Product Compliance

The SMS product compliance feature helps ensure that software used by clients complies with corporate guidelines, requirements, or standards. For example, there can be an organizational requirement to use only a certain version of a software product.

The product compliance feature works with the software inventory feature. The software inventory feature tracks software that is installed on client computers. Inventory data can show required critical software patches that are not yet deployed to specific computers. The product compliance feature identifies which software complies with corporate guidelines, requirements, or standards, and which does not. After noncompliant software is identified, you use software distribution to upgrade the software to bring it into compliance.

Instead of relying on software databases to map discovered files to known applications, SMS 2003 scans the resource headers of program files or binary files to build a complete picture of the software that is installed on each managed client computer. Such an approach is inherently scalable and automatically identifies new applications when they are released.

You can use the SMS 2003 software update management tools to check installed software on all managed systems against a Microsoft online database of available critical updates. You can then automatically download and deploy the latest patches to those systems that require them.

You can gather product compliance data and store it in the SMS site database. Each product compliance record must include product information such as the product name, product version, and product .exe file name. The following key data items are required:

  • Compliance type (type of product guideline or standard)

  • Compliance level (compliance level associated with a compliance type)

You create and run queries and reports that evaluate software inventory data against product compliance data in the SMS site database.

For more information, see Chapter 3, "Understanding SMS Features."

For More Information

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