Differences between Templates, Policies and Bulk Operations

The three concepts may seem similar but in practice they work and have different objectives. This topic will explain the differences and how to make correct use of each tool.

The templates allow the creation of a set of remote Modules in a simple way. When applying the template to an Agent, all the Modules of the template will be created in it and in no case will they delete or modify the existing ones. If, after applying a template, changes are made to it, they will only be effective in the Agents when applying it again: if the Modules already exist in the Agent, they will be created again.

Besides its usefulness to create Modules in Agents that already exist in Pandora FMS, the templates can be used to create Modules automatically when executing a Recon Task. The application of the templates is done through the Web Console.

• When a remote Module standard needs to be applied to Agents quickly.
• When it is necessary to create new remote Modules in Agents discovered by a Recon Task.

The monitoring policies are an easy way to manage thousands of Agents. They contain all the information to manage (create, delete and modify) any element related to the monitoring of Pandora FMS Agents. In a policy are defined Modules, alerts, file collections, inventory Modules, plugins and the Agents filter on which the policy will be applied.

• The first difference with templates is that policies support all types of Modules, as well as alerts and file collections.
• The second difference is that policies support updating Agents, deleting and editing each of the components configured in the policy.

The policies are applied by the Pandora FMS server that creates, deletes or modifies the elements defined in the policy in each of the Agents defined in it simultaneously (in a single application).

• When you need to monitor a large number of machines in a simple way.
• When you need to parameterize the monitoring of a large number of machines.

The bulk operations allow to perform management on Agents, Modules, users, alerts or policies in a great amount of these objects. The main difference between the Bulk Operations, the Templates and the Monitoring policies is that the Bulk Operations are a tool to manage the different Pandora FMS components in an instantaneous way and on the spot, without having to build any kind of template or default configurations and that do not require to be used again. They are very useful when you want to make the same change to a large number of Agents, alerts, Modules, et cetera:

• Move a series of Agents from one group to another.
• Change the action of all alerts to send an email to the same recipient.
• Change the maximum and minimum values for a Module called CPU Usage in all Agents.

Massive operations are actions that are performed through the Pandora FMS Web Console on each of the monitoring components: agents, modules, alerts, policies, et cetera.

• When the same change needs to be made, only once, to a large number of items (Agents, alerts, policies, Modules, et cetera).

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