IoT Platform allows you to group devices. You can use device groups to manage devices across products. This topic describes how to create and manage device groups in the IoT Platform console.

Background information

Usage notes on device groups:
  • Each Alibaba Cloud account can create up to 1,000 groups and subgroups.
  • Each group can have up to 100 subgroups.
  • Groups can be nested in only three layers, which are groups, subgroups, and child subgroups.
  • Each subgroup belongs to only one parent group.
  • You can create or delete the nested relationship of groups, but cannot modify the nested relationship.
  • You cannot delete a group that has one or more subgroups. You must delete all the subgroups before you delete the parent group.
  • You can search for groups and subgroups by name. Fuzzy match is supported.

Create a group

  1. Log on to the IoT Platform console.
  2. On the Overview page, find the instance and click the instance name to go to the Instance Details page.
    Notice Enterprise Edition instances are available only in the China (shanghai) and Japan (Tokyo) region. If your IoT Platform is not activated in the China (shanghai) or Japan (Tokyo) region, skip this step.
    Overview
  3. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Devices > Groups. The Groups page appears.
  4. Click Create Group. In the dialog box that appears, set the parameters and click OK.
    Parameter Description
    Parent Group Select a parent group.
    • If you select Groups, the group to be created is a parent group.
    • If you select a specific group, the group to be created is a subgroup of the selected group.
    Group Name Specify a name for the group. The name must be 4 to 30 characters in length, and can contain letters, digits, and underscores (_).

    The group name must be unique within your Alibaba Cloud account and cannot be modified after it is created.

    Group Description Specify the description of the group.

    After the group is created, you can manage the group and devices in the group on the Group Details page.

Manage a group

  1. Choose Devices > Groups. On the Device List tab, find the group that you want to manage and click View in the Actions column. The Group Details page appears.
  2. Optional: On the Group Information tab, add a tag to the group. A tag is a custom identifier that helps you manage groups. For more information, see Add group tags.
  3. Click the Device List tab to view devices in the group or add devices to the group.
    • Add a device.
      Notice
      • You can add up to 1,000 devices at a time. You can add up to 100,000 devices to each group.
      • You can add a device to a maximum of 10 groups.

      Click Add Device to Group. In the Add Device to Group panel, search for the device that you want to add, select the device, and then click OK.

      In the Add Device to Group panel, click All to view the list of all devices. You can also click Selected to view the list of selected devices.

    • Search for devices whose information you want to view.

      Select All from the drop-down list next to Add Device to Group to view all devices of the product. You can also select a product from the drop-down list to view devices of the product.

      You can enter at least five characters in the search box to search for devices by the prefix of device names. Fuzzy match is supported. For example, if you enter the keyword Dtest, the search results may be the devices named Dtest1, Dtest2, and Dtest3 within your Alibaba Cloud account.

  4. Optional: On the Group Details page, choose Subgroups > Create Group to create a subgroup.

    Subgroups are used for finer-grained device management. For example, you can create subgroups such as Smart_kitchen and Smart_bedroom for a group named Smart_home. This helps you separately manage kitchen equipment and bedroom equipment. Perform the following steps to create a subgroup:

    1. In the Create Group dialog box, select a parent group, enter a name and a description for the subgroup, and then click OK.
    2. On the Subgroups tab, find the subgroup that you created and click View in the Actions column.
    3. On the Group Details page of the subgroup, click the Device List tab. Then, click Add Device to Group and add devices to the subgroup.
    After you create the subgroup and add devices to the subgroup, you can manage the subgroup and the devices in the subgroup. You can also create child subgroups for the subgroup.