13.1 How the Administration Server Enforces Policy

You can associate each task, or administration operation, with one or more policies. When you perform an operation associated with a policy, the Administration server runs the policy and enforces the specified rules. If the server detects a policy violation, it returns an error message. If the server does not detect a policy violation, it completes the operation. You can limit the scope of a policy by associating it with a particular ActiveView or Assistant Admin group.

If an operation is associated with more than one policy, the Administration server enforces the policies in alphabetical order. That is, Policy A will be enforced before Policy B, regardless of the specified rules.

To ensure that your policies do not conflict with each other, use the following guidelines:

  • Name the policies so that they execute in the proper order

  • Verify that each policy does not interfere with validations or actions performed by other policies

  • Thoroughly test custom policies before implementing them in your production environment

The Administration server enters the policy status in the audit log each time a policy runs. These log entries record the return code, associated operations, objects acted on, and whether the custom policy succeeded.

WARNING:Policies are run using the Administration service account. Since the service account has administrator permissions, policies have full access to all enterprise data. Thus, assistant administrators associated with the built-in Manage Policies and Automation Triggers role could obtain more power than you intended.