Procedure and tips to ensure NextyLabs SharePoint policy deployed to SharePoint without any delay

When you modify NextLabs SharePoint policy, you might wondered why my new policy is not applied to SharePoint. How you could verify and ensure NextyLabs SharePoint policy deployed to SharePoint without any delay. Here are some tips.

NextLabs allows SharePoint Policy Controller (SPC) to retrieve updated policy from Controller Center (CC) based on the heartbeat configuration. The Control Center (CC) waits until it receives a heartbeat signal from each enforcer, then checks if there are any bundles to send it, then sends them.  If the heartbeat is configured as 30 minutes, the updated polciies will be sent to SharePoint after 30 minutes. The default heartbeat configuration is ONE hour and that is the reason you will not see the new updated policy applied.

If you want the policy to be deployed and pick up by SharePoint immediately with waiting for the heartbeat, you can enable the Push Deployment feature for all enforcers using that profile. When this is enabled, policy analysts will be able to use the Deploy immediately option (in Policy Author’s Deploy window) when deploying  policy bundles. With this feature, bundles are sent without waiting for a heartbeat signal from the enforcers. In standard (non-Push) deployment, the Control Center waits until it receives a heartbeat signal from each enforcer, then checks if there are any bundles to send it, then sends them. Since policies are only deployed in response to a heartbeat, and the heartbeat interval may be set in hours or even days for some profiles, this can lead to unacceptably long (and unexpected) delays before new or updated policies come into effect. This feature is useful in test environments where you need to check the results of a policy right away.

For any enforcers with this feature enabled, the default port, 2000, must not be blocked by any firewalls on the client side. If you are running firewalls, be sure to define this as a port exception so the Control Center can connect through it. Also, note that if you enable or disable this feature on an enforcer while it is running, the change will not take place until the enforcer sends its next heartbeat message, or until it is manually stopped and restarted.

Here is the step to chage the heartbeat and enable the push feature.

• Login to NextLabs adminstration UI like https://spnextlabadmin:443/administrator/ using the “Administrator” account.
• Click “Policy Enforcer Configuration” tab
• Click “Portal Enforcer” sub-tab – this is the control for SharePoint
• Modify the “Heartbeat” based on frequency of your requirement
• Select “Enable Push”
• Save the change

Now if you deploy the policy immediately, it will be applied to SharePoint immediately.