Explanation of Clones with Deployments

What

Clones are a theoretical concept in FileWave. A clone represents a symbolic link to an actual device/device group. This article covers how clones are treated differently in deployments compared to how they are handled in associations.

When/Why

Sometimes clones are either purposefully chosen for an association, or just chosen for convenience sake by an admin. Regardless of the “why” behind this, the result is the same…the payload(s) end up assigned to the device or the device group in the real world.

How

But there is a difference in the way Deployments handle clones compared to Associations. Basically, Associations use the actual clone (i.e. they reference directly the id of the clone itself), but Deployments convert the “clone” into the id of the original object…be it a device or a device group. This conversion in deployments simplifies the content assignment, and makes more logical sense.

This conversion can theoretically have an impact though when converting associations that use clones. The link being changed to the original device/device group may change the formula of the “winning” association…so we suggest you convert this type of association slowly to gauge any potential impact in your environment.

Reference the View - Deployments articles to see how one creates a deployment from scratch, but in the below articles you’ll also see how to use our Associations to Deployments Conversion Tool to create deployments from multiple associations and also look at the benefits of Deployments overall.