Monitoring Policies

OVERVIEW

A Monitoring Policy decides how each plugin notifies you: by email, by PSA ticket, by webhook, or not at all. A Policy is applied to computers, so one change quiets a plugin across a whole fleet instead of computer by computer.

A Policy governs notification only. The plugin still runs on the endpoint, and its result still appears in the dashboard, in reports, and in the API.

Nothing changes until you apply one. Every computer starts with no Policy, which behaves exactly as Watchman Monitoring always has: every plugin notifies on every channel.

WHO CAN DO WHAT

• Owners and Admins create, edit, and delete Policies, and apply them.
• Employees can view Policies and apply them to computers, but cannot create or change one.
• End Users can view Policies only.

WHAT A POLICY CONTAINS

A Policy is a list of plugins with two toggles each:

• Email / Ticket covers the notification you already receive: a PSA ticket if you have an integration activated, otherwise a warning or alert email. Your existing PSA and email settings still decide which of the two carries it.
• Webhook covers delivery to webhook endpoints that subscribe to specific events.

Both toggles are on for every plugin by default, so a new Policy changes nothing until you clear a checkbox.

Scope notes:

• A Policy covers one platform (Mac, Windows, Linux, or ChromeOS). The platform is chosen when the Policy is created and cannot be changed afterward. Synology units are not governed by Policies.
• The plugin list is the set of Watchman Monitoring plugins expected on that platform. Custom plugins are not listed, and they keep notifying as they do today.
• Only Warning and Alert are governed. OK and Informational results never notified in the first place.
• ChromeOS becomes available as a Policy platform once a ChromeOS device has reported in.

CREATING A POLICY

1. Go to Settings > Policies and click New Policy.
2. Give it a name that describes the fleet it is for, such as "Standard Workstations" or "Unattended Servers".
3. Choose the platform.
4. Uncheck Email / Ticket or Webhook for the plugins you do not want to hear about.
5. Click Create Policy.

The Policies list shows each Policy's platform, how many plugins are set differently from the default, and how many computers are on it. Click the computer count to see them.

If a column header shows a broken-link icon, your account has nothing connected behind that channel yet (no PSA integration and service emails off, or no webhook endpoints). You can still set the toggle. Doing so means that when you connect a PSA or a webhook later, it follows what the Policy already says instead of turning on for every plugin at once.

APPLYING A POLICY TO COMPUTERS

One computer

On the Computer Overview, use the Policy selector, choose a Policy, and click Apply. Choosing No Policy removes it.

Many computers

On the Computers page, or the Computers tab of a Group, select the computers and choose Bulk Actions > Apply Policy. The modal breaks your selection down by platform before you commit.

A Policy describes one platform, so applying it changes only the selected computers running that platform. The rest are left as they are.

GROUP DEFAULTS FOR NEW COMPUTERS

A Group can hold one default Policy per platform, on the Group's Policies tab. To set defaults for several Groups at once, use Bulk Actions > Assign Default Policy on the Groups page.

A Group default is a starting point, not a rule:

• It is written onto a computer the first time it reports in.
• It never changes a computer that is already in the Group. To put a Policy onto computers already there, select them and use Bulk Actions > Apply Policy.
• A computer keeps its Policy when it moves to another Group.

HOW DELIVERY IS DECIDED

A notification is delivered when all three of these are true:

1. The Policy has that channel turned on for the plugin.
2. Your account can use that channel: service emails and warning emails enabled for email, an activated ticket system for PSA, an enabled endpoint for webhook.
3. The plugin is not muted on that computer.

All three only ever subtract. Adopting a Policy can reduce what you receive, never increase it.

SILENCED BY POLICY VS MUTED ON THIS COMPUTER

After a Policy is in place, a quiet plugin means one of two things, and the plugin row says which:

Muting still works as it always has, and it is the right tool for a single machine. A plugin already silenced by its Policy offers no mute option, because there is nothing left to silence. Clearing an existing mute is always available.

Muting never removes a Policy. To change how one computer notifies overall, apply a different Policy to it. To quiet one plugin on one machine, mute it.

FINDING WHAT IS WHERE

• Computers page: add the Policy column from the columns menu, and search by Policy. The search includes Unmanaged (no Policy).
• CSV export: the Policy column is included in computer exports.
• Groups page: search Groups by their default Policy.
• Computer history: Policy Applied and Policy Removed entries record who did it and when. A computer seeded by a Group default is recorded as "Group default".
• Company activity: records when a Policy is created, updated, or deleted.

THINGS TO KNOW

• Webhook endpoints set to "All events" ignore Policies. That mode is an audit stream and delivers everything. A Policy curates endpoints subscribed to specific events.
• Deleting a Policy does not delete computers or history. Its computers go back to having no Policy, which means they notify on everything again.
• A Policy does not turn plugins off. Plugin execution and thresholds are still controlled in the client settings.
• There is no per-computer channel editor. Notification routing is expressed by the Policy applied to the computer.

GETTING HELP

• Check the computer's history to confirm which Policy was applied and when.
• If a notification you expected did not arrive, check the Policy's toggles for that plugin, then confirm the channel itself is connected and the plugin is not muted.
• Contact support at support@watchmanmonitoring.com with the computer name, the plugin, and the Policy name.