When you are creating custom xml for specific CSP and import it, you probably wondered what “Make Commands Atomic” tick box means, especially as it is ticked by default.

Theory

Windows 10 use OMA-DM (Open Mobile Alliance-Device Management) protocol for MDM, the OMA-DM protocol use the SyncML representation protocol format to pass instructions and stay in sync, SyncML is XML-based so easy to read.

In the SyncML format, Atomic is a container attribute, this mean that it can contain 1 or more instructions within it.

When you create a custom profile with multiple command, some command may fail, some other may succeed, so you may end up with a profile half-applied. This is where Atomic attribute come in play, it validate that all the command succeed or it will fail entirely.

Some CSPs require to use atomic in order to be used, Firewall CSP is one of them, no one want a firewall half-configured…

Example

Let’s say I want to apply 2 settings but it’s fine if one of them is failing then I should create 2 profile for each settings.

Now imagine that you need to run an exec command, apply 2 other settings to make a feature working then Atomic is the “safeguard” to make sure that the exec command run and the other 2 settings are applied as well otherwise if 1 fail the whole profile fail and no settings are applied.