A compliance alert is an alert that indicates that an object in the environment is not compliant with a predefined or custom compliance standard. A compliance standard is a collection of compliance alerts that are based on a specific security or regulatory guideline, such as the VMware vSphere Security Configuration Guide. A compliance alert is triggered when one or more symptoms that represent the compliance rules are violated by the object12.

The VMware vSphere Security Configuration Guide is a document that provides prescriptive guidance and best practices for securing vSphere components, such as ESXi hosts, virtual machines, vCenter Server, and vSphere networking. The guide defines several security configuration baselines for different vSphere versions and environments, and provides recommendations and procedures for applying the security settings34.

The following symptoms could have triggered a compliance alert based on the VMware vSphere Security Configuration Guide:

The lockdown mode on a vSphere ESXi host is set to Disabled. Lockdown mode is a feature that restricts the access to an ESXi host to prevent unauthorized or accidental changes to the host configuration. The guide recommends enabling lockdown mode on all ESXi hosts to enhance the security and reduce the attack surface of the hosts5 .

The Disable console copy operation for a Virtual Machine is set to FALSE. This setting controls whether the copy and paste operations are allowed between the virtual machine console and the remote console. The guide recommends disabling the console copy operation for all virtual machines to prevent the leakage of sensitive data or the introduction of malicious code .

The Forged Transmit policy is set to allow on a Distributed Port Group. This policy determines how the virtual switch handles outbound frames that have a source MAC address that is different from the one that is configured on the virtual adapter. The guide recommends setting the Forged Transmit policy to reject on all Distributed Port Groups to prevent MAC address spoofing attacks .

The other options are not symptoms that could have triggered a compliance alert based on the VMware vSphere Security Configuration Guide. Transparent Page Sharing is a memory management technique that allows the hypervisor to identify and eliminate redundant memory pages across multiple virtual machines. The guide does not provide any recommendation on the Transparent Page Sharing setting for virtual machines, as it depends on the security and performance requirements of the environment . The SNMP service is a protocol that enables the monitoring and management of network devices. The guide does not provide any recommendation on the SNMP service setting for ESXi hosts, as it depends on the monitoring and management needs of the environment . The Enable 3D Support setting is a feature that allows the virtual machine to use the hardware-accelerated graphics capabilities of the ESXi host. The guide does not provide any recommendation on the Enable 3D Support setting for virtual machines, as it depends on the application and user experience requirements of the environment .

References:

1: Compliance Alerts - VMware Docs 2: Compliance Benchmarks - VMware Docs 3: VMware vSphere Security Configuration Guide 4: VMware vSphere Security Configuration Guide - VMware Docs 5: Lockdown Mode - VMware Docs : [Enable or Disable Lockdown Mode on an ESXi Host - VMware Docs] : [Disable Copy and Paste Operations Between the Guest Operating System and Remote Console - VMware Docs] : [Disable Copy and Paste Operations Between the Guest Operating System and Remote Console - VMware Docs] : [Security Policies for Virtual Switches - VMware Docs] : [Configure Security Policies for a Distributed Port Group - VMware Docs] : [Transparent Page Sharing - VMware Docs] : [Transparent Page Sharing - VMware Docs] : [SNMP Agent - VMware Docs] : [Configure SNMP for ESXi - VMware Docs] : [Hardware-Accelerated 3D Graphics - VMware Docs] : [Enable 3D Support for a Virtual Machine - VMware Docs] : [vRealize Operations Manager User Guide] : [vRealize Operations Manager Installation and Configuration Guide] : [vRealize Operations Manager Concepts Guide] : [vRealize Operations Manager Administration Guide] : [vRealize Operations Manager Customization and Extensibility Guide] : [vRealize Operations Manager Troubleshooting Guide] : [vRealize Operations Manager API Programming Guide] : [vRealize Operations Manager Certification Exam Guide]