Policy Management

Policies are a set of configurations in WSO2 Enterprise Mobility Manager (WSO2 EMM) that is bundled inside WSO2 IoT Server. Policies trigger events based on the data gathered or inform the user when the device is not responding as expected. 

In this tutorial, you create a policy and see how it's applied on the device.

Let's get started!

Add a policy

1. Click Add under POLICIES.
   

2. Click the policy for Android.

3. Create your policy. In this tutorial, let's create a passcode policy.
   After defining the settings, click CONTINUE.

   • A profile in the context of WSO2 IoT Server refers to a collection of policies.
     For example, in this use case you are only creating one policy that is the passcode policy. If you want to, you can add an encryption policy setting policy too. All these policies will be bundled as a profile and then pushed to the devices.
   • If you want to know more about each policy setting, hover your mouse pointer over the help tip.
     Example:
     
4. Define the user groups that the passcode policy needs to be assigned to:
   Select the set user role/s or set user/s option and then select the users/roles from the item list.
   Let's select set user role/s and then select ANY.
5. Click CONTINUE.
6. Define the policy name and the description of the policy.

7. Click PUBLISH to save and publish the configured profile as an active policy to the database.

   • If you SAVE the configured profile, it will be in the inactive state and will not be applied to any devices.
   • If you PUBLISH the configured profile of policies, it will be in the active state. The active policies will be enforced only on new devices that enroll with Device Cloud based on the policy enforcement criteria. It will not be applied to devices that are already enrolled with Device Cloud.

8. To publish the policy to the existing devices, click APPLY CHANGES TO DEVICES from the policy management page.

Publish policies

Follow the steps given below to publish a policy:

1. Click View under POLICIES to get the list of the available policies.
   

2. Click Select to select the policy or policies that are not in the publish state and you wish to publish.
   

3. Click Publish.
   

   Click YES to confirm that you want to publish the policy. Now your policy is published and is in the active/updated state. Therefore, the policy will only be applied on devices that enroll newly with WSO2 IoT Server and not on the already enrolled devices.
   

Unpublish policies

Follow the steps given below to unpublish a policy:

1. Click View under POLICIES to get the list of the available policies.
   

2. Click Select to select the policy or policies you wish to unpublish.
   

3. Click Unpublish.
   

4. Click YES to confirm that you want to unpublish the policy. Now your policy is unpublished and is in the inactive/updated state. Therefore, the policy will not be applied on devices that enroll newly with WSO2 IoT Server.
   

Verify the policy enforced on a device

To see if the policy is applied on your device, go to the device management console:

1. Click View under DEVICES.
   
2. Click on your device to view the device details.
3. Click Policy Compliance.
   You will see the policy that is currently applied to your device.

Manage the policy priority order

You can change the priority order of the policies and make sure the policy that you want is applied on devices that register with WSO2 IoT Server. 

For example: Let's say you have two passcode policies with different settings and based on the policy enforcement criteria either of these can be applied to a device. You can then set the priority order of the policies and make sure that the one with the highest priority is applied on devices.

Follow the steps given below:

1. Click View under POLICIES to get the list of the available policies.
   
2. Click POLICY PRIORITY.
   
3. Manage the policy priority:
   • Drag and drop the policies to prioritize the policies accordingly.

   • Manage the policy priority order by defining the order using the edit box.

     If you change the policy order using the edit box the policy currently in that order will swap places with the one you edited.

     Example: If you want to change Passcode-Policy-1 as the highest priority (1), then Passcode-Policy-2 (currently in 1) will swap places with Passcode-Policy-1 (currently in 2).

   

4. Click SAVE NEW PRIORITY ORDER to save the changes. The changes you made will only be applicable for new devices that enroll with WSO2 IoT Server.
   Click APPLY CHANGES to push the changes, to the existing devices. The changes you made will be pushed to the existing devices and also be applicable to new devices that enroll with WSO2 IoT Server.

   Do not click APPLY CHANGES unless you have completed all the required changes.

Updating a Policy

Follow the instructions below to edit a policy:

1. Click View under POLICIES to get the list of the available policies.

2. On the policy, you wish to edit, click on the  icon.
3. Edit the policy:
   
   1. Edit current profile and click CONTINUE.
   2. Edit assignment groups and click CONTINUE.
   3. Optionally, edit the policy name and description.

4. Click SAVE to save the configured profile or click SAVE & PUBLISH to save and publish the configured profile as an active policy to the database.

   If you SAVE the configured profile it will be in the non-active state. Therefore the policy will not be taken to account when the IoT server filters policies, to enforce a suitable policy on a device that registers with WSO2 IoTS.

   If you SAVE & PUBLISH the configured profile of policies it will be in the active state. The active policies will be enforced on new devices that enroll with WSO2 IoTS based on the Policy enforcement criteria.

   Do not click APPLY CHANGES unless you have completed all the changes required.