Types of Web Filter Policies in multi-tenant setups

This article applies to organisations with a 'Hybrid' setup (both On-Premise Appliance and Cloud), as well as On-Premise only and Cloud only setups.

 

If you have a multi-tenant setup, you must select which type of Web Filter Policy to use before creating it.

Tip

You can check if you have a multi-tenant setup by going to one of these pages:

  • System > Administration > Tenants in On-Premise Appliance.
  • Admin Panel > Tenant Management in Cloud Portal.

If you can’t access these pages, you don’t have a multi-tenant setup and won’t need to select the type of Web Filter Policy. If you need to add tenants, contact Smoothwall Support.

 

Go to Guardian > Web Filter > Manage Policies in On-Premise Appliance, or Filter > Policies in Cloud. You’ll see three tables in this order from top to bottom of the page. When you create a new Web Filter Policy, you will select where to place the policy.

Section Description Example
Cannot be overridden Policies in the Tenant-specific or Can be overridden sections can’t override these. Block gaming sites for all users in all tenants.
Tenant-specific These policies apply to the selected tenant as long as a policy in the Cannot be overridden section doesn’t conflict. Allow gaming sites for one specific tenant.
Can be overridden These policies only apply if policies in the other sections don’t conflict. Allow gaming sites for one specific tenant and block for the rest:
  1. No policy for gaming sites in Cannot be overridden.
  2. Allow for one specific tenant in Tenant-specific.
  3. Block for Everyone in Can be overridden.

 

Example

To block a website but allow specific pages on the website for each tenant that are different for each tenant:

  1. Create a Can be overridden policy with these settings:
    1. Who: Everyone
    2. What: The Category the website is part of
    3. Where: Everywhere
    4. When: Always
    5. Action: Block
  2. Create a Custom Category for each tenant with the web pages that each tenant can access.
  3. For each tenant, create a Tenant-specific Web Filter Policy with these settings:
    1. Who: Everyone
    2. What: The Custom Category
    3. Where: Everywhere
    4. When: Always
    5. Action: Allow
  4. Order all the Tenant-specific Allow policies above the Can be overridden Block policy.