Audit Job overview

Audit Jobs allow you to compare server objects, components, server-object-based snapshots, or component-based snapshots to determine whether their configurations match a standard configuration.

After running an Audit Job, you can view its results and quickly identify discrepancies between component configurations. When you identify discrepancies, you can bundle changes into a BLPackage and deploy the changes to a server so its configuration matches the standard configuration. Audits can also perform a security function by quickly identifying unauthorized changes to server configurations.

Audit Jobs require you to identify a master — that is, a server with a standard configuration that is used as the basis of comparison. The procedure for identifying a master depends on how you define an Audit Job:

  • If you define an Audit Job by selecting live server objects, you must select either a server and a live server object on that server or a server-object-based snapshot as the master.
  • If you define an Audit Job by selecting one or more component templates, you must select one or more components or component-based snapshots that act as a master.You can also select a server as a master, in which case the Audit Job performs automatic component discovery and generates components for use in the Audit Job.

Note

After running an Audit Job, you might need to change the master (for example, in the case of an organization-wide policy change) and run the Audit Job against a new master. In such a case, the job is considered a new Audit Job and all Audit-Options are re-set to default.

However, if your Audit Job is based on a master snapshot, changing the master is not usually recommended or necessary. For example, if you want to compare your server with a snapshot of a master server over a period of time, you do not need to switch the master snapshot between Audit Job runs, as the master snapshot in the Audit Job comes with all its change tracking results.

Remember that the purpose of an Audit Job is to compare to a standard, gold configuration. If you are interested in comparing configuration changes over time, run a Snapshot Job and view its change tracking results.

 

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