Machines

Policy Management > Machines

The Machines page assigns policies to individual machines. The list of machine IDs you can select depends on the machine ID / group ID filter and the scope you are using.

Machine Compliance Status

The middle pane shows the policy compliance status for each machine, in the following order of precedence.

- In Compliance - The agent settings for this machine match the settings of all policies assigned to this machine.

- Out of Compliance - At least one agent setting does not match at least one active policy assigned to this machine.

- Marked for Deployment - At least one policy assigned to this machine has been changed and is scheduled to be deployed.

- Overridden - At least one agent setting does not match at least one active policy assigned to this machine, due to a user override. An override occurs when an agent setting is set manually by any VSA user anywhere in the system. If even a single agent setting is overridden in a policy assigned to a machine, no other agent settings in that policy are enforced on that machine. Other policies assigned to the same machine remain enforced.

Note: Click the policy status icon to display the Policy Matrix > Matrix Details window for that machine.

Actions

• Assign - Assigns policies to selected machines.
• Clear Override - Clears Policy Management policy overrides on selected machines. After clicking Clear Override, the user must click Reprocess Policies to ensure the policy objects that were overridden before are reapplied to the agent. A Policy Management policy override condition exists if agent settings for a machine have been set manually, outside of the Policy Management module. For example, making changes to the agent menu of a machine using the Agent Menu page in the Agent module sets up an override condition for that agent machine. Policy Management policies will be ignored from then on. Clearing an override enables applied Policy Management policies to take effect.
• Reprocess Policies - All policy objects assigned to a machine can be re-marked for deployment and reprocessed as though they were assigned to that machine for the first time. To reduce unnecessary server activity and network traffic, each policy object is deployed only once to a machine, even if additional policies are assigned to that machine that include the same policy object. If agent settings for a machine are unexpected, use this option to re-deploy all policy objects assigned to a machine.
• Refresh

Right Hand Pane

The right hand pane is divided into two horizontal sections.

• Policies Assigned to this Machine - Displays policies assigned by machine.
• Policies Assigned to this Machine by Association with Organizations/Machine Groups - Displays policies assigned by organization and machine group.

Actions

• Move Up and Move Down - You can re-order the sequence of policies assigned to the machine.
• Remove - You can remove policies assigned to the machine.

Policy Assignment Rules

• Multiple policies can be assigned to any organization or machine group or machine.
• A machine with multiple policies assigned to it has conflicting policies when both specify the same policy type.
  • Multiple policies are not in conflict if different policy types are specified.
  • Policy types that combine with each other include:
    • Event log alerts, distribute files, monitor sets, and agent procedures.
• Policies are assigned by organization/machine group using the Organizations/Machine Groups page.
  • Policies assigned to a child node in an organization hierarchy have precedence over policies assigned to a parent node in the same organization hierarchy.
  • Unless a child node policy conflicts with it, policies assigned to a node apply to all descendant nodes.
  • When multiple policies are assigned to the same organization or machine group, the assigned policies have precedence in the order listed.
• Policies can be assigned by machine using the Machines page.
  • Policies assigned by machine have precedence over all policies assigned to that machine by organization/machine group.
  • Policies assigned by machine have precedence in the order listed.
• All policy assignments can be overridden by changing agent settings manually throughout the VSA.
  • Manual changes have precedence over all policies assignments.
• A policy can be associated with a view definition in the Policies page.
  • When machine is assigned to a policy by organization or by machine group an associated view filters the machines associated with a policy. If a machine is not a member of the view definition, then the policy will not be propagated to that machine.
  • When a machine is assigned to a policy by machine, then the view associated with a policy is ignored and the policy will be propagated to that machine.
  • Associating a policy with a view does not, by itself, assign a policy to any machine.
  • The order of precedence for views depends on the policies they are associated with.