Policy Management | On-Premises APM

About Family Policies

You can use family policies to configure certain actions to occur when a record changes in the APM database. For example, you can specify that an email notification should be sent whenever a Reading in Error record is added to the database.

Note: For a single family, you can write family-level rules or family policies, not both. You can, however, use the Baseline Rule node in a family policy to execute any existing APM baseline rules that correspond to the policy’s family and trigger.

When you create a family policy, you will configure a policy model to represent the inputs, logic, and actions that you want to execute when the corresponding trigger occurs. You can create up to six family policies for a single family, one for each supported type of trigger.

Policy Model

The following image shows an example of a policy model.

A policy model is made up of nodes and connections that define the policy logic. Specifically, the nodes in a model represent:

The items that you want to monitor (for example, Reading in Error records).
The conditions that should trigger actions to be taken (for example, a comment is something other than test).
The actions that should be taken (for example, send an email message).

A policy model does not function like a typical logic diagram. For example, a node does not automatically evaluate the values from the immediately preceding node. Rather, for each node, you can specify an input value that is associated with any predecessor node, even if the nodes are not directly connected. Before you create a policy model, make sure that you understand the basic principles for working with a policy model.

Family Policy Triggers

For any family, you can create one family policy for each available trigger. APM supports the following triggers for family policies.


Trigger	Description
Before Insert	Executes the policy before a record is created.
After Insert	Executes the policy after a record is created.
Before Update	Executes the policy after changes have been made to a record, before those changes are saved to the database.
After Update	Executes the policy after changes to a record have been saved.
Before Delete	Executes the policy before a record is deleted.
After Delete	Executes the policy after a record has been deleted.
Before State Commit	Executes the policy before a change to the state of a record is saved. Available only for Entity families.
After State Commit	Executes the policy after a change to the state of a record is saved. Available only for Entity families.
On Instantiate	Executes the policy when a relationship is instantiated. Available only for Relationship families.

Note: When you change the state of a record, the record is automatically saved prior to the state transition; therefore, the Before Update, After Update, Before State Commit, and After State Commit family policies are triggered during the transition.

Note: When you execute a Cancel Transaction node in a Before or After State Commit policy, where a field value was updated, but not saved before transitioning the state, will result in the state not being transitioned but the field value change gets committed.

Note: When you create a new relationship by adding a new entity record to an existing record in Record Manager, the On Instantiate family policy may be triggered several times. When you select Add New Record, the On Instantiate family policy is triggered immediately. Then, On Instantiate is triggered each time you enter a value into a field in the new datasheet and tab out of the field, and again when you save the new entity record. However, if you create a new relationship by another method, for example by executing a Create Relationship node in a policy or family policy, or by linking an existing record in Record Manager, the On Instantiate family policy is triggered only once.

Important: When you validate a policy or family policy that contains a Create Relationship node, the On Instantiate family policy is triggered, and an execution record is created for the On Instantiate family policy. If the On Instantiate family policy executes a Cancel Transaction node, validation fails. Note that the validation does not trigger any other family policies.

About Baseline Family Policies

Various family policies are added during the deployment of certain modules in APM. These family policies exist to support the respective module workflows. For example, policies used by GAA are used to perform calculations for the GAA module.

Important: We recommend that you do not modify or delete baseline family policies. If you do so, you cannot modify the family or trigger of a baseline family policy record.

Create a Family Policy

Procedure

In the Applications menu, navigate to ADMIN > Configuration Manager > Family Management.

The Family Management page appears.
Select the family for which you want to create a family policy.

The workspace for the selected family appears.
Select the Rules and Policies tab.

The Rules and Policies section appears.
If you select the Family Policies option, family policies will be used instead of any configured visual basic rules for the family.

Note: For a single family, you can write family-level rules or family policies, but not both. You can, however, use the Baseline Rule node in a family policy to execute the APM baseline rules that correspond to the policy’s family and trigger. You can also use field-level rules and family policies for the same family.

A list of the possible family policy triggers appears.
Next to the trigger for which you want to create a family policy, select Add.

The Family Policy page appears, displaying the Design workspace where you can add nodes to the model canvas.
In the Details workspace, enter a brief description for the new family policy.
Select .

A family policy is created.

Access a Family Policy

Procedure

Access Configuration Manager.
Select Family Management.

The Family Management page appears.
Select the family associated with the family policy that you want to open.

The workspace for the selected family appears.
At the top of the workspace, select Rules and Policies.

The Rules and Policies section appears, displaying a list of the possible family policy triggers.
Next to the trigger associated with the family policy that you want to open, select the Edit link.

The Family Policy page appears, displaying the Design workspace for the family policy that you selected.

Refresh Metadata for Family Policies

About This Task

If the metadata used by a policy or node of a policy model is modified, you can refresh the metadata for the policy and its nodes so that they use the updated metadata. You can refresh the metadata for the policy or for specific nodes of the policy model.

Procedure

Access the policy for which you want to refresh the metadata.
In the Design workspace, perform one of the following steps:
- If you want to refresh the metadata for the policy, in the Edit section of the toolbar, select .
  The metadata for the policy is refreshed.
- If you want to refresh the metadata for a node, select the node, and then in the Properties window for the node, select .
  The metadata for the node is refreshed.

Delete a Family Policy

Procedure

Access the policy that you want to delete.
On the toolbar, select .

A dialog box with a confirmation message appears.
Select OK.

The policy is deleted from the APM database.

Revert a Family Policy to the Baseline Version

About This Task

Baseline family policies are identified by the Revert to Baseline button, which appears at the top of the Details workspace when you open the family policy. In the event that a baseline family has been changed, but you want to reinstate the original baseline version (that is, the version delivered with the APM distribution package), you can use these steps to revert the family policy to baseline.

Procedure

Access the family policy that you want to revert to the baseline version.
At the top of the Details workspace, select Revert to Baseline.

Note: This button appears only for baseline family policies and is enabled only when the family policy has been modified from its original version.

The Confirm Revert to Baseline dialog box appears.
Select OK.

The Close Policy Tab dialog box appears.
Select OK.
Close the tab. If you want to view the baseline version, open the family policy again.