Host groups vs attributes
Both and provide mechanisms for organizing data to facilitate reporting and inventory browsing. Use the following list to determine the best approach for your Portal environment.
Use attributes as the preferred organization mechanism because they span most object types and are not limited to hosts and host groups.
Assign attribute values to a diverse set of objects (such as hosts, arrays, and switches) for easy Inventory access.
Enable further filtering of host groups by assigning attributes to select hosts, such as backup clients.
Enforce security controls, limiting a user's access to a subset of the hosts in the database. A user has an assigned home host group, which identifies the hierarchy of hosts a user can access.
Group hosts that naturally belong together and typically will be reported on as a group.