A point-in-time snapshot is a complete capture of a directory's structure at a moment: its groups, nesting, memberships, and license assignments as they stood. Two snapshots make history computable: their difference is exactly what changed between the two moments.
States versus events#
The alternative record of history is the event log, which stores changes rather than states. Events answer who did this; states answer what was true. Reconstructing a state from events requires replaying everything since a known baseline and is bounded by log retention, which is why organizations that need provable history capture states directly.
What makes snapshots audit-worthy#
Three properties turn captures into evidence:
- Regularity: scheduled captures mean any requested date resolves to a nearby real state.
- Completeness: structure, memberships, and licensing together, since access questions span all three.
- Diffability: machine comparison between any two captures, so change lists are complete rather than curated.
VisualizerEngine
Snapshots in VisualizerEngine
Snapshots capture the directory's structure, memberships, and license assignments; any two diff into an exact change list; and structural and license trends plot across snapshots on a dashboard. Compliance exports carry provenance metadata and an integrity trailer so a snapshot-based report traces to its source data.