HP Cloud Endpoint Manager:
Quick Guide and Key Concepts
This guide will introduce you to HP Cloud Endpoint Manger and explain key concepts within the
software.
Definitions:
Configuration: A uniquely scoped value that maps to the device configuration elements. For example,
mouse speed, VDI connection, and keyboard language.
Template: A parameterized executable component (script, app installation, and so on) that can be
validated via an end-state.
Task: The instantiation of a template execution to any given group of devices.
Policy: A collection of configuration values, templates, and software checks defining a desired
configuration state. Policies can be applied dynamically based on the device’s state changes. Polices
can be tested or enforced against managed devices with results measurable in real-time.
Users: The people who will use and operate HPCEM. Add new domain users or local users from this
page.
Settings: A section that allows you to adjust preferences as well as view key account information. Use
this area to configure and assign roles, check on your HPCEM licenses, access audit logs, see the latest
system version, and review release notes.
Key HPCEM Themes:
Device Common Configuration
With common configuration, HPCEM delivers a simple to understand interface for managing system
and software configuration elements that is as capable and powerful as working with the endpoint
directly.
• Familiar “control panel” like experience
• Grouping of related items
• Simple and intuitive controls for advanced concepts
• Over 300 configuration attributes and growing
• Replaces the Profile Editor functionality within HPDM
• Experience will be ported to endpoint devices in FY’22
• Leverages same codebase for HPCEM and local configuration
Policy-Driven Management
Simplify endpoint management using a process of desired configuration modelling which transitions
customers from an implementation-based orientation to a results-based orientation.
• Policies can be associated with device groups for convenience
• Becomes powerful when associated with dynamic grouping
• Can be used to prescribe configuration and measure compliance
• Replaces concept of “rules” within HPDM
– Polices attached to the “All Devices” group replace the first-contact rule in HPDM
• Top-level dashboard visibility into policy status
• Customer created Polices and HP provided policies
• Policy comparison, conflict, and merging workflows
Templatization of Tasks
Templates provide an extensible framework for describing various management activities that uplifts
the user experience to focus on results over the implementation details underneath.
• Based loosely on Templates within HPDM
• Highly configurable form interface to describe task requirements
– Facilitate UI customization and localization
• Ability to parameterize underlying work, such as script execution
• Inherit the underlying mechanics for the action being performed
• Abstraction of the underlying OS, when possible
• Built in mechanism to capture and document task result types and provide descriptive errors
• Support verification of task correctness
• Maintains a security contract between the parameters and any associated software payloads
GETTING STARTED
HP Cloud Endpoint Manager’s Home page leverages a dashboard mechanic to provide relevant
information in real-time about the health of the application and your managed devices. The interface
is designed to be intuitive and customizable. “Cards” are the various graphs, charts, and metrics visible
on the dashboard. You will have the ability to configure and organize the card interface for your that
best fits your environment and HP will be introducing new cards as additional functionality is exposed.
One of the key benefits of the card interface is that all data elements are clickable and will navigate
you to more specific details on the given topic.
HPCEM provides a detailed view of your device inventory. The Devices pages allow you to view and
customize device telemetry data to easily drill down to specific devices or groups of devices within
your enterprise. The available inventory data you can search has been expanded, giving you full reach
into the whole configuration of the thin client devices. In addition to customizing the table view, you
have the option to group and organize devices in multiple ways.
The first two organizational concepts we are introducing are Dynamic Groups and Manual Groups.
Dynamic groups are organized based on device criteria such as the operating system of the device,
display resolution, whether secure boot is enabled, etc. HPCEM provides a rich expression system
where you can create custom queries and a multi-layer hierarchy based of these criteria. There are
two key benefits of dynamic groups. First, dynamic groups are self-organizing, and devices will
automatically move to the correct group based on changes in the device characteristics, which will
become a powerful automation feature as HP Cloud Endpoint Manager develops. Secondly, dynamic
groups can be used to associate policies (more on that later) with devices; and these policies will be
enforced and reported by the devices being managed.
Manual groups are a free form hierarchy that you can use to group devices. As the name suggests,
these are manually managed by you for organizing devices. Manually groups are analogous to a
folder-based structure. You will have the option of organizing devices in one or more folders; you can
think of these as buckets or indexes for easy access to a group of devices. Future updates will include
additional grouping structures and iterations to the Devices interface and functionality.
MANAGING DEVICES
From the Device page you can click into any device to get a more detailed view of its configuration and
if you need to update that specific configuration in real-time and deploy it to the managed device. We
built out the configuration UI in a model similar to a control panel in order to make it easy to locate
items of interest and declutter the interface of the items you are not working with. Those of you who
have used profile-based management in HP Device Manager in the past may recognize the influences
of that management style, however, HP Cloud Endpoint Manager pushes beyond that concept in
quickly.
The Policy Management feature is our first management concept within HP Cloud Endpoint Manager
because it is new and allows users to rethink device manage from being task-oriented to event-driven
and ideally automatable. As we noted earlier you can create policies and assign them to devices. Once
assigned, HP Cloud Endpoint Manager will report the status of the policy on the given devices and
allow you to resolve issues quickly and easily.
A policy is a collection of state information that you would like a device to conform to. In this first
iteration of HP Cloud Endpoint Manager, that state is represented as the configuration data within the
Device detail view. Any element about a device configuration can be used to create a policy and then
deploy that policy to one or more managed devices. More importantly, a policy can be applied to a
dynamic group of devices – so that as new devices enter the dynamic group, they will automatically
receive the policy. If for example, you wanted to keep track of all your devices and their security
posture for example, you could create a configuration that represents the intended state of the
devices, apply this state as a policy and see real-time reporting of devices and their adherence to this
desired state. We call this stateful view “compliance” and “non-compliance”.
You can create policies by creating it from scratch, cloning a specific device configuration, cloning
another policy or merging two policies together and then pruning the configuration to just the
elements that interest you. HP will also publish policies for common behaviors to help build out a
catalog of prescriptive configurations.
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