Explicit targeting of management policies

摘要

Method and apparatus for assigning policies [210] which are rules [210] that govern the use of or access to network [120] services. Each rule [210] defines conditions that when evaluated true trigger actions to allow or deny the service. Techniques are disclosed which provide for explicit, flexible, and centralized assignment of policy [210] to targets [110] which are specified network [120] services. These techniques include explicitly associating a policy [210] with a network [120] resource or process, grouping policy [210] related processes, grouping related targets [110], associating groups of targets [300] not shown with groups of policies [400] not shown, mapping a user name [980] not shown contained in a policy [210] to an associated network address [690] such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address [690], and providing dynamically mapped policy identified user and host names [980,680] not shown with associated network addresses [690], such as IP addresses [690], to client processes [660].