Detection Rule logic fails to work as expected

Products

• IT Management Suite
• Software Management Solution

Issue/Introduction

ITMS Software Management offers the ability to create Detection and Applicability Rules to determine if software is installed, or is able to be installed, on a system. This functionality is available to all clients, as it uses the Inventory Rule Agent, which is part of the Software Management Framework of the base Symantec Management Agent installation.

These Inventory Rules can include multiple checks, but the logic on how to create one can be confusing, as this example shows:

Resolution

The structure of a Detection or Applicability Rule starts with a parent "AND" expression. This is necessary and cannot be removed.

Think of the logic inside these rules as a list. When you want to say, "first_test AND second_test AND third_test", the rule would be configured as AND(first_test, second_test, third_test)

Everything within the AND group needs to be valid for the rule to pass. Similarly, OR logic requires only one test to be valid for the rule to pass, and NOT logic requires the opposite of its test for the rule to pass. Logical expressions can also be nested, to offer complex tests in some situations.

To fix the previous example, the logical expression needs to be moved, and the tests need to be contained inside it. Rules can be dragged-and-dropped.

For this example, the two tests are contained inside the OR expression, so the Rule will pass as valid when either test passes.