Understand the impact of group-related changes

When you change a group, you impact that group's member and any subgroups configured to inherit its policies. Therefore, depending on your groups' size and hierarchical structure, changes can affect many users. Before making group-related changes, it is crucial to know how Connected processes the changes and understand their impact on users and your network.

The following list provides detailed information about how your group-related changes impact users:

  • Changing a group's policy

    When you update or replace a group's policy, Connected notifies the Agents of its members and the members of any subgroups that inherit the policy. After receiving a notification, Agents process it without delay.

    Changing a group's backup policy triggers a full file scan of the computer while changes to the sync policy trigger a Connected folder scan. These scans occur entirely on the local disk and do not impact Connected or the network. However, a policy change that requires Agents to backup or sync many more files might affect network performance if a large number of Agents receive the policy change simultaneously.

    Suppose you update the backup policy that applies to your Sales group. When you save and publish it, the following events occur:

    1. Connected notifies Agents affected by the policy change.

      In this case, Connected notifies Agents of members in the Sales group and its subgroups configured to inherit policies.

    2. When an Agent receives notification, it retrieves the updated policy.

    3. The Agent starts a full file scan and processes files according to the updated policy.

      The Agent scans all drives or volumes included by the policy. While scanning, the Agent syncs files as necessary. At the next backup interval, it starts backing up files that require it.

  • Changing a group's assigned Agent version

    Changing a group's Agent version triggers Agents to auto-upgrade. After you change the version, Connected sends an upgrade notification to all Agents in the group and any subgroups that inherit their parent's version. Upon receipt, Agents at an earlier version automatically upgrade themselves. Those at a later version remain unchanged because Agents do not support downgrades.

    To reduce the impact on local network devices, upgrade notifications stagger the start of the Agent upgrade process. Each notification includes a variable delay based on the number of Agents, which lasts from a few seconds to approximately 30 minutes. When an Agent starts its upgrade, download of the new Agent's package occurs quickly with minimal impact because of its relatively small size. Windows-based Agent installation packages are about 10 MB in size, and macOS-based ones are about 6 MB. When the upgrade completes, the Agent performs a full file scan of the computer. This scan occurs entirely on the local disk and has no impact on Connected or the network.

    Suppose your Sales group is assigned Agent version 4.10 and that you want to upgrade it to Agent version 4.11. To do so, you update the group's Agent version values for all operating systems to 4.11. When you save the change, the following occurs:

    1. Connected sends an upgrade notification to all Agents in the Sales group and its subgroups configured to inherit the Agent version.

    2. Agents with a current version earlier than 4.11 wait their specified delay, and then perform an auto-upgrade:

      1. The Agent stops all Connected processes currently running on the computer so that it can replace the Agent files.
      2. The Agent downloads the specified Agent installation package.
      3. The Agent silently upgrades itself by installing the new installation package and then starts the new version.

    3. The Agent starts a full file scan and processes files as necessary.

      The Agent scans all drives or volumes included by policy to capture any files that changed during the upgrade process. While scanning, the Agent syncs files as necessary. At the next backup interval, it starts backing up files that require it.

  • Moving users to another group or moving an entire group to a different location in the hierarchy

    Moving users from one group to another reassigns each user's Agent version and policies to those of the new group. Moving an entire group to another location in the hierarchy, such as moving Sales from the Boston group to the Chicago group, also impacts the group if it is configured to inherit its Agent version and policies from its parent. When you move users or an entire group, Connected sends upgrade and policy change notifications, if necessary, to all Agents the move impacts.

    • Upgrade notifications. To reduce the impact on local network devices, upgrade notifications stagger the start of the Agent upgrade process. Each notification includes a variable delay based on the number of Agents, which lasts from a few seconds to approximately 30 minutes. When an Agent starts its upgrade, the new Agent package's download occurs quickly with minimal impact because of its relatively small size. Windows-based Agent installation packages are about 10 MB in size, and macOS-based ones are about 6 MB.
    • Policy change notifications. Agents process these types of notification without delay. If the policy changes require the Agent to backup or sync many more files, it might impact network performance if a large number of Agents receive this policy change simultaneously.

    Suppose that your Promotions group is configured to inherit policies, assigned Agent version 4.10, and has backup policy A. The Marketing group is assigned Agent version 4.11 and has backup policy B. In response to corporate restructuring, you make the Promotions group a subgroup under Marketing. This move triggers an automatic Agent upgrade and policy change for all Promotions group members, which occurs as follows:

    1. Connected notifies the Agents of all Promotion group members that policy and Agent version changes occurred.

    2. In response, the Agent retrieves the updated policy and performs an auto-upgrade after the specified delay:

      1. The Agent stops all Connected processes currently running on the computer so that it can replace the Agent files.
      2. The Agent downloads the specified Agent installation package.
      3. The Agent silently upgrades itself by installing the new installation package and then starts the new version.

    3. The Agent starts a full file scan and processes files as necessary.

      The Agent scans all drives or volumes included by policy to capture files that either changed during upgrade or now meet policy. While scanning, the Agent syncs files as necessary. At the next backup interval, it starts backing up files that require it.

  • Changing whether a group inherits policies

    If you stop a group from inheriting its parent's policies, the default policy behavior for each policy type applies. Alternatively, if you enable policy inheritance, the group inherits its parent's policies. Top-level groups inherit corporate policies.

    After you change a group's policy inheritance, Connected determines if any effective policies have changed. If so, Connected notifies Agents in the group as well as any subgroups that inherit the policy. When they receive this notification, Agents process it without delay.

    Changes to a group's effective backup policy trigger a full file scan of the computer while changes to the sync policy trigger a Connected folder scan. These scans occur entirely on the local disk and do not impact Connected or the network. However, a policy change that requires Agents to backup or sync many more files might affect network performance if a large number of Agents receive the policy change simultaneously.

    Suppose that you edit the Sales group and clear the Inherit policies option to stop inheritance. When you save the group, the following events occur:

    1. Connected determines if any effective policies have changed. If so, it notifies Agents affected by the change.

      In this case, Connected notifies Agents of members in the Sales group and any of its subgroups that inherit policies.

    2. When an Agent receives notification, it retrieves the policies that now apply.

    3. For sync or backup policies, the Agent starts a full file scan and processes files according to the policy.

      The Agent scans all drives or volumes included by the policy. While scanning, the Agent syncs files as necessary. At the next backup interval, it starts backing up files that require it.