Overview; What Is A Policy; What Is A Policy Group - Novell ZENWORKS 10 CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT SP3 - POLICY MANAGEMENT REFERENCE 10.3 30-03-2010 Management Manual

Overview

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Novell ZENworks 10 Configuration Management provides policies to configure operating
system settings and select application settings. By applying a policy to multiple devices, you can
ensure that all of the devices have the same configuration.
The following sections contain additional information:
Section 1.1, "What Is a Policy?," on page 11
Section 1.2, "What Is a Policy Group?," on page 11
Section 1.3, "Understanding the Policy Types," on page 12
Section 1.4, "Understanding the Features of a Policy," on page 12

1.1 What Is a Policy?

A policy is a rule that controls a range of hardware and software configuration settings on the
managed devices. For example, an administrator can create policies to control browser bookmarks
available in the browser, printers to access, and security and system configuration settings on the
managed devices.
You can use the policies to create a set of configurations that can be assigned to any number of
managed devices. It helps you to provide the devices with a uniform configuration, and it eliminates
the need to configure each device separately.
You can assign a policy directly to a device or a user. You can also assign the policy to a folder or
group where the user or device is a member. Assigning a policy to device groups rather than device
folders is the preferred way, because a device can be a member of multiple device groups, but it can
be a member of only one device folder.
On managed devices, each policy type is enforced by a Policy Handler or Enforcer, which makes all
the configuration changes necessary to enforce or unenforce the settings in a given policy.

1.2 What Is a Policy Group?

A policy group is a collection of one or more policies. Creating policy groups eases the
administration efforts in managing policies. You can create policy groups and assign them to
managed devices the same way you would assign individual policies.
Because the policy inherits the group's assignments, managing a policy group is easier than
managing individual policies. For example, if multiple policies are included in a policy group and
the policy group is assigned to a device or a device group, then all the policies included in the policy
group are automatically assigned to the device or device group at the same time. You need not
individually assign each policy to a device or a device group.
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