Creating Baselines and Baseline Groups

Baselines contain a collection of one or more patches, extensions, service packs, bug fixes, or upgrades, and can be classified as patch, extension, or upgrade baselines. Baseline groups are assembled from existing baselines.

Host baseline groups can contain a single upgrade baseline, and various patch and extension baselines.

Virtual machine baseline groups can contain up to two upgrade baselines: one VMware Tools upgrade baseline, and one virtual machine hardware upgrade baseline.

When you scan hosts and virtual machines, you evaluate them against baselines and baseline groups to determine their level of compliance.

Update Manager includes two predefined patch baselines and two predefined upgrade baselines. You cannot edit or delete the predefined virtual machine baselines. You can use the predefined baselines, or create patch, extension, and upgrade baselines that meet your criteria. Baselines you create, and predefined baselines, can be combined in baseline groups. For more information about creating and managing baselines and baseline groups, see Working with Baselines and Baseline Groups.