Compiling A File Baseline Snapshot - Symantec ALTIRIS INVENTORY SOLUTION 7.0 SP2 - V1.0 Manual

Gathering baseline inventory 109

Compiling a file baseline snapshot

and so on. You can use the default configuration file, edit it, or create one or more
custom configuration files. Configuration files for registry baselines are in .INI
format. By default, it is AexRegScan.ini. Configuration files for file baselines are
in .INI format, but have extension .BLS. By default, it is local_master.bls.
The local baseline tasks use the default configuration files.
See "About baseline inventory" on page 107.
The default configuration files and additional sample configuration files are
located in InstallDir\Altiris\Notification
Server\NSCap\bin\Win32\X86\Inventory\Application Management.
A baseline snapshot file maintains a record of the files or registry settings on a
computer at a given time. This data is gathered during a baseline scan that based
on options in a baseline configuration file. Registry baseline snapshots are saved
to a new file on the scanned computer in .RBL format.
File baseline snapshots are appended to the baseline configuration file. The default
location for baseline files is %ProgramFiles%\Altiris\eXpress\Baseline.
The file and registry compliance scans creates output in XML format that is stored
in NSEs and reported to the CMDB.
The following folders represent the packages for File and Registry baseline tasks
respectively.
InstallDir\Altiris\Notification
Server\NSCap\bin\Win32\X86\Inventory\Application
Management\FileBaselinePackage
InstallDir\Altiris\Notification
Server\NSCap\bin\Win32\X86\Inventory\Application
Management\RegBaselinePackage
You need to make sure that you copy or keep the baseline configurations and
baseline snapshots that you want to use for compiling a custom baseline or
comparing with a custom baseline when running these tasks. Otherwise, the task
fails.
Compiling a file baseline snapshot
The baseline scan gathers data about the files on a computer at a given time. The
data that is gathered during this scan is saved in a baseline snapshot file (.BLS)
on the scanned computer. The files that are found during subsequent scans of
that computer, or of other computers, are compared to the baseline snapshot.
Baseline Management also contains predefined reports to track baseline and
compliance information.