Policies¶

Overview¶

Policies add governance, ease of use, cost-savings, and auditing features to Conduit. Conduit enables end users to create user, group, cloud, and global policies to give users full control and governance over their environments! Policies can apply towards any instance provisioned by a specific user, globally or into a group or cloud with active policies. Policy generation is a role permission.

Creating Policies¶

Policies can be created in three different locations.

Administration -> Policies
Infrastructure -> Groups -> Group -> Policies
Infrastructure -> Clouds -> Cloud -> Policies

Policies can be edited and set to active or inactive.

Important

Cloud policies will override matching or conflicting group policies during provisioning.

Available Policy Types¶

Backup Creation: Disable or enable the ability to create a backup when provisioning an instance.
Budget: Sets a maximum total combined price for all instances in the Group, Cloud, Tenant or owned by the User this policy is applied to.
Expiration: Sets an expiration timeframe in days after which the Instance will be deleted. Extensions can be auto-approved or require approval immediately or after x amount of auto-extensions using Conduit Approvals or an Approval Integration.
Host Name: Pre-populates a fixed or editable name for Hosts and Virtual Machines using ${variable} naming patterns and/or text.
Hostname: Pre-populates a fixed or editable name for hostnames/machine names using ${variable} naming patterns and/or text.
Instance Name: Pre-populates a fixed or editable name for Instance Names using ${variable} naming patterns and/or text.
Max Containers: Sets the max number of Containers for the Group or Cloud the Policy is added to.
Max Cores: Sets the max number of total of Cores combined for Instances in the Group or Cloud the Policy is added to.
Max Hosts: Sets the max number of total Hosts in the Group or Cloud the Policy is added to.
Max Memory: Sets the max number of total of RAM combined for Instances in the Group or Cloud the Policy is added to.
Max Storage: Sets the max number of total of Storage combined for Instances in the Group or Cloud the Policy is added to.
Max VMs: Sets the max number of Virtual Machines for the Group or Cloud the Policy is added to.
Power Scheduling: Adds a Power Schedule for the Instances in a Group or Cloud. Power Schedules can be created in Operations -> Scheduling
Provision Approval: Sets an Approval requirement for Provisioning into a Group or Cloud using Conduit Approvals or an Approval Integration such a Service Now.
Shutdown: Sets a shutdown timeframe in days upon provision after which the Instance will be stopped. Extensions can be auto-approved or require approval immediately or after x amount of auto-extensions using Conduit Approvals or an Approval Integration.
User Creation: Controls the “CREATE YOUR USER” flag in the User Config options during provisioning do be always disabled, always enabled, enabled by default, or disabled by default.

To create a Global Policy:¶

Navigate to Administration -> Policies
Select + ADD Policy and choose from the available policy types.
Refer to Policy Type sections below for Configuration options.
Under Filter next to scope select Global
Select SAVE CHANGES

To create a Policy for a User:¶

Navigate to Administration -> Policies
Select + ADD Policy and choose from the available policy types.
Refer to Policy Type sections below for Configuration options.
Under filter next to scope select User a drop down menu will appear below allowing you to select a user
Select SAVE CHANGES

To create a Policy for a Cloud:¶

Note

Resource Limitation Policies apply to all Instances in the Cloud the Policy is added to. Approval, Naming, Power, Shutdown and Expiration Policies apply to Instances created or moved into the Group after the Policy is enabled.

Navigate to Infrastructure -> Clouds
Select a Cloud by clicking on the name of the Cloud to go to the Cloud Detail page.
Select the POLICIES tab in the Cloud Detail page.
Select + ADD and choose from the available policy types.
Refer to Policy Type sections below for Configuration options.
Select SAVE CHANGES

To create a Policy for a Group:¶

Note

Resource Limitation Policies apply to all Instances in the Group the Policy is added to. Approval, Naming, Power, Shutdown and Expiration Policies apply to Instances created after the Policy is enabled.

Navigate to Infrastructure -> Clouds
Select a Cloud by clicking on the name of the Cloud to go to the Cloud Detail page.
Select the POLICIES tab in the Cloud Detail page.
Select + ADD and choose from the available policy types.
Refer to Policy Types sections below for Configuration options.
Select SAVE CHANGES

Policy Types¶

Expiration Policies¶

Expiration policies set an expiration timeframe for any instance provisioned into the cloud or group the policy is added to. When an instance expires, it is terminated and deleted.

Configuration options for expiration policies:

Expiration Type

User Configurable- expiration timeframe is editable during provisioning
Fixed Expiration- user cannot change expiration timeframe

Expiration Days

Configures the number of days the instance is allowed to exist before being removed.

Renewal Days

If the instance is renewed, this is the number of days by which the expiration date is increased.

Notification Days

This allows an email notice to be sent out X days before the instance is set to expire.

Notification Message

Customizable message for notification emails. The default message is Instance ${instance?.name} is set to expire on ${instance?.expireDate}

Auto Approve Extensions

Enable this to auto-approve extension requests, bypassing approval workflows.

Instances with expirations show the time until expiration in the instance detail pane. Instances with active expiration policies can be extended by selecting the EXTEND NOW button in the instance detail pane. The extension length is set in the policy by the RENEWAL DAYS field.

Expirations can also be added to any instance during provisioning by entering the number of days in the EXPIRATION DAYS field in the Lifecycle section of the automation section of the provisioning wizard. Expiration can be added to any instance even if no policies have been created.

NOTE:: Expiration and Shutdown Policies will be enforced on Instances moved into a Group with an Active Policy or Instances created when converting an unmanaged host to managed.

