Differs from policy

Question

Hey there,

I've just done a new install of Sophos 9 with console 4 .. which all went good.

When we started migrating existing machines across to the new server I noticed a lot of them now show that the "Application control policy" now differs. All other policies seem to be fine.

Anyone have any ideas as to why this policy is showing these errors?

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EMK · Accepted Answer

“Differs from policy” is a state calculated at the client and the outcome sent back to the Sophos Management Server.   It is calculated on the client for 2 reasons, to save the overhead of transmitting the full configuration of the client back to the server and to remove the need for the server to perform the relatively expensive comparison. As an example for a managed client, when you configure the updating policy and send it to the endpoint, it is sent via the Remote Management System (RMS) and ends up at the client in the directory: “C:\ProgramData\Sophos\Remote Management System\3\Agent\AdapterStorage\ALC\” as the file SAUPolicy.  Similarly you will find the policy of all other managed components in their respective directories under this location. These files make up the policy and in order to assess if the machines complies or “Differs from Policy”, the local configuration of each component is compared and the results sent back to the management server in a status message. Thanks. :219