Merge vs. Overwrite

In certain nodes of the Workspace Control Console, settings imported from Building Blocks can either be merged with the already existing settings in those nodes, or can overwrite the current settings of the nodes. This behavior applies to the following Workspace Control nodes:

  • User Context > Directory Services

  • Composition > User Settings

  • Security

Merge

When importing Building Blocks to a Workspace Control node and selecting the Merge option, the following happen:

  • Settings contained in the Building Block replace settings that already exist in the target node only if the settings have the same GUID.

  • Settings contained in the Building Block are added to the target node only if settings with the same GUID do not already exist in the node.

Overwrite

When importing Building Blocks to a Workspace Control node and selecting the Overwrite option, all the contents of the target node are removed and then the contents imported from the Building Block are added to the node.

Example

Consider importing a Building Block that contains the following three settings:

  • One setting has the same GUID as a setting from the target Workspace Control node.

  • The other two settings have GUIDs that do not match any settings from the target node.

When importing the Building Block into a target Workspace Control node that contains ten settings, the following happen:

  • Merge results in a target node with 12 settings:

    • One setting replaced by the imported Building Block.
      This setting matched GUID with one setting from the Building Block.

    • Nine original settings not replaced by the imported Building Block.
      The original settings and the settings from the Building Block do not match GUIDs.

    • Two new settings that were added by the imported Building Block.
      The new settings did not match GUIDs with the settings from the node.

  • Overwrite results in a target node with three settings.
    The resulting settings are the settings imported from the Building Block.

When importing Building Blocks manually, the account SIDs can be added. However, beware that when importing Building Blocks in unattended mode, the account names are used.