Working with Rights Policy Templates

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

After you create a rights policy template, you can manage how it is applied in the organization by controlling its distribution to authors.

RMS stores rights policy templates in the configuration database. In addition, it maintains a copy of all rights policy templates in a shared folder that you specify, as described in “To Specify the Location of Rights Policy Templates” later in this subject. Ensure that your templates are stored in a network-accessible location that meets your organizational security guidelines. You should not create shared folders for templates in the core folders that are used by RMS, such as the Program Files folder or the IISRoot folders.

When publishing protected content, the author selects the rights policy template to apply from the templates that are available on the local computer. To make rights policy templates available to use, the administrator must deploy them to user computers from a shared folder. The method of distribution for rights policy templates is up to the organization. Using Systems Management Server (SMS), Group Policy, or a script are ways that this distribution can be achieved.

When a user attempts to consume protected content, the RMS-enabled application obtains the latest version of the rights policy template that was used to publish the content from the configuration database. The RMS-enabled application then applies its settings to the content. When you modify a rights policy template on the RMS server, RMS updates the template accordingly in both the configuration database and the shared folder (if the RMS server is configured to specify a file location for storing copies of rights policy templates). The rights policy templates should be redeployed to client systems when it has been modified so that users have the most current version available on their computers.

If you delete a rights policy template, it is removed from the configuration database and also from the rights policy templates shared folder location.. It is not, however, removed from user computers. The rights policy templates stored on client computers must be removed manually from all RMS clients.

When you work with rights policy templates, perform the following tasks:

• Specify a shared folder. Before you create your first rights policy template, you must specify the shared folder in which all rights policy templates will be stored. For more information, see “To Specify the Location of Rights Policy Templates” later in this subject.

• Create and edit rights policy templates. You can create as many rights policy templates as are required to manage rights in your organization. When you create a rights policy template, you define the users and rights that apply. You also define how the rights policy template is to be applied to content. You can later edit rights policy templates when you need to update them. For more information, see “Creating and Modifying Rights Policy Templates” later in this subject.

  Note

  Whereas there is no limit to the amount of rights policy templates that can be created, it is a best practice to limit the amount of rights policy templates available in the organization. This will reduce the amount of administrative overhead that is required with managing rights policy templates.

• Distribute rights policy templates. For an author to apply a given rights policy template to content, a copy of the rights policy template must exist on the author’s computer. You can control which authors apply which rights policy templates by managing template distribution. For more information, see “Distributing Rights Policy Templates” later in this subject.

• Retire rights policy templates. When it is no longer appropriate, you can delete a rights policy template. When you do this, you should also remove it from user computers so that users do not experience problems when they attempt to consume content that was published by using the retired rights policy template. For more information, see “Retiring Rights Policy Templates” later in this subject.