In Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, baselines are used to define the configuration of a product or a system that is established at a specific point in time, capturing both structure and details. Configuration baselines in Configuration Manager 2007 contain a defined set of desired configurations that are evaluated for compliance as a group.

Configuration baselines contain one or more configuration items with associated rules, and they are assigned to computers through collections, together with a compliance evaluation schedule.

Note
Although you can assign configuration baselines to a collection that contains users, the configuration baselines will be evaluated only by computers in the collection, and not by users in the collection.

You can create your own configuration baselines with the Configuration Manager console, and you can import configuration baselines from the following sources:

• A Best Practices configuration baseline from Microsoft or other vendors
  
  
• Custom authored configuration baselines from within your own organization, but external to Configuration Manager
  
  
• Another Configuration Manager site
  
  

When configuration baselines are imported, unless they were originally created in the same Configuration Manager site, you will not be able to directly modify them in the Configuration Manager console. If you need to refine the configuration items to meet your business requirements, the recommended path is:

1. Create child configuration items with your custom values.
   
   
2. Duplicate the configuration baseline.
   
   
3. Edit the duplicated baseline, and replace the configuration items with your edited child configuration items.
   
   

Configuration Baseline Rules

See Also