Understanding Policies; Types Of Policies - Novell ZENWORKS LINUX MANAGEMENT 7.3 IR2 - ADMINISTRATION GUIDE 02-12-2010 Administration Manual

Understanding Policies

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Novell ZENworks Linux Management policies provide a mechanism of uniformly configuring
applications. ZENworks policies let you configure system and application settings and then set them
as Lockdown or Default. Lockdown lets you restrict users from changing settings, so the application
must use the values that are configured in the policy. Default lets users change settings.
A policy applies to all users on assigned devices. You can use the Lockdown and Default
mechanisms to configure applications in such a way that critical and important settings are locked
and an appropriate default value is provided for other settings that might be relevant. Also, if you do
not want to enforce a particular setting, you can exclude that setting while creating or editing a
policy.
You can also use policies to modify configuration files and execute scripts or programs on managed
devices.
Policies can be used to create a set of configurations that you can deploy on any number of managed
devices, thereby providing the devices with a uniform configuration and eliminating the need to
configure each device separately. You can also create policies with different settings and assign them
appropriately to give a different configuration to a specific set of devices.
On managed devices, each policy type is enforced by a Policy Handler/Enforcer, which makes all
the configuration changes necessary to enforce and unenforce the settings in a given policy. The
Policy Handler/Enforcer executes with root privileges.
The following sections provide basic concepts you should understand as you begin using policies:
Section 15.1, "Types of Policies," on page 127
Section 15.2, "Assignments," on page 128
Section 15.3, "Schedules," on page 128
Section 15.4, "Groups," on page 129
Section 15.5, "System Requirements," on page 130
Section 15.6, "Effective Policies," on page 130

15.1 Types of Policies

ZENworks lets you create the following types of policies:
Epiphany policy: Lets you disable certain Epiphany Web browser settings, such as automatic
downloading and opening of files, loading contents from unsafe protocols, and accessing the
browser's History. The Epiphany policy also lets you configure a default home page, configure
cookie settings, and more. For step-by-step instructions to create this policy, see
"Epiphany Policy," on page
Evolution policy: Lets you disable certain Evolution
signatures, showing only subscribed folders, and overriding the server-supplied folder
namespace. The Evolution policy also lets you configure image settings, junk e-mail settings,
Mime types settings, and more. For step-by-step instructions to create this policy, see
Section 16.2, "Evolution Policy," on page
133.
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139.
Section 16.1,
e-mail client settings, such as
Understanding Policies
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