Instance and Host Names¶

Naming Policies will populate a fixed or editable name for instances, hosts and hostnames. The Name Pattern field uses ${variable} string interpolation.

NAMING TYPE

User Configurable: Naming pattern will pre-populate during provisioning but can be edited by the user.
Fixed Name: Naming pattern will pre-populate during provisioning and cannot be changed.

NAME PATTERN

The Name Pattern field uses ${variable} string interpolation.

Commonly used variables for naming patterns include:

${groupName}
${groupCode}
${cloudName}
${cloudCode}
${type}
${accountId}
${account}
${accountType}
${platform}
${userId}
${userName}
${userInitials}
${provisionType}
${sequence} #results in 1
${sequence+100} #results in 101
${sequence.toString().padLeft(5,'0')} #results in 00001

An example Instance Name Policy using a naming pattern with User Initials, Cloud Code, Instance Type, and a sequential number starting at 3000 is ${userInitials}-${cloudCode}-${type}-${sequence+3000}, resulting in an Instance Name of md-vmwd3-centos-3001 for the first instance, followed by md-vmwd3-centos-3002 and so on.

Cloud codes and Group codes are fields found in their respective configuration panes.

Note

Static text can also be used in conjunction with ${variable}’s, such as conduit${cloudCode}${type}${sequence+3000}

AUTO RESOLVE CONFLICTS

Conduit will automatically resolve naming conflicts by appending a sequential -number to the name when enabled.

Shutdown Policies¶

Shutdown policies dictate the number of days an instance is allowed to run before it is shut down. Shutdown is consistent across cloud types i.e.: in VMware, a VM is powered off. In AWS, an instance is stopped. Etc.

Configuration options for shutdown policies:

Shutdown Type

User Configurable: Shutdown timeframe is editable during provisioning.
Fixed Expiration: User cannot change shutdown timeframe during provisioning.

Expiration Days

Configures the number of days the instance is allowed to exist before being shut down.

Renewal Days

If the instance is renewed, this is the number of days by which the shutdown date is increased.

Notification Days

This allows an email notice to be sent out X days before the instance is set to shut down.

Notification Message

Customizable message for notification email.

Auto Approve Extensions

Enable this to auto-approve extension requests, bypassing approval workflows.

Note

Expiration and Shutdown Policies will be enforced on Instances moved into a Group with an Active Policy or Instances created when converting an unmanaged host to managed.

Provision Approval¶

Conduit Provision Approvals enable an approval workflow via internal Conduit approval or via ServiceNow workflow. If a ServiceNow integration is present, the ServiceNow option is enabled. The Approval workflow to be selected is dynamically created by querying the ServiceNow Workflow table in the integrated ServiceNow instance.

This ServiceNow approval integration enables users to use the Conduit Self-Service provisioning portal to provision new instances and still respect the required ServiceNow business approval workflow.

Power Schedules¶

Power Schedules set daily times to shutdown and startup instances. Power schedule can be created and managed in Operations -> Scheduling.

Note

Power Schedule Policies will apply to Instances created in a Group or Cloud after the Policy is enabled, and will not apply to pre-existing Instances.

Configuration options for Power Schedule Policies:

DESCRIPTION

Add details about your Policy for reference in the Policies tab.

Enabled

Policies can be edited and disabled or enabled at any time. Disabling a Power Schedule Policy will prevent the Power Schedule from running on the Groups Instances until re-enabled.

ENFORCEMENT TYPE

User Configurable: Power Schedule choice is editable by User during provisioning.
Fixed Schedule: User cannot change Power Schedule setting during provisioning.

POWER SCHEDULE

Select Power Schedule to use in the Policy. Power schedule can be added in Operations -> Scheduling

TENANTS

Leave blank for the Policy to apply to all Tenants, or search for and select Tenants to enforce the Policy on specific Tenants.

Max Resources¶

Max Resource policies allow setting quotas for Clouds and Groups for maximum amount of Memory, Storage, Cores, Hosts, VM’s, or Containers that can be created in the Cloud or Group the Policy is assigned to.

Configuration options for Max Resources Policies:

Max Containers: Sets the max number of Containers for the Group or Cloud the Policy is added to.
Max Cores: Sets the max number of total of Cores combined for Instances in the Group or Cloud the Policy is added to.
Max Hosts: Sets the max number of total Hosts in the Group or Cloud the Policy is added to.
Max Memory: Sets the max number of total of RAM combined for Instances in the Group or Cloud the Policy is added to.
Max Storage: Sets the max number of total of Storage combined for Instances in the Group or Cloud the Policy is added to.
Max VMs: Sets the max number of Virtual Machines for the Group or Cloud the Policy is added to.
Tenants: Leave blank for the Policy to apply to all Tenants, or search for and select Tenants to enforce the Policy on specific Tenants.

User Creation¶

The User Creation policy controls the “CREATE YOUR USER” flag in the User Config options during provisioning do be always disabled, always enabled, enabled by default, or disabled by default.

Configuration options for User Creation Policies:

TYPE

User Creation

DESCRIPTION

Description to identify the policy config

Enabled

Policies enforcement can be disabled or enabled at any time.

ENFORCEMENT TYPE

User Configurable: User Creation choice is editable by User during provisioning.
Fixed: User cannot change User Creation setting during provisioning.

CREATE USER

Check to allow or force user creation. Uncheck to disable by default or force no user creation.

TENANTS

Leave blank for the Policy to apply to all Tenants, or search for and select Tenants to enforce the Policy on specific Tenants.