Intel,Altiris Group

Can someone explain the "Override Policy Remediation" entry in a Managed Delivery Policy including examples of when you might want to use this?  Specifically, If this setting is supposed to be used to remediate systems outside of the managed delivery policy schedule, when does the agent determine it needs to "remediate" the system?

Scenario:  A Managed Delivery policy is setup to install Application ABC on DATE XYZ (Policy is not recurring - One time install only).  If "Override Policy Remediation" is set to immediately, if a user uninstalls application after it has been installed OR the installation was never initially successful, when does the agent realize that it needs to remediate itself?  What specifically is done by the agent?

This is assuming the compliance rule is setup, checked in the policy, and the criteria is currently not met "not compliant" in the Altiris Agent.

Any help would be appreciated, as the Software Management user guides and Best Practice documents really don't specifically address this setting, it uses, and impacts.

Thanks,

Joel

Explanation

First, let's define what this option is for, and what the choices you get mean.  The 'Override policy remediation schedule' option can be selected for each Software Resource that's part of a Managed Software Delivery.  A Managed Software Delivery can have one or many Software Resources as part of the policy.  This option lets you choose a different remediation schedule for the individual software resource than you've chosen for the entire policy.  If you did not use these settings, and a policy was set to check hourly and remediate at the next maintenance window, all software resources in that policy would remediate at the next maintenance window.  By using the option, you can tell some software resources to behave differently than the parent setting, which is contained in the Managed Software Delivery policy.

The choices you receive for Remediation tell the computer what to do when the detection check occurs.  Your choices are immediately, at next maintenance window, and do not run.  If you choose immediately, remediation will occur whenever the detection check shows that a software resource was not detected.  If you choose at next maintenance window, the computer will schedule the remediation to occur during the next maintenance window applying to that computer.  And if you choose do not run, no command will be run.  (This can be used for compliance reports or to test your detection rules.  You can quickly test detection rules without running long installs or changing your settings that you wanted to test the detection rule against.)

Finally, when does the detection check occur?  It occurs at the time you schedule for the policy.

Example

Let's say you have a Managed Software Delivery for Kavicky 12.0.  The depedency is Joel.NET.  Kavicky Suite 12.0 causes a reboot, so you would like it to happen during the Reboot Maintenance Window on Thursday at 2 a.m. because you've received approval from the organization to reboot computers at this time.  However, Joel.NET does not cause a reboot and is a relatively large download -- about 500MB.

Your Kavicky Suite Managed Software Delivery is set to 'Remediate: At Next Maintenance Window,' and because you don't override Kavicky 12.0, it will accept these settings.  But because you don't mind if Joel.NET is installed during the day, you choose 'Override policy remediation schedule: Immediately' so that Joel.NET is installed by the time the maintenance window comes around.To answer your question:
Scenario: 'ABC Managed Software Delivery' includes the Software Resource 'Application ABC.'  It is set to run on September 22, 2010 at 2 a.m. one-time only. 
Question: What is the impact of selecting 'Override policy remediation schedule' and setting it to 'Immediately' for Application ABC..
..if the user uninstalls the application before September 22, 2010 at 2 a.m.? (nothing -- no detection check will occur until September 22, 2010 at 2 a.m.)
..if the installation was not successful? (nothing will happen until the detection check occurs, at which time it will remediate immediately)

In short, if your policy includes only one Software Resource, there is no difference between selecting 'Override policy remediation schedule' at the Software Resource level and changing the Remediation setting at the policy level.

Does this help answer your question?