Defining and implementing configuration standards for facilitating compliance testing in an environment
View Patent ↗A method for facilitating compliance testing in an environment is provided. The method includes defining each component as a set of attribute value pairs represented as a configuration item (CI) and defining relationships among the CIs. Configuration Standards for the CIs are defined to include scope identifying CIs to which the Configuration Standards apply and restrictions defining requirements for compliance. Compliance testing is performed for components against a selected Configuration Standards by determining, depending on the scope and the restrictions of each of the selected Configuration Standards, which of the components within the scope of the selected Configuration Standards fails to meet the restrictions of respective ones of the selected Configuration Standards; and by outputting results as a list, which includes each of the components that failed to meet respective ones of the selected Configuration Standards.
1. A method for facilitating compliance testing in an environment, comprising:
defining components for compliance testing as a set of attribute values pairs represented as configuration items;
defining relationships between the components;
storing the component definitions and the relationship definitions in a searchable database;
defining Configuration Standards for the configuration items, the Configuration Standards comprised of scope and restrictions, the scope identifying configuration items to which the Configuration Standards apply, the restrictions defining requirements for compliance to the Configuration Standards;
wherein the scope, for the Configuration Standards, comprises:
scope search strings, which are configured to identify the configuration items via a scope search string search;
scope links, which are configured to link to the configuration items for identifying the configuration items; and
configuration items list, which is configured to identify the configuration items therein;
wherein the restrictions, for the Configuration Standards, comprise:
a restriction search string, which is configured to identify the requirements in terms of attributes and relationships for compliance via a restriction search string search;
configuration instance restriction, which is configured to identify requirements for compliance based on attributes and relationships of a configuration instance; and
configuration items standard instance, which is configured to identify requirements for compliance based on attributes and relationships of a created object;
storing the Configuration Standards in the database; and
performing compliance testing for components against a selected Configuration Standards, the performance compliance comprising:
determining, depending on the scope and the restrictions of each of the selected Configuration Standards, which of the components within the scope of the selected Configuration Standards fails to meet the restrictions of the selected Configuration Standards; and
outputting results as a list, wherein the list comprises each of the components that failed to meet the selected Configuration Standards.