Action Management
Actions are the behaviors which are applied on managed endpoints when conditions are met upon user and computer triggers. Within the Policy Configuration navigation tree actions can be added to nodes directly beneath a trigger or to a condition within a trigger. When added directly to a trigger, the action executes for all computers or users. Applied to a condition, the action can be targeted to execute only when that condition is satisfied.
The placement of actions determines whether they run sequentially or concurrently and dictates dependencies between them.
Actions at the same level in the hierarchy within a node run simultaneously.
Child actions run in sequence. A child action will run upon the successful completion of the parent or when a timeout elapses; whichever event occurs first.
Configuring Actions
Selecting an action displays a dialog for defining the parameters and for that action. For most actions you click Add to create a row in the dialog with which to define the action. Multiple rows can be added, each of which create an individual action in the node. This behavior applies to the majority of actions. Where this is not the case it is detailed in the sections for the specific actions in this chapter.
Each action dialog contains a tab specific to configuring that action. For example, the Copy File action contains the Files to Copy tab and the Set Printer contains the Printer tab. In addition, the following tabs are standard across multiple actions dialogs.
General
This tab contains optional Description and Notes fields and enables you to identify the specific instance of an action.
The text entered in the Description field is used as the action name in the work area. If the field is left blank, a default name is created. The Note field can be used to add any additional text for the action. This could be to add a more detailed description about what the action does or any other relevant information.
Run As
Enables actions to run using different user credentials. For example, a user may require mapping to a network drive or the ability to launch an application using different credentials.
The user can be
the Current User, System or a User can be selected from the Run As User
Library.
For further information on configuring the Run As
User Library see Run
As.
Personalization
Policy actions can be configured to run at process start that conflict with personalization behavior. For example, setting a native registry key that is also being managed by Personalization in the virtual cache for the application.
In such cases, it is necessary to determine which behavior takes precedence. This is configured in relevant Policy action dialogs using the Personalization tab. The tab gives the following two options:
-
Policy Configuration takes precedence over User Personalization - When this option is selected, Environment Manager applies the Policy setting to the real registry or file system and the virtual cache. Therefore the process always applies the policy setting even if the registry key or file path is virtualized. Although not seen in the user interface, this is achieved by adding the virtual actions to the configuration.
-
User Personalization takes precedence over Policy Configuration - When this option is selected, the Policy setting is applied to the native registry or file system but not to the virtual cache. As Personalization settings are applied to the endpoint after policy is applied, they are read in preference to the native settings for any managed paths.
The Personalization tab is only available for the following actions and only when those actions are in a node beneath the Process Started trigger.
| Registry | File and Folder | Group Policy |
|---|---|---|
| Create
Key Delete Key Set Value Delete Value Set Default Value |
Copy
File
Delete File Move File Rename File Create Folder Copy Folder Delete Folder |
Set
ADM Policy Set ADMX Policy |
Delay
Enables you to specify a delay to the action start in the Seconds to wait field.
Introduced in Environment Manager 2020.3, the Delay tab allows you to specify the duration of any delay in seconds to occur before the action is executed. Any delay specified for your action is clearly visible in the work pane.
The default value is 0 and this results in a no delay to the action start. The value can be modified to any whole, positive integer. Note that a value must be present (either the default or an alternative).
Note the Delay tab is not available in the Custom Action dialog.
Delay - Ribbon icon
The Actions ribbon includes a Delay icon. This allows you to create a delay action which you can position within your node configuration as required. The delay action can be placed within the node precisely at the point required and the sequence is easily reviewed within the work pane.
Conditions
Specify criteria relating to file and folder dates and size. The action will not take place if the selected condition is not met:
-
Date - Specify a modified, accessed, or created date for the identified file or folder. For example, only files that were created before a certain date are deleted. For file and folder delete actions, you can use the Is Older Than option to specify that files and folders can be deleted if a certain number of days have passed since they were created, last accessed, or modified. In this case, you don't enter a date. You specify a whole number of days from 1 - 999. For example, folders that have not been accessed in the last 100 days are deleted.
-
Size - Set a condition based on the size of the file or folder. For example, only folders which are below 1mb will be copied.
These file conditions cannot be used simultaneously.
For Copy File, Move File and Copy Folder this tab contains checkboxes for Compare to destination timestamp and Compare to destination size. These options enable a comparison between the source and destination files of the same name. This could be used to set up a condition which will only copy the file if it was created at a later date than the one in the target location or is of a bigger size. This removes the need to set a specific date or file size.
File Extension Exclusions
This tab is specific to File and Folder actions and enables a list of file extensions to be defined which will not be included in the action. Any files which are of an excluded type are ignored.
File extensions can be entered with or without the preceding full stop. For example, both txt and .txt are correct.
Wildcards can also be used to define multiple file extensions. For example, doc* would exclude all types of Microsoft Word documents such as .doc, .docx, .docm.
Path Exclusion
Select specific folders or individual files which will not be included in the action. This tab is only available to the Copy Folder action.
Applies to the Copy Folder action only and can only be defined once the source and target folders have been selected.