## Basic Tasks

There are many ways to configure and use Guardian to diagnose the health of your domains. However, there are four essential tasks that can be considered the primary functions of Guardian. These are as follows:

- Activate Domain — Activating a domain prepares the domain for evaluation and conducts an initial inventory of the domain configuration. To activate a domain, use the Domain Activation Wizard. For instructions, see Activate Domain on page 47.
- Inventory Domain — A Domain Inventory is an assessment of your current domain environment. The results are displayed in a Domain Inventory Overview in the Document Pane. The inventory is also added to the Inventory History folder in the Domain Explorer. Domain Inventories are also created automatically whenever you activate or evaluate domains. To inventory a domain, use the Inventory Wizard. For instructions, see Inventory Domain on page 56.
- Evaluate Domain — To detect which signatures apply to your domain, you conduct an evaluation. Guardian collects data about your domain environment, and identifies which signatures apply to the domain.When the evaluation is complete, the results are displayed in an Evaluation Summary in the Document Pane. The Evaluation Summary lists all of the detected signatures, along with the severity level, description, and recommended remedy for each. You can review the Evaluation Summary to determine your response to any signatures that are detected. If you need more help resolving the potential problem the signature identified, you can use Guardian to create and submit a BEA support case. For instructions on conducting evaluations, see Evaluate Domain on page 57.
- Updates and Upgrades — BEA Support Engineers create new signatures every day, and application enhancements to Guardian are also periodically released. The Guardian Update feature enables Guardian to connect directly to the Guardian Update Site to automatically download and install new signatures and product updates. To update Guardian on servers without Internet access, you can perform a manual update. For instructions for performing both automatic and manual updates, see Updates and Upgrades on page 81.

There are numerous other Guardian tasks and activities, which are categorized according to the following topics:

- Guardian Agent
- Workspaces
- Preferences
- Domains
- Domain Groups
- Proxy Servers
- Inventories and Evaluations
- Signatures
- Signature Annotations
- Bundles
- Shortcuts
- Command Line Interface
- Troubleshooting
- Support
- Updates and Upgrades

The following sections provide detailed instructions for performing the tasks in each of these categories.