Managing rules

You can manage the rules associated with your Absolute account by editing their settings, activating or deactivating them, or deleting a rule when it's no longer required.

Note that if a rule is assigned to one or more device groups that you are not granted access to, you can't manage the rule.

For specific details about editing or deleting Offline Freeze rules, see Managing Offline Freeze rules.

To manage rules, your user role needs to be granted Manage permissions for Rules.

For Action rules, note that depending on the action included in the rule, the following permission may also be required when editing the rule:

  • Perform permission for Freeze Device
  • Manage permission for Policies
  • Perform permission for Reach Script
  • Perform permission for Send Message

If your user role is not granted the required permission to edit a particular Action rule, the rule is read-only.

To edit a rule:

  1. On the navigation bar, click Policies > Rules.
  2. [Optional] On the Rules sidebar, click the applicable rule category.
  3. [Optional] To hide all inactive rules, clear the Show inactive checkbox.

  4. Click the name of the rule that you want to edit. The rule opens in a dialog.

    You can also edit the rule from the rule overview dialog.

  5. Edit the rule settings as required depending on the rule you're editing:

    • Location
    • Action

      If a field in the Rule area shows a red internal identifier, a custom device field or Custom data point used by the rule was deleted. Similarly, if one of the following labels shows in the Action area, the specified item was deleted:

      • Deleted group

      • Deleted script

      The Action rule is now deactivated. Before you can reactivate it, you need to replace the deleted item.

    • Alert

  6. To save your changes and activate the rule (if its inactive), click Save and activate. Otherwise, click Save.

The rule is updated, and a Rule updated event is logged to Event History.

To save time, you can copy an existing rule, and then edit it to create a new rule.

If an Action rule shows a icon, it has a deleted item. Replace or remove the deleted item before copying the rule.

To copy a rule:

  1. On the navigation bar, click Policies > Rules.
  2. [Optional] On the Rules sidebar, click the applicable rule category.
  3. [Optional] To hide all inactive rules, clear the Show inactive checkbox.
  4. For the rule that you want to copy, hover over its row and click . A copy of the rule opens in a dialog.
  5. [Optional] Update the rule name to remove "Copy of" and assign it a unique name.

  6. Edit the rule settings as required depending on the rule you copied:

  7. To activate the rule now, click Save and activate. To activate it later, click Save.

The rule is created, and a Rule created event is logged to Event History.

When a rule is inactive, you can activate it. Inactive rules are indicated by a slider that is set to Off (gray).

If a deactivated Action rule shows the icon, an item referenced in the rule was deleted. You will need to remove or replace the deleted item before you can activate the rule again. See Editing rules.

To activate a rule:

  1. On the navigation bar, click Policies > Rules.
  2. [Optional] On the Rules sidebar, click the applicable rule category.
  3. Next to the rule that you want to activate, click its slider to set it to On (green).

The rule is activated, and a Rule updated event is logged to Event History. Going forward, an email notification will be sent if the rule's conditions are met.

If a rule is active, you can deactivate it. Active rules are indicated by a slider that is set to On (green).

To deactivate a rule:

  1. On the navigation bar, click Policies > Rules.
  2. [Optional] On the Rules sidebar, click the applicable rule category.
  3. [Optional] To show only active rules, clear the Show inactive checkbox.
  4. Next to the rule that you want to deactivate, click its slider to set it to Off (gray).

The rule is deactivated, and a Rule updated event is logged to Event History. Going forward, no email notification will be sent if the rule's conditions are met.

To delete a rule:

  1. On the navigation bar, click Policies > Rules.
  2. [Optional] On the Rules sidebar, click the applicable rule category.
  3. For the rule that you want to delete, hover over its row and click . Alternatively, you can also open the rule and click Delete.

  4. On the confirmation dialog, click Delete.

The rule is deleted, and a Rule deleted event is logged to Event History.