Rules

Assets rules let you automatically assign properties to a set of assets defined by custom search criteria. You may for example automatically add any asset reporting the nginx service enabled to a Web group.

In other words, setting up a rule is essentially the same as executing a bulk edit operation from the inventory, periodically.

Rules are processed every hour. Therefore, a newly created asset or one that just got updated might not immediately have its properties updated following the rules.

In the case of conflicting rules, the resulting behavior is unspecified. Creating rules with common assets but contradictory actions is discouraged.

Only Cyberwatch administrators have the permission to manage rules.

Actions

Actions define the operations to perform on all the assets retained by their filters. They can attribute a category, project, groups, repositories, or policies.

If a rule sets for example the prioritization policy of an asset, and then that asset’s prioritization policy gets manually edited, the rule will set its prioritization policy again at its next execution.

To undo the effects of a rule on assets that do not match the filters anymore, you can define opposite actions. These actions are executed only once, at the first execution of the rule that detects that the assets do not match the filters anymore. Past that execution, the rule will not affect the unmatched assets anymore, unless they later match the filters again.

The set of assets that match the filters of a rule may change either because the assets changed, or because the rule’s filters got edited. In both cases, the actions will be performed on all the assets that match the filters, regardless of whether they already matched them, while opposite actions will be performed only on assets that matched the filters at the previous execution but do not match them anymore.

Opposite actions may be left blank, and do not have to specifically reflect the other actions. When for instance the filters of a rule have criteria that may fluctuate, leaving the opposite actions blank avoids causing repeated changes on unstable assets.

Managing assets rules

The rules can be viewed from menu Settings > Rules, and are configurable only by Cyberwatch administrators in global view. It is also possible to create a rule from the inventory’s bulk edits.

When they are saved, rules are executed in the background. Their effect will usually be observable a few seconds later.