Implementing Your NAP Design Plan

Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

Consider the following factors before you implement your design plan:

  • Staging strategy: There are three different modes of operation available to gradually enforce health requirements on the network: reporting mode, deferred enforcement, and full enforcement.

    You can also use small-scale pilot or lab deployments to become familiar with NAP processes, update infrastructure, and refine your criteria for compliance. For more information about the phases of a NAP deployment, see Design a Staging Strategy.

  • Server placement: A NAP server infrastructure includes NAP health policy servers and NAP enforcement points; it can also include remediation servers and health requirement servers. For more information about planning placement, load balancing, and redundancy for these servers, see Design a Server Placement Strategy and NAP Capacity Planning.

  • System health and compliance: You must define which client configuration will be considered compliant and which will be considered noncompliant with health requirements. Your compliance strategy can change when you deploy new system health agents (SHAs) on the network. For more information, see Choose a Compliance Strategy.

  • Exception management: You must consider how to deal with client computers, servers, and other network devices that must be exempt from health checks. For more information, see Design an Exception Management Strategy.

  • Reporting strategy: NAP reports are an essential component of your NAP deployment. NAP reports help to identify what, where, and when compliance problems occur on the network. For more information, see Design a Reporting Strategy.

  • Documenting your NAP deployment: Documenting your NAP deployment helps you to set clear goals and record whether these goals are met. For more information, see Document Your NAP Design.

How to implement your NAP design using this guide

The next step in implementing your design is to determine in what order each of the deployment tasks must be performed. This guide uses checklists to help you walk through the various server and application deployment tasks that are required to implement your design plan. As shown in the following illustration, parent and child checklists are used as necessary to represent the order in which tasks for a specific NAP design must be performed:

Use the following parent checklists in this section of the guide to become familiar with the deployment tasks for implementing your organization's NAP design: