How to create a system tree filter using a list of machines as criteria

[petedc]

I hope I am just missing something but from time to time I need to work on/deploy updates/etc to a specific group of machines, sometimes by date, sometimes by product, whatever.

Is there a way to create a filter that will return only the machines I need to work on based on a list I can input, text file, csv, etc.

For example, I have a group of machines I need to redeploy the McAfee agent to and instead of finding each one and deploying it via "Deploy Agents" it would be great to be able to have that listing in the system tree to allow me to act on them all at the same time.
This would save a great deal of time.

It this something that could be done via a Query?  I looked and just could not see how to do it any differently than what tools are available from the system tree.

There has to be a way to do this as I can't imagine I am the first person to ask how to do this, or its already built in and I am just too dense to find it...;>)

Thanks, Pete

[Hem]

You can use wild card filter like system 'starts with'/ contains etc (as per screenshot attached).

[petedc]

Thanks for the idea, but I need to use a specific list of machine names that may or may not have anything in common.

[cdinet · Accepted solution]

There are a couple of ways you can do this.

1. If you have a simple text list, then you can use a server task to load systems by file, then as secondary action, deploy agent or whatever other action you need to take on them.

2. Set up a query as a table (you only need system name as the column) and filter it for the systems you want to query for.  Save the query, then set up a server task to run that query and as secondary action, deploy agent or whatever other action you need to take on them.