Using policy precedence on devices

If a device is eligible for multiple policies of the same type through group-based assignments, policy precedence decides which policy must be applied to that device.

About this task

IBM® MaaS360® automatically applies the policy with the highest precedence if multiple policies are available for a device in a group-based assignment.

Note: The order of priority to decide the type of policy to be applied on a device is as follows.

1. Compliance rule
2. Location
3. Dynamic group (Device and User groups)
4. Device (Static group or manual assignment from device view)
5. Default

When an administrator assigns policies, each policy is associated with a specific group. For example,

• Policy P1 is assigned to Group A.
• Policy P2 is assigned to Group B.

If device D2 belongs to both Group A and Group B, it becomes eligible for both policies (P1 and P2). However, the policy with the highest precedence (in this case, P1) takes priority and is applied to the device D2.

Illustration: Administrator assigned policies P1 to Device Group A and P2 to Device Group B. Device D2 is eligible for both the policies P1 and P2 when it is part of both Device Groups A and B. Based on the policy precedence, the policy with the highest precedence P1 is applied to the device D2.

1. From the IBM MaaS360 Portal Home page, select Security > Policies.
2. Click Precedence.
   The Precedence window is displayed.

   Section	Description
   iOS MDM	Select a platform from the drop-down list to display all the policies for that platform.
   Policy name	The list of policies from the selected platform.
   Assigned Groups	Indicates the total number of device groups that the policy is assigned to. Click the number hyperlink against a policy to view the detailed list of device groups and the number of devices in those groups.
   Assigned Devices	Indicates the total number of devices the policy is directly assigned to.
   Status	Indicates the status of a policy. Published Draft Needs Publish
   Precedence	Indicates the precedence of a policy. The policies are displayed in the ascending order. The policy with highest precedence is displayed in the list.
   Last published on	Indicates the date and time that the policy was last published.
   	Use the search icon to search policies by the policy name.
   	Click the download icon to download the policy details to a .csv file.
   	Click the refresh button to refresh the policy details.
   Edit	Click Edit to edit the policy precedence.
   Potential impact	The Potential impact section provides details on the possible impact of policy precedence change on policies, groups, and devices.

3. Click Edit to configure the precedence.
4. Change the order of precedence by providing a policy precedence value or by using the + and - icons to change the order of precedence.
   • The minimum permitted value is 1 and the maximum permitted value is the number equal to the total number of policies that are available for the selected platform. An error message is displayed if you enter a number that is out of the scope.
   • The older precedence number is displayed next to the new precedence number for your reference.
   • The Potential Impact section displays the number of policies, groups, and devices in scope that are impacted due to the change in precedence.

   Note: If you change the precedence of policy P1 from 1 to 2, the precedence of policy P2 automatically changes from 2 to 1.
5. Click Save.