SQL Server 2008 Administration in Action

8.2. Policy-based management terms

You can think of policy-based management as Active Directory for SQL Server. Active Directory is used in simplifying the process of administering thousands of domain users and computers. In a similar manner, policy-based management is the tool of choice in ensuring consistent SQL Server configuration, and like Active Directory, its value is magnified in environments with large numbers of server instances.

There are several new terms used when discussing policy-based management: targets, facets, conditions, and policies. Let's look at each in turn.

8.2.1. Targets

A target is the entity managed by a policy. Depending ...