Simple searches allow us to quickly find computer inventory records based on their computer
name, location, associated user, and more.
Based on the results we can view details about those computers and perform management actions.
My name is Kyle- let's search for some computers.
Click Computers from the Jamf Pro Dashboard, and at the top we have a field to perform
simple searches.
One of the computers I recently enrolled is called Jamf Training, and we can find it simply
by entering its name and pressing return.
If we select the result we're brought to its inventory record, which provides all kinds
of information - which we'll explore in our video, Computer Inventory and Remote Commands.
Computer name is just one of many searchable attributes.
Let's open a new tab with cmd+t and navigate to docs.jamf.com/jamf-pro,
search for Simple Computer Searches with the magnifying glass button in the top right,
and select that page.
We'll see searchable attributes including the MAC address, serial number, building,
department, and more.
There's additional information on this page so make sure to check it out - for instance,
below search attribute information is a section on using wildcards - let's try these back
in Jamf Pro.
By default, simple searches will return exact values.
For example, if we just search for "Jamf" instead of "Jamf Training", no results will
return because there aren't any computers exactly named "Jamf".
However, if we search for Jamf*, * being the symbol for a wildcard, Jamf Training will
show up because it begins with Jamf, and the wildcard will return anything following that
value.
If we put wildcards at the beginning and end of Jamf, *jamf*, Jamf Training will show up
along with Test Jamf Training because the computer names contain the word Jamf.
This logic should be familiar to those who work with databases, but if you don't and
want to change this behavior, select your user in the top right, select Account Preferences,
and click Search Preferences.
Again, the default is exact match, but these menus allow us to change that behavior.
Modern search engines like Google tend to display results based on what's contained
in the query - if that's more comfortable, flip Exact Match to Contains or Starts With
with these menus - I'm going to change Computers from Exact Match to Contains.
Once that's configured, click Save and return to the Computers tab.
Now, if we search for jamf without wildcards, we'll see all results containing the value
Jamf.
This doesn't show us much more than the computer names - what if we want to know the building
or user associated with this device without scouring the inventory records?
We could select each computer and review the User and Location data, but that would be
tedious.
To see this information at a glance, we can change the inventory display results by navigating
to Settings > Computer Management > Inventory Display.
Click Edit, and we can select additional display results.
There are a few fields I like to see in my simple searches, like the last time the computer
checked in with the server, so let's select that option.
The tabs along the top contain more fields, like the serial number under Hardware, the
operating system version under Operating System, and which building, department, and user the
computer belongs to under User and Location.
Once the display settings have been configured to our liking, click Save and return to the
Computers tab.
We've been searching for computers based on their name - let's try finding a group of
computers based on their building.
I'm going to enter Minneapolis in the search field and press return.
This will return any computers either in the Minneapolis building or with Minneapolis somewhere
in the inventory record - for example, a computer named Minneapolis Server will also be included.
Notice the results are much more detailed this time around, because we modified Inventory
Display in Settings.
We can verify the computers are in the Minneapolis building by viewing the results, or by selecting
a computer and looking under User and Location.
Here we see Alicia Rodriguez's computer is in Minneapolis.
We can also sort our results by any of the displayed criteria - like the computer name,
which will sort alphabetically, or operating system version, which will give an ascending
or descending list of version numbers.
At the bottom of the page we have the option to export the search as a report.
We can choose a format - CSV, text file, or XML document.
I'm going to leave this as a CSV and click next.
There are a few inventory items we can base our report on - let's leave this at computers
and click next.
The report will appear in the Downloads folder, and opening it will show our computers along
with the display criteria specified in Settings.
Simple searches are great for finding computers based on single sets of criteria like their
name, location, user, or communication with Jamf Pro.
Simple computer searches function similarly to simple mobile device searches, and we can
generate reports by exporting them with the formats mentioned earlier.
Thanks for watching, and we'll see you soon.