NCM Hardening Compliance Audit report and remediation

Question

Hello All,

I have configured compliance policies reports in SolarWinds NCM and am currently developing remediation scripts for compliance violations.

My requirement is to trigger remediation only after approvals are obtained:

* Informational violations → 1 approval level
* Critical violations → 2 approval levels

Has anyone implemented a similar approval-driven remediation process in NCM? Does NCM support this natively, or is integration with an external workflow/ITSM platform required?

Any recommendations or best practices would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

gaba8696 · Answer

@mr.castaneda - I have enabled the Approval System and configured a two-level approval and its working as expected. Thank you for your suggestion.

gaba8696 · Answer

@mr.castaneda - Thank you for your suggestion, I will definitely try this and inform you if face any challenge.

mr.castaneda · Answer

Yes, NCM has a native configuration-change approval system, so you do not necessarily need an external ITSM workflow just to hold remediation until approval. Enable NCM Configuration Management Approval and leave Bypass approval system for automatic remediation of policy violations disabled. You can then use one- or two-level approval, and NCM will hold the configuration change until the required approval is completed.

One limitation is that the approval level is based on the NCM approval mode and user roles, not the rule severity. If you need Informational violations to require one approver and Critical violations to require two, that severity-based routing would need to be handled through an external workflow or separate change-control processes. I would also test the setup with a non-production device before enabling it broadly.

I hope this information is useful.