I get a lot of questions about the terminology surrounding PBM. Here is a list of the terms you will want to become familiar with along with a description.
- Facet – These are a grouping of properties based on a feature or particular aspect of SQL Server. Be sure to look through these after you enable PBM to get a better idea of how Microsoft has organized the available properties. Examples would be properties grouped around server level settings, databases, stored procedures, and triggers.
- Condition – Conditions define and scope the object types you are looking to evaluate. They are also used as filters for target servers and restrictions on server types like SQL Server versions.
- Policy – Policies are containers that hold and describe the facets, conditions, targets, evaluation modes, and server restrictions you have chosen.
- Target – Targets are the objects that contain the properties you are looking to evaluate. For example, you may have chosen the database facet, but you can use a condition to define your target as a specific database.
- Server Restriction – Again you can use a condition to restrict your policy to a particular type of server. An example would be restricting to only servers running SQL Standard Edition.
- Category – Categories are logical groupings of policies. You might have 5 different policies that evaluate things regarding SOX audit compliancy. You can add all 5 policies to a SOX audit category and then apply the category to the servers that require them.