Policy Components
All policies are composed of the following components that you configure:
- Match conditions—Criteria against which a route or packets are compared. You can configure one or more criteria. If all criteria match, one or more actions are applied.
- Actions—What happens if all criteria match. You can configure one or more actions.
- Terms—Named structures in which match conditions and actions are defined. You can define one or more terms.
For more information about these concepts and how they fit into the context of their respective policies, see Configuring a Routing Policy and Firewall Filter Components.
The policy framework software evaluates each incoming and outgoing route or packet against the match conditions in a term. If the criteria in the match conditions are met, the defined action is taken.
In general, the policy framework software compares the route or packet against the match conditions in the first term in the policy, then goes on to the next term, and so on. (For specific information about when the evaluation process ends for each policy, see Comparison of Routing Policies and Firewall Filters.) Therefore, the order in which you arrange terms in a policy is relevant.
The order of match conditions within a term is not relevant because a route or packet must match all match conditions in a term for an action to be taken.
