Manage compliance and configuration

The practice of server administration increasingly involves not just ensuring that a workload functions in a reliable manner, but that servers themselves are configured in a way that meets legislative requirements. In many industries, computers must meet configuration standards dictated by legislation. The compliance functionality of the system center suite allows you to assess whether workloads in a private cloud are configured in a manner that meets the organization’s legal responsibilities.

This section covers the following topics:

 Implementing System Center Process Pack for IT GRC

 Understanding compliance settings

 Using Desired State Configuration

 Understanding System Center Advisor

Summary:

• The System Center Process Pack for IT GRC allows you to perform compliance activities using Service Manager, Configuration Manager, and Operations Manager.
• A Configuration Manager compliance setting is a setting, such as an application or registry setting that can be checked.
• A configuration baseline is a collection of compliance settings, software updates, and other configuration baselines.
• Some compliance settings can be automatically remediated.
• Desired State Configuration allows you to check and remediate a computer’s configuration using Windows PowerShell.
• System Center Advisor is a cloud-based monitoring service that can provide advice on how to better configure monitored servers.