Audit policy management

An audit policy allows you to define and store a centralized and reusable collection of server configuration compliance rules. You can link an audit policy to audits, snapshot specifications, and other audit policies.

An audit policy is typically created by a policy setter who understands the compliance standards that a company wants its servers to meet. Another set of users, whose job it is to manage and audit actual servers, can use predefined audit policies by linking them to their audits or snapshot specifications. If changes are made to the audit policy, the audit or snapshot specification that links to it will reference the audit policy’s updated rules. Users who audit servers can be sure their audits always reflect the latest compliance standards in their organization.

Audit policies can link to other audit policies. For example, you could combine several different discrete audit policies together as one master policy that defines how Windows services should be configured. After you run the audit, if any discrepancies are discovered you can remediate them from the audit results.

You can create an audit policy from scratch or you can save the rules of an audit, snapshot specification (or another audit policy) as an audit policy. All audit policies are stored in the SA Client Library.

You can also view the status of managed servers (targets) that are attached to a certain audit policy.