Snapshot a server and compare with gold standard server

Question

Hello,
Within SCCM 2012 R2, I am trying to see if i can compare my target server with a master server (like a gold standard server) and understand whats missing or different (could be configuration files missing or services or even a particular parameter missing
from a config file) between the two servers for auditing purpose and then perform remediation via a package deployment or something else.
a] So far, I do not see any options like to compare a file between two servers or compare a server to another server. Is it possible to this in SCCM?
b] Also, as part of (a) I would like to take a snapshot a running server and use that as my 'gold standard' for future comparisons as part of auditing. I'm not referring to 'snapshot' within a hypervisor but a snapshot capability within SCCM on a file or
on a server. Is it possible?
thanks

Answer 1

You have to understand the compliance management in ConfigMgr first.
You do configuration items which can be basically anything, scripts that check something, registry entries etc. and after you've done your items you combine them in to a
baseline. After this, you deploy the baseline to your collection of systems that you want to check / remediate the settings you've configured.
There's no way to check if server A is like server B, because there are so many different variables / settings in place. You have to know what to check so that ConfigMgr can do the check for you.
Some references here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg681958.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/justin_gao/archive/2012/04/22/system-center-2012-configuration-manager-rtm-compliance-settings-management.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/scom_2012_upgrade_process__lessons_learned_during_my_upgrade_process/archive/2012/09/21/compliance-settings-sccm-2012.aspx