Introduction to Platform Settings

A platform settings policy is a shared set of features or parameters that define the aspects of a managed device that are likely to be similar to other managed devices in your deployment, such as time settings and external authentication.

A shared policy makes it possible to configure multiple managed devices at once, which provides consistency in your deployment and streamlines your management efforts. Any changes to a platform settings policy affects all the managed devices where you applied the policy. Even if you want different settings per device, you must create a shared policy and apply it to the desired device.

For example, your organization’s security policies may require that your appliances have a “No Unauthorized Use” message when a user logs in. With platform settings, you can set the login banner once in a platform settings policy.

You can also benefit from having multiple platform settings policies on a single management center. For example, if you have different mail relay hosts that you use under different circumstances or if you want to test different access lists, you can create several platform settings policies and switch between them, rather than editing a single policy.