US Patent 11777793 Location criteria for security groups

Some embodiments provide a method for distributing a group definition for a group of machines. The method receives the group definition, which includes (i) a span of the group that specifies a set of sites at which the group is to be used and (ii) a set of criteria for machines to be included in the group. The set of criteria includes at least a location criteria specifying one or more sites. The method distributes the group definition to each site in the set of sites. At each site in the set of sites, a local network control system of the site determines a set of machines in the group based on the set of criteria. Only machines in the one or more sites specified by the location criteria are determined to be in the group.