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Health Policies

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

Health policies consist of one or more system health validators (SHVs) and other settings that allow you to define client computer configuration requirements for the Network Access Protection (NAP)-capable computers that attempt to connect to your network.

When NAP-capable clients attempt to connect to the network, the client computer sends a statement of health (SoH) to Network Policy Server (NPS). The SoH is a report of the client configuration state, and NPS compares the SoH to the requirements defined in health policy. If the client configuration state does not match the requirements defined in health policy, NPS takes one of the following actions, depending on how NAP is configured:

  • The connection request by the NAP client is rejected.

  • The NAP client is placed on a restricted network where it can receive updates from remediation servers that bring the client into compliance with health policy. After the client is compliant with health policy, it is allowed to connect.

  • The NAP client is allowed to connect to the network despite being noncompliant with health policy.

You can define client health policies in NPS by adding one or more SHVs to the health policy.

After a health policy is configured with one or more SHVs, you can add the health policy to the Health Policies condition of a network policy that you want to use to enforce NAP when client computers connect to your network.

Using multiple SHVs in a health policy

The Windows Security Health Validator (WSHV) is included by default in NPS. Other companies might also provide additional SHV and system health agent (SHA) pairs for their NAP-compatible products.

If you want to use a NAP-compatible product, you can follow the product's documentation to install the SHA on NAP-capable client computers, and then install the SHV on the server running NPS. After you have installed the SHV on the NPS server, you can configure the SHV and then add the SHV to a health policy.

After your health policy is configured with the SHVs you want to use, you can add the health policy to the settings of a network policy.