color) of device labels and to remove labels from your organization’s collection of labels. Each label in the collection is listed and has the following controls:

• Color selector: Click the swatch to open a popup color selector from which you can change the color associated with the label (default is gray).
• Name field: Enter a new name for the label.
• Devices button: Shows the number of devices with this label. Click the button to add the label to the Filter field (see Device Labels Page UI), which results in the Device Labels list being filtered to show only devices with this label.
• Remove button (trash icon): Opens a confirming dialog that enables you to remove the label from your organization’s collection of labels.
• Save Changes button (active only when text is present in the Name field): Saves all changes that you’ve made to labels in the list.

The use of device labels is covered in the following sections:

• Adding a Device Label
• Managing Device Labels
• Labeling a Device
• Unlabeling a Device

To add a new device label to your organization’s collection of device labels:

1. Open the Device Labels page (choose Admin from the Kentik navbar, then Device Labels from the sidebar at left).
2. In the Add Labels section at the upper right of the page, specify the following:
   - Label color: click the color swatch to set a color for the label.
   - Label name: Enter a name string in the field.
3. Click the Add button. The label will be added to the list of labels in the Manage Labels section.

To edit the settings for an existing device label:

1. Open the Device Labels page (choose Admin from the Kentik navbar, then Device Labels from the sidebar at left).
2. In the list of labels in the Manage Labels section at the right of the page, find the label that you want to modify.
3. Do one of the following:
   - Edit label: Change label name and/or color using the name field and the color swatch.
   - Remove label: Click the trash icon to remove the device label from your organization’s collection of labels.
4. To save changes, click the Save Changes button.

To apply an existing device label to one or more devices:

1. Open the Device Labels page (choose Admin from the Kentik navbar, then Device Labels from the sidebar at left).
2. In the Device Labels list, select each device that you want to label (click the checkbox at the left of that device’s row).
3. Click the Apply Labels button to drop down the menu of available labels.
4. In the menu:
   - If none of the devices that you selected in step 1 already have the label that you wish to apply there will be no checkmark in the menu to the left of that label. Click the label once to turn it on for all selected devices.
   - If some of the devices that you selected in step 1 already have the label that you wish to apply there will be a checkmark in the menu to the left of that label. Click the label twice: the first click will turn off any existing instances of the label on selected devices, the second will turn the label on for all selected devices.

To apply an existing device label to one or more devices:

1. Open the Device Labels page (choose Admin from the Kentik navbar, then Device Labels from the sidebar at left).
2. In the Device Labels list, select each device from which you want to remove a given label (click the checkbox at the left of that device’s row).
3. Click the Apply Labels button to drop down the menu of available labels.
4. In the menu there will be a checkmark to the left of the label that you want to remove from the selected devices. Click the label once to remove it from all selected devices.