Compliance states are computed after you scan the objects in your inventory against attached baselines or baseline groups. Update Manager computes the compliance state based on the applicability of the patches, extensions, and upgrades contained in the attached baselines or baseline groups.

Compliant

Compliant state indicates that a vSphere object is compliant with all baselines in an attached baseline group or with all patches, extensions, and upgrades in an attached baseline. Compliant state requires no further action. If a baseline contains patches or upgrades that are not relevant to the target object, the individual updates, and baselines or baseline groups that contain them, are treated as not applicable, and represented as compliant. Compliant are also hosts with attached patch baselines containing extensions or patches in Obsoleted By Host state.

Compliant state occurs under the following conditions:
  • Target objects are compliant with the baselines and baseline groups when all updates in the baseline or baseline group are either installed on the target object, obsoleted by host, or are not applicable to the target object.
  • The updates in a baseline are compliant when they are installed on the target object, or are not applicable to the object.

Non-Compliant

Non-compliant state indicates that one or more baselines in a baseline group, or one or more patches, extensions, or upgrades in a baseline are applicable to the target object, but are not installed (missing) on the target. You must remediate the target object to make it compliant.

When a baseline contains a non-compliant update, the overall status of the baseline is non-compliant. When a baseline group contains a non-compliant baseline, the overall status of the baseline group is non-compliant. The non-compliant state takes precedence over incompatible, unknown, and compliant states.

Unknown

When you attach a baseline or a baseline group to a vSphere object, and you do not scan the object, the state of the vSphere object against the baseline or baseline group is Unknown. This state indicates that a scan operation is required, that the scan has failed, or that you initiated a scan on an unsupported platform (for example, you performed a VMware Tools scan on a virtual machine running on an ESX 3.5 host).

When a baseline contains updates in compliant and unknown states, the overall status of the baseline is unknown. When a baseline group contains unknown baselines as well as compliant baselines, the overall status of the baseline group is unknown. The unknown compliance state takes precedence over compliant state.

Incompatible

Incompatible state requires attention and further action. You must determine the reason for incompatibility by probing further. You can remediate the objects in this state, but there is no guarantee that the operation will succeed. In most cases Update Manager provides sufficient details for incompatibility. For more information about incompatible compliance state, see Incompatible Compliance State.

When a baseline contains updates in incompatible, compliant, and unknown states, the overall status of the baseline is incompatible. When a baseline group contains incompatible, unknown, and compliant baselines, the overall status of the baseline group is incompatible. The incompatible compliance state takes precedence over compliant and unknown compliance states.