Before you begin
- An administrator role. The sidebar entry appears for roles that hold the tenant-management permission (tenant.manage)
- If your tenant's security policy asks for it, you confirm your identity again before the page opens
- Only a platform administrator can edit the Global column. Everyone else sets values at the Tenant or Host Pool level
Open the matrix
In the sidebar, open Settings → Configuration Matrix. The page itself is titled Settings Matrix, so you will see both names. Each setting also has its own page at /settings/hierarchy/matrix/<setting>, with what it does, why it matters, its allowed values, and the same editors as the matrix. To see who changed what and when, click Settings History in the page header. It opens the audit log for the tenant you are looking at.
Bookmarks to the retired pages still work. Old Global Settings, Tenant Settings and Settings Inheritance links open the matrix. Old Software Distribution links open it filtered to the Software Distribution category, and old Modules links open it filtered to Feature Modules.
How inheritance works
The table has five columns: Setting, Global, Tenant, Host Pool and Effective. A value flows down the chain. Global is the baseline every tenant shares, a tenant inherits it, and each host pool inherits from its tenant. The most specific level that holds a value wins: Host Pool, then Tenant, then Global, then the built-in application default.
- Inherited: this level holds no value of its own and uses the one above it
- Override (Set): this level holds its own value, which replaces the one above it for everything below
- Default: nothing is set anywhere, so the built-in application default applies
- Effective: the value Atlas applies to the selected tenant and host pool, with a label showing which level it came from
Set a value as high up as it holds true, and override lower down only where a tenant or pool really differs. Fewer overrides make the configuration easier to reason about.
Choose a tenant and host pool
The tenant and host pool selectors sit in the Tenant and Host Pool column headers, right above the values they control. You can browse any tenant you manage without switching the tenant you are working in. Pick a single host pool to see and edit that pool's values, or pick All host pools to compare every pool at once:
- Each row shows whether the pools agree (Same across N pools) or differ (Mixed, N of M pools override), with a per-pool breakdown
- Apply to host pools sets a value on the pools you select, or resets them to inherit. You confirm the change first, and pools with active sessions pick it up immediately
Find a setting
The matrix lists hundreds of settings. Narrow it down with the filters above the table. The page address keeps your tenant, host pool, search and category, so you can copy a link that opens on exactly the same view.
- Search settings… filters by name
- Category narrows the table to one area, such as Compute & VM Lifecycle, Security & Compliance or Software Distribution
- The state tabs show All, Overrides, Inherited, Mixed (pools disagree) or Not configured. Each tab shows its count
- Only differences hides rows where every level agrees, so the places that differ stand out
Edit a setting
- Find the row and click the value in the column you want to change: Global, Tenant or Host Pool.
- Choose a value to override that level, or choose Inherit (Clear) to remove the override and use the value from above again.
- Check the current and new effective value in the confirmation, then confirm. The change applies straight away to the level you edited and to everything that inherits from it.
Some rows show a badge instead of an editor. N/A means the setting has no host pool level. Set at creation means the pool copied the value when it was created, so change it on the pool's own settings page. Read-only here and Per pool link to the page where the setting is managed.
Why is a setting this value?
Click the effective value to open the "Why is … this value?" panel, named for the setting. It lists every level in the chain, from the built-in default through Global and Tenant to the selected host pool, with what each one holds or that it holds nothing, and marks the level that applies. Use it whenever a pool does not behave the way you expected.
Locked and plan-gated rows
Some rows can be seen but not changed. The note on the row says why: the feature belongs to a plan or add-on your subscription does not include, it depends on another product that is turned off for the tenant, or it is fixed by your deployment's environment. A setting that depends on another setting shows as unavailable until that setting is turned on.