Name Restrictions for Manipulation Rules

Historically, you have been allowed to configure any value for the name parameter within a manipulation rule. This method of naming caused confusion when referencing rules, so now manipulation rules name must follow a specific syntax. They must match the expression ^[[alpha:]][[:alnum:]_]+$ and contain at least one lower case letter.

In other words, the name must:

• Start with a letter, and then it can contain any number of letters, numbers, or underscores
• Contain at least one lower case letter

All pre-existing configurations will continue to function normally. If you want to change a manipulation rule, however, you are required to change its name if it does not follow the new format.

The ACLI verify-config command warns you if the system has loaded a configuration containing illegal naming syntax.

Please note that the software allows you to make changes to HMRs, including configuring new functionality to existing rules, as long as you do not change the rule name. This results in an important consideration surrounding HMRs with hyphens in previously configured rule names.

• You can reference stored values in new value names. (Recall that stored values may be rule names.)
• You can perform subtraction in new value names.

If you use a rule names with hyphens within the REGEX of new value names, the system cannot determine whether the hyphen is part of the rule name or is intended to invoke subtraction within the REGEX. For this reason, you need to use great care with legacy HMR naming that includes hyphens.

As a general rule, create new rule names that follow the new rule naming guidelines if you intend to use new functionality in those rules.