Policies control various aspects of how a VM (virtual machine) performs.  Policies are defined in the NxTop Center, and then assigned to VMs.  A VM can only be assigned one of each type of policy at a time. If you create and assign a policy, it goes into effect immediately. VMs assigned that policy receive it and change their behavior to conform to the policy at the next contact with NxTop Center.

Note that some behaviors only act at VM start up or shut down.

There are six types of policy:

• Expiration: Describes how long after initial use a VM expires
• USB Filter: Describes what types of USB devices can be used on the VM
• Back-up: Describes whether and how often automatic back-up is performed and how long back-ups will be retained
• Lockout: Describes how long the computer can be out of contact with NxTop Center before locking users out of the VM
• OS Profile: Describes a set of rules for the operating system for describing special handling for applications, services, or other settings
• Engine: Defines aspects of the behavior of the NxTop Engine (rather than a VM)

Creating a Policy

Before a policy can be selected for use, it must be created. Create a policy using these steps:

Step One

Click on Policies in the Navigation panel.

Step Two

Click Create. The Create New Policy wizard appears in a pop-up window.

Step Three

All policies have the same step 1; further steps are specific to the policy type.

Enter a Name and Purpose for policy.

Use descriptive names for easy identification.

Step Four

Select the radio button for the type of policy and click Next.

The wizard screen for that policy type appears.

Step Five

Complete the policy wizard to provide details for the policy.

Each type of policy uses an appropriate wizard. Click on a policy type for details.

• Expiration
• USB Filter
• Backup
• Lockout
• OS Profile
• Engine

Step Six

Click Finish.

The policy created appears in the dropdown list for that policy type.

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Basic/print version

Detail for Expiration Policies

Step 2: Fill the check box to limit VM use to a number of days from first use.
If checked, enter the number of days. Click Next.

Step 3: Fill one or both checkboxes to restrict by start date and/or end date. For each checkbox filled, select a date for the beginning or expiration date. The VM is disabled before the beginning date and after the expiration date. Click Next

Step 4: Enter how many days before expiration to warn the user, and the warning message sent to the user. Click Finish

Detail for USB Filter Policies

Click for device types that are allowable on that NxTop. Hover over any of the device classes for a brief description.

• Mass Storage (removable memory)
• Human Interface (mice, keyboards)
• Physical interface (Force feedback, joysticks, steering wheels)
• Printer
• Audio (microphone, speakers, iPod or MP3 player,  or other audio I/O device)
• Video (cameras or webcams)
• Image (digital camera)
• Wireless controller
• Communications
• Smart card
• Vendor (vendor-specific driver)
• Other (other than above)

Click Finish.

Detail for Lockout Policies

1. Specify the length of time a computer can go without contacting the server.
2. Select the units (hours or days) and the number of those units.
3. Click Finish.

If the computer does not contact the server within that period of time, the VM locks the user out until it can contact the server.

Detail for Backup Policies

1. Fill the check box to enable backup
2. Select the number and units for the following intervals
   

   Field	Description
   Backup Every:	Interval between backups
   Keep on Server Up To:	Period to keep backups on the server
   Alert After:	Period if a backup has not occurred

3. Click Finish.

If backups are Disabled, the NxTop Engine does not perform backup automatically for that VM.

The first time that the VM is shut down after the selected backup interval, the NxTop Engine takes a backup of that VM. The next time that NxTop Engine contacts the NxTop Center, it uploads the backup to the server.

When the backup interval is reached, the VM creates a backup a backup of that VM. The next time that NxTop Engine contacts the NxTop Center, it uploads the backup to the server.

Backups are retained on the NxTop Center for the selected interval. There is a daily backup deletion task on the NxTop Center. If enabled, at its scheduled time, it merges backups older than the keep interval into the base backup for that user, and deletes the backup as a separate file.

If a backup is overdue by more than the Alert after interval, the user's NxTop Engine and the NxTop Center administrator receive a warning message.

Detail for OS Profile Policies

An OS Policy is a set of OS Profile definitions. Select the policies to be included in the policy. An OS Profile definition may be used in any number of different policies.

1. Decide whether to change the Disable Snapback checkbox. Snapback is the ability of the operating system to return to the condition of the last VM publish and discarding any changes. If disabled, changes the user makes while operating the VM are preserved.

• Fill the Disable Snapback checkbox to not allow operating system snapback for VMs assigned this policy.
• Clear the Disable Snapback checkbox to allow snapback for VMs assigned this policy.

Note: For VMs assigned an OS Profile policy with Snapback disabled, the Repair Domain Trust action does not work.

2. Fill the checkbox of each OS Profile definition to be included in the policy.

3. Click Finish.

The OS Profile definitions available on a NxTop Center vary as they are defined by the Administrator. See Creating and Importing OS Profile Definitions for more details.

Detail for Engine Policies

Engine Policies affect the behavior of NxTop Engines, rather than VMs. The Default policy sets the behavior for all NxTop Engines associated with a NxTop Center. Other Engine policies can override the default values for a group or user.

Only the behaviors selected in the policy are overridden. For example, if an Engine policy only configures an update interval, the assigned user's NxTop Engine uses the default Quick Launch and Management Server alias values, and the assigned policy update interval.

1. Fill the checkbox of each behavior to be included in the policy, and to expand each area to display the text field for that behavior.

Clear the checkbox for behaviors that will use the default policy.

2. Enter the details for the policy:

• Quick Launch: fill the checkbox to automatically start the NxTop on the computer if it is the only one installed; the user does not have to separately select it. Has no effect if a computer has two or more VMs.
  
• Configure the Update Interval: Set the time interval between contact from the NxTop Engine to NxTop Center by selecting the unit (minutes, hours, days) from the dropdown list and then entering the number of units.
  
• Configure Management Server Aliases: Add known DNS names (and the port number) of the server hosting NxTop Center - for example, if the server has one DNS name used on an intranet at the company and another DNS name for use from outside the corporate firewall. The NxTop Engine will attempt to contact NxTop Center using this list until it succeeds or has tried them all.
  
  • Add an alias by entering the name in the format servername:port and clicking the Add button.
  • Remove an alias by selecting it in the list and then clicking the Delete button.
• Configure Engine Bandwidth: Set the download and upload rates in kilobytes per second (kps). The values entered become the maximum file transfer rates used by NxTop Engine. Upload and Download can have separate values. Select speeds that your network can support without becoming overloaded. The maximum listed speed is based on the computer's hardware.
  

3. Click Finish