About Constraints

Constraints are used to limit the scheduling possibilities for catalog items. For example you could use constraints to prevent all of your users from requesting and scheduling a software installation at the same time. You would also use constraints if you wanted to perform a deployment in a controlled manner over a period of time, but you still want to allow the users to initiate the installation.

While constraints are most useful for OSD deployments, they can be used for any catalog item.

There are three types of constraints:

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Global constraint—A global constraint is evaluated after all other constraints have been assessed. You use the global constraint to limit at a top level the volume of requests that can be submitted on a daily basis.

For example, you could use the global constraint to limit the volume based on what the help desk could support on a daily basis. Once the global limit has been reached for that day, no more scheduling can occur.

You configure a global constraint by clicking Edit Global Constraint on the Deployment Management > Constraints view.

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Default constraint—The default constraint, when configured, applies in the event no conditional constraint could be found. Because conditional constraints apply based on conditions, it is possible that a user or computer may not qualify for any constraints. In this event, you still may want a constraint applied, hence the presence of the default constraint.

You configure a default constraint by clicking Edit Default Constraint on the Deployment Management > Constraints view.

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Conditional constraint—Conditions can be set on constraints to determine whether a constraint should be applied. The same conditions found elsewhere apply here: OU/AU, Group, Property, and Collection. When a user matches a condition for a constraint, no further evaluation is performed on other constraints and the settings for the constraint are applied.

You configure a conditional constraint by clicking Add Constraint on the Deployment Management > Constraints view, and then specifying conditions on the Conditions tab of the Create Constraints dialog box.

For more information, see Configuring Constraints.