To release and distribute a policy

Purpose

Perform this procedure to release a policy for distribution when a policy is in the Draft configuration mode and to distribute a policy to individual NEs or to multiple NEs in a Policy Distribution Group.

Review the Distribution considerations information in this chapter before starting this procedure. This procedure assumes you have created the required policy before you start this procedure. Perform To create a policy distribution group first if you intend to distribute the policy using a Policy Distribution Group.

Note: You do not need to explicitly distribute a policy; a policy is distributed to a device when it is assigned to a resource on the device.

You can configure the NFM-P to automatically distribute policies to applicable NEs upon release. See the procedure to configure NFM-P system preferences in the NSP System Administrator Guide for more information.

Steps
Select a policy for release and distribution
 
1 

Choose Policies→Policy Type from the NFM-P main menu, where Policy Type is the type of policy that you want to release and distribute. The appropriate policy manager form opens.

2 

Click Search and select a policy.

3 

Double-click on the policy to view or edit the current policy parameters, if required.

Note: If you change any parameters on a policy that is in a Released Configuration mode, the configuration mode changes back to Draft. You need to re-release the policy in order to distribute the policy changes.

4 

Perform one of the following:

  1. If the policy is in a Draft Configuration Mode, go to Step 5 .

  2. If the policy is in a Released Configuration Mode, click Distribute. The Distribute Instance form opens. Go to Step 6 .

Note: The policy configuration mode is displayed in the Configuration Mode column on the policy manager form.

Release the policy
 
5 

Perform one of the following to release the policy for distribution:

  1. Click Properties. The policy configuration form opens.

    1. Click Switch Mode beside the Configuration Mode parameter. A dialog box appears.

    2. Click Yes. The policy configuration mode changes to Released and the Release Policy Instance form opens.

  2. Click Release. The policy configuration mode changes to Released and the Release Policy Instance form opens.

    Each NE that has a local definition of the policy with its Distribution Mode set to Sync with Global is listed in the Selected Objects panel. These are ready for distribution.

    Additional NEs that are eligible for policy distribution are listed in the Available Objects panel.

Select the NEs for distribution
 
6 

Select the NEs for distribution in the Available Object panel and click on the right-arrow button. The chosen object(s) moves to the Selected Objects panel and is ready for distribution.

Note: The Available Objects and Selected Objects panels contain a column titled Local Policy Exists. This indicates if local definitions of the policy already exist on the eligible NEs.

Distribute the policy
 
7 

Perform one of the following to distribute the policy:

  1. To distribute the policy to the individual NEs, go to Step 8.

  2. To distribute the policy to multiple NEs in a Policy Distribution Group:

    Note: If you use the Policy Distribution Group method to distribute the policy, no additional NEs can be added to the policy distribution unless you modify the Policy Distribution Group boundaries.

    See To create a policy distribution group for information about configuring Policy Distribution Groups.

    1. Select the Policy Distribute Group option from the drop-down menu and click Search. The available Policy Distribute Groups are displayed in the list.

    2. Select the appropriate Policy Distribution Group; go to Step 8.

8 

Close the form. The policy manager form reappears.

Verify the policy distribution
 
9 

To view the NEs to which the policy has been distributed:

  1. Choose a policy.

  2. Click Properties. The policy configuration form opens.

  3. Click on the Local Definitions tab to view the list of NEs to which the policy has been distributed.

10 

Close the policy manager form.

End of steps