Infrastructure Taxonomy (Groups)

When you manage hundreds of servers, a flat list is useless. Netcatty provides two powerful tools for taxonomy: Strict Hierarchy (Groups) and Fluid Context (Tags).

This guide helps you design a Vault structure that scales.

Strategy 1: The Geographical Tree (Physical)

Best for: MSPs (Managed Service Providers) or Multi-Datacenter orgs.

📂 Vault
  📂 US-East (N. Virginia)
    📂 VPC-Primary
      📂 Public Subnet
        - Bastion-01
        - LB-01
      📂 Private Subnet
        - App-01
        - DB-01
  📂 EU-West (Ireland)
    ...

Pros: No ambiguity. A server is physically located in one place. Cons: Hard to "Patch all DB servers" across regions.

Strategy 2: The Functional Tree (Logical)

Best for: Platform Engineering teams.

📂 Vault
  📂 Databases
    📂 Postgres
      - Primary
      - Read Replica
    📂 Redis
  📂 Web Layer
    📂 Nginx
  📂 Workers

Pros: Easy to find "All Databases". Cons: Ignores network topology (Bastions, VPCs).

The Hybrid Approach (Recommended)

Use Groups for Ownership/Geography and Tags for Function.

Structure:

• Group: Client A / Production / US-East
• Host: db-01
  • Tags: #postgres, #primary, #needs-backup, #os-ubuntu

Workflow:

• To bill Client A? Open the Group Client A.
• To patch all Postgres servers globally? Click the #postgres tag in the sidebar.

Smart Group Management

Drag and Drop

Netcatty allows for visual reorganization of your infrastructure:

• Move to Group: Drag a Host entry into any Folder in the sidebar or grid view.
• Nested Folders: Drag a Folder into another Folder to create nested hierarchies.
• Reorder: Drag items within the same group to customize your connection list.

Tagging

Tags provide a powerful way to categorize hosts across different groups. You can add tags within the Host Settings panel. Once tagged, clicking a tag in the sidebar instantly filters your view to only show hosts with that specific tag.