Policy types
Ten types, covering three different things a policy can watch: Device health & configuration
Resource usage
Software
Assets (these watch physical assets, not devices)
Resource usage policies (CPU/RAM/Disk) can optionally require the breach to be sustained over a time window you choose, rather than flagging on a single instantaneous reading. This is the difference between “disk hit 85% for one reading” and “disk has been over 85% for the last 30 minutes” — the second is a real problem, the first might just be a backup job running. Use a sustained window if you want to avoid noise from brief spikes.
Who a policy applies to
Every policy has a target — company-wide, a specific location, a department, a single device, or a tag. A policy only evaluates devices (or assets) inside its target; nothing outside it is touched.How evaluation actually works
Policies are checked automatically, roughly every 10 minutes — you don’t trigger this yourself. Each enabled policy runs independently, so a slow evaluation on one policy never delays another. For every device or asset in a policy’s target, evaluation lands on one of three outcomes:- Compliant — evaluated, and it meets the rule.
- Violating — evaluated, and it breaks the rule. This opens (or keeps open) a violation.
- Not applicable — the policy couldn’t be evaluated for this subject right now (most commonly: a resource-usage policy needs data from the last N minutes, and none has come in yet). Not applicable subjects are excluded from both the compliant and violating counts — they’re neither.
Violations open and resolve automatically
You never manually close a violation because the underlying problem got fixed — the next evaluation cycle does it for you. A violation resolves when either:- The subject is re-evaluated and is now genuinely compliant, or
- It’s no longer targeted by the policy at all (the device was removed, or the policy’s targets changed)
Previewing before you commit
When creating or editing a policy, you can preview its effect before saving — it runs a live evaluation against your real fleet and shows you how many devices would currently comply or violate (“18 of 200 would violate”), without writing anything. Useful for catching an overly strict threshold before it floods your Alerts with new violations the moment you enable it.Where violations show up
- On the policy itself — its detail page shows live compliant/violating counts and the list of currently-violating devices or assets.
- On the device timeline — only for device-subject policies (resource usage, software, OS/agent version, uptime). Asset-subject violations (warranty, asset age) don’t have a device to attach to, so they surface through Alerts and reports instead.
- In Alerts — see Alerts vs. Policy Violations for exactly how the two relate; they’re not quite the same thing.