Snapshot specification elements

A snapshot specification consists of the following elements:

• Properties: The name and description of the snapshot specification. If you want to create an inventory of some snapshot specification rules, you can select the Perform Inventory and the snapshot result will collect all information about the specific rules from the target servers. This option applies to the following rules: Discovered Software, Internet Information Server, Local Security Settings, Registered Software, Windows and Unix Users and Groups.
• Targets: The servers that you want to take a snapshot of — that is, capture the specific server configuration as defined in the snapshot specification’s rules. You can choose as many servers and groups of servers as you want.
• Source: The source of a snapshot specification. If you choose a server then you can select server objects from that server as the basis of your snapshot. The source of a snapshot specification can be a server, or no source at all. (Some rules require a source server. Other rules can be defined by your own custom values without a source.)
• Note that the value of a source parameter is not used when taking a snapshot. It only has meaning when defining a snapshot specification.
• You cannot use a server as the source for ESXi.
• Rules: A check on a particular server object with a desired value and an optional remediation value. For example, you might check if a server contains a specific Windows Service, and if found, determine if the service is turned off. For a description of server objects that you can define rules for in a snapshot specification, see Audit and remediation rules .
• Schedule: The time the snapshot will run. You can run the snapshot specification as a job on a onetime basis, or on a recurring schedule.
• Notifications: The email notification send after the snapshot has run. You can base the notification on success, failure, or simply the completion of the snapshot specification job.

When you set up a snapshot specification, you select the objects to check for on the target server. You can also apply rules to these objects that define their desired configuration state. For some rules, you can define remediation values, in the event that the resulting snapshot is used as the source for an audit.

The following figure shows a snapshot specification that has three rules that will capture configuration information about the target server for event logging, operating system, and windows services.