---
title:  Using Member Groups
---

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<%=vars.product_name_long%> allows you to organize your cluster members into logical member groups.

The use of member groups in <%=vars.product_name_long%> is optional. The benefit of using member groups is the ability to coordinate certain operations on members based on logical group membership. For example, by defining and using member groups you can:

-   Alter a subset of configuration properties for a specific member or members. See [alter runtime](../../tools_modules/gfsh/command-pages/alter.html#topic_7E6B7E1B972D4F418CB45354D1089C2B) in `gfsh`.
-   Perform certain disk operations like disk-store compaction across a member group. See [Disk Store Commands](../../tools_modules/gfsh/quick_ref_commands_by_area.html#topic_1ACC91B493EE446E89EC7DBFBBAE00EA) for a list of commands.
-   Manage specific indexes or regions across all members of a group.
-   Start and stop multi-site (WAN) services such as gateway senders and gateway receivers across a member group.
-   Deploy or undeploy JAR applications on all members in a group.
-   Execute functions on all members of a specific group.

You define group names in the `groups` property of your member's `gemfire.properties` file or upon member startup in `gfsh`.

**Note:**
Any roles defined in the currently existing `roles` property will now be considered a group. If you wish to add membership roles to your cluster, you should add them as member groups in the `groups` property. The `roles` property has been deprecated in favor of using the `groups` property.

To add a member to a group, add the name of a member group to the `gemfire.properties` file of the member prior to startup or you can start up a member in `gfsh` and pass in the `--groups` argument at startup time.

A single member can belong to more than one group.

Member groups can also be used to organize members from either a client's perspective or from a peer member's perspective. See [Organizing Peers into Logical Member Groups](../../topologies_and_comm/p2p_configuration/configuring_peer_member_groups.html) and [Organizing Servers Into Logical Member Groups](../../topologies_and_comm/cs_configuration/configure_servers_into_logical_groups.html) for more information. On the client side, you can supply the member group name when configuring a client's connection pool. Use the &lt;pool server-group&gt; element in the client's cache.xml.