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IoT Security Administrator’s Guide

Custom Attributes

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Custom Attributes

Create custom attributes and apply them to devices in your inventory.

IoT Security provides a large number of attributes for the devices it discovers and learns. A few of these are the device model, vendor, OS, VLAN ID, risk level, and location. For the full list, see the columns for the inventory table on the Devices page. When viewing the devices in your inventory, you can sort and filter by these device attributes, making it easier to find and track those of interest. However, if these attributes don’t accommodate all your needs, you can create custom attributes that better align with the device attributes you use. IoT Security allows up to 50 custom attributes per tenant.

Create a Custom Attribute and Apply It Automatically

You can configure a custom attribute with a conditional statement, so that IoT Security automatically applies a value when a condition is met.

Before you start, make sure you’ve already created and saved one or more data filters on the Devices page (AssetsDevices). You will use a filter in the “IF” clause of each IF/THEN statement, indicating the condition that’s required for IoT Security to apply the value in the “THEN” clause to devices.

The automatic assignment of custom attributes through the use of simple IF/THEN statements provides an efficient approach to their application. For example, when devices are managed by different departments in an organization, custom attributes can indicate which department manages which device. To do this, first create a data filter that groups together all the device profiles that a particular department manages. Then create another data filter for all the device profiles that another department manages. Continue as necessary until all the devices are divvied up by profile among the various departments that manage them. Then create a custom attribute with conditional statements that say IF a device matches <filter-1>, then apply <name of department-1> to it; IF another device matches <filter-2>, then apply <name of department-2> to it; and so on. After you're done, you can then sort the devices in your inventory on the Devices page by the departments that manage them.

(Optional) Create a filter to use in the attribute.
If you don’t already have a filter to use in the custom attribute, log in to the IoT Security portal and select Devices. Define a data filter at the top of the page and then save it.
Create a custom attribute that IoT Security will apply to devices automatically.
1. Select SettingsCustom Attributes+ (Create Custom Attribute).
2. Enter the following in the Create Custom Attribute pop-up panel that appears:
  Attribute Name: Enter a name for the custom attribute. It cannot contain special characters and it cannot be longer than 50 characters.
  Default Value (Optional): Enter a value for IoT Security to apply by default to all the devices in your inventory. If you don’t include a default value, IoT Security will enter N/A in the field for this attribute.
  Value Automation (Optional): Add an IF/THEN conditional statement to determine when a value is applied to the device attribute. Choose a previously defined filter for the IF a device matches this filter field and then enter a value in the THEN apply this value to the attribute field. You can add more IF/THEN statements (up to five). The logical relationship between them is “or” and their order is important because IoT Security checks the conditions from the top down and will apply the value of the first match it finds.
Save the custom attribute configuration.
IoT Security searches through its inventory for any devices that match the condition—or one of several possible conditions—in the Value Automation section and then applies the prescribed value. This search can take several minutes to complete. Going forward, IoT Security applies the value to any device whose condition matches that in the attribute configuration.

Manually Apply Custom Attribute Values to a Device

In addition to creating custom attributes that IoT Security automatically applies to devices based on specified conditions, you can create custom attributes and manually apply values to them per device yourself.

Create a custom attribute whose value you will manually apply to devices.
1. Log in to the IoT Security portal and select SettingsCustom Attributes+ (Create Custom Attribute).
2. Enter the following in the Create Custom Attribute pop-up panel that appears:
  Attribute Name: Enter a name for the custom attribute. It cannot contain special characters and it cannot be longer than 50 characters.
  Default Value (Optional): Enter a value for IoT Security to apply by default to all the devices in your inventory. If you don’t include a default value, IoT Security will enter N/A in the field for this attribute.
  Value Automation (Optional): Do not configure this section.
Save the custom attribute configuration.
Apply the custom attribute to a device.
1. Select AssetsDevices and use the search, filter, and sort tools to display the devices in the inventory to which you want to apply the attribute you just created.
2. Click the device name, which opens the Device Details page.
3. Click Edit next to Custom Attributes.
4. Remove any you don’t want to apply to the device and edit or add any you do.
5. Save your configuration changes.

View Devices by Custom Attribute

After applying custom attributes to devices, you can then show custom attribute columns on the Devices page. Click the column icon (

) and select one or more custom attributes whose columns you want to display on the page.

The selected columns appear in the inventory section of the Devices page.

To hide the column, click the column icon again and clear the check boxes for custom attributes you no longer want to see.

Edit Custom Attributes and Delete Them from Devices

To edit or delete a custom attribute, select SettingsCustom Attributes, click the three vertical dots at the far right of the a custom attribute, and then click either Delete or Edit.

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