All enterprise-Q rules have the same basic structure. A rule amounts to one or more if-statements. Each
if-statement consists of the following five (5) elements:
-
Data Type – The data element from the Target machine used for comparison.
-
Condition – Specifies how the Data Type is compared to the Value (see below for the definition of the 'Value' field).
-
Value – Value used for comparison. For example, if the Data Type selected is 'IP Address', then the Value should
be an IP address or IP address range used to compare against the Target's IP address.
-
Operation – How to proceed if the data from the Target matches the Condition/Value.
-
Action – Specifies what to do. This varies according to the rule being processed. For example, for the
Endpoint Login Upgrade Rule, the Action is either 'Upgrade' or 'Do Not Upgrade'. For the Endpoint Installation Gateway Rule, the
Action is one or more Gateways to which the Target will be assigned.
Once an Action is determined, no other statements in the rule are processed. This is true for all rules except for the Endpoint Login
Subscribe Rule, in which case every statement in the rule is processed to determine the entire set of subscription lists (Profile Managers) to
which the Endpoint will be subscribed.
All of this may sound complicated, but its really very simple and straightforward. The enterprise-Q web interface guides you through the
creation of each statement. When a string mask is used as a value, it does help to know something about Perl regular expressions. But the
enterprise-Q web interface even includes a regular expression generator for assisting in this regard.
To illustrate how simple rules really are, here is an example of the Endpoint Installation Gateway Rule:
In the example above, the rule dictates the Endpoint's Tivoli Gateway assignment based on the Target IP address.
Now, here's some more details about each element of an enterprise-Q if-statement:
Data Types
Valid Data Types include:
- Computer Name – Use the Target's computer name for comparison.
- UserID - Use the username logged into the Windows Domain for comparison.
- NT Domain - Use the Target's NT Domain for comparison.
- DNS Domain - Use the Target's DNS Domain for comparison.
- IP Gateway - Use the Target's IP Gateway for comparison.
- IP Address - Use the Target's IP Address for comparison.
- OS Type/Interp - Use the Target's Operating System (OS)/Interpreter for comparison.
- Endpoint Label – Use the Target's Endpoint Label for comparison.
- Endpoint Version – Version of the Endpoint.
- Tivoli Gateway - Use the Target's Tivoli Gateway for comparison.
- Default – Default action for the rule.
Not all Data Types are available for every rule.
Conditions
Valid conditions include:
- Contains – Data from Target contains the string (or regular expression) specified in Value.
- Does Not Contain – Data from Target does not contain the string specified in Value.
- In – Value contains data from Target.
- Not In – Value does not contain data from Target.
- Equals – Data from Target equals Value.
- Not Equals – Data from Target does not equal Value.
- Less Than – Data from Target is less than Value.
- Greater Than – Data from Target is greater than Value.
Values
The value depends on the data type selected. This is a text field and allows the user to enter any value they wish.
The value field includes an 'edit' button that assists the user with selecting an appropriate value depending on the
data type chosen. For example, if the data type is as follows, the edit box allows the user to enter:
- IP Address - One or more IP addresses or set of IP address ranges
- Tivoli Gateway - Select from list of Gateways
- Interp - Select from list of Tivoli interp types
- Operating System - Select from list of valid operating systems
- All Other Data Types - Regular expression assistent
Operations
Valid operations include:
- And – Process the next statement in the rule to determine if it is also true.
- Or – Proceed to the 'Then' operation and take the specified action.
- Then – Take the specified action.
Actions
The action depends on the rule. In most cases, the action actually resolves what to use, such as the Endpoint Installation
Gateway Rule, where the action resolves which Gateways to assign the Endpoint. The following describes the action for each
rule:
Endpoint Installation Rules
- Exclude Rule - Include or Exclude the Target from Endpoint Installation
- Proxy Rule - Resolve the Proxy Endpoint for Endpoint installation
- Account Rule - Resolve the username and password used for installation
- Gateway Rule - Resolve the Tivoli Gateway to assign the Endpoint
- Option Set Rule - Resolve the installation Option Set
Endpoint Login Rules
- Exclude Rule - Include or Exclude the Target from Endpoint Login processing
- Upgrade Rule - Determine whether or not to upgrade the Endpoint
- Migrate Rule - Resolve which Gateway the Endpoint should be assigned
- Link Rule - Resolve the Policy Region the Endpoint should be assigned
- Subscribe Rule - Resolve the Profile Managers to which the Endpoint should be subscribed
Creating Rules
This section describes the process of creating rules. To begin, click on the Endpoint Management link on the enterprise-Q front page
to show the following page:
From this page, click on the EP Install Configuration link to show this page:
Now, click on the 'Exclude Rules' button to begin defining the EP Install Exclude Rule.
You may see the error message in red indicating the rule file does not exist. Don't worry if this happens as the file will be
created the first time you save the rule. After that, this error message will not appear.
To add an if-statement to the rule, select a Data Type, Condition, Value, Operator, and Value, then click the Update Screen button.
This will add the if-statement and allow you to enter another one. In the following example, I've added the Default condition:
Now, I've added a second if-statement to exclude targets based on their IP address. Notice that the second if-statement was added below
the first one:
Since I want to check the IP address condition before I use the Default, I must move the second line above the first. To do this,
check the box on the right of the second line, and then click Move Up. This will present the rule in the correct order as follows:
The checkbox on the right can be used for moving and deleting if-statements.
To save the rule, click the Save Data button. Repeat these steps for each EP Install rule and each EP Login rule to complete the
task of automated Tivoli Rapid Deployment.
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