Managing policies

Sametime policies allows administrators to control user access to features.

About this task

Policies are grouped based on the following features:

  • Instant messaging (chat, image settings, file transfer, plugin management, and mobile features provided by the Sametime Community Server and Sametime Proxy Server).
  • Meetings (conferencing features provided by Sametime v9 Meeting Server.
  • Media services (audio and video features provided by Sametime v9 Media Manager).

When a user authenticates, Sametime applies a default policy if no other policy can be found for that user. You can also assign a custom policy. Custom policies can be designed for specific groups in the company. Sametime 9 Meetings policy changes take effect immediately, while Instant Messaging and Media Services policy changes take effect within an hour. If a user is assigned to more than one policy, then Sametime uses the policy weight to determine precedence.

Policies are only applied from the primary Sametime community defined in the client. Additional server communities' policies are not pushed down to the users' desktops. A user's primary Sametime community is the first community listed in their Sametime client Server Communities Properties settings.

There is also an anonymous policy that is assigned by default to users who have not authenticated, and unauthenticated users always receive this policy.