The SiteProtector™ system manages the relationship between local settings on the Network IPS appliance and group settings in the SiteProtector system.
At that first heartbeat, if you selected to override group settings with local appliance settings, then the appliance maintains its local settings. If you did not select to override group settings with local appliance settings, then the Agent Manager immediately "pushes" the group policy files to the appliance. It completes this action even if the group policy settings are undefined. For example, if you configure firewall rules on the appliance, and then register the appliance with a group with no firewall rules, the group policy overwrites the local policy. The appliance has no firewall rules.