Auditing

Auditing allows you to explore how your users interact with the DS for SCOM product.

How to configure auditing

Using Auditing

Troubleshooting Auditing

Auditing in HA

How to configure auditing

Prerequisites

  • MS SQL Server 2016 and above
  • A new empty SQL database. DS for SCOM writes its audit entries to a table which is automatically created in this database.
  • The SquaredUp application pool account needs the db_owner permission on the database, as it needs to create the table schema. The connection is established using the IIS worker process identity.

To set up auditing:

  1. In DS for SCOM browse to ≡ > System > Auditing
  2. Specify your connection string, in this format:
    Server=<SQLservername>;Database=<AuditingDatabaseName>;Trusted_Connection=True;
  3. Click apply changes > Enable > confirm.
  4. Add the Audit dashboard pack (if you have an EAM edition license or above) by clicking the Import Audit Pack button a the bottom of the System > Auditing page. The Auditing dashboards will appear on the navigation bar for admins. Alternatively, you can explore the auditing information on the fly by clicking Explore see Audit Explorer.

Using Auditing

Auditing dashboard pack

An EAM edition license (or above) is required for this feature. To upgrade please contact [email protected].

To check the license edition you are using see How to check which license key is being used. To see what is included in different product edition licenses see the Licensing Overview.

The dashboards added by the Auditing Dashboard Pack allow admins to view commonly used auditing information, such as users, dashboards and perspectives, folders, Enterprise Applications and Administration information. These dashboards can of course be edited or you can create your own new dashboards.

Creating SQL tiles using the Audit SQL provider

An EAM edition license (or above) is required for this feature. To upgrade please contact [email protected].

To check the license edition you are using see How to check which license key is being used. To see what is included in different product edition licenses see the Licensing Overview.

When auditing is enabled for the first time a new SQL Provider is added to the ≡ > System > Integrations page named Audit. This allows you to create SQL tiles targeting the auditing database. It has a special connection string that follows the connection string configured in the ≡ > System > Auditing page.

See How to use the SQL tile

Audit Explorer

You can also explore auditing information by creating graphs on the fly, using the Explore button at the bottom of the ≡ > System > Auditing page or the explore audit events button at the top of the auditing dashboards. The data and graph can also be exported to Excel.

  1. Search:
    Select the type of object you'd like to show auditing data about, and then enter the name of the object:
    This searches the audit database, rather than the live SquaredUp environment. This means an existing dashboard that has not yet had an audit event will not be returned in the search results. However, a dashboard that is no longer present in the product, but has an audit event regarding its deletion, will be searchable.
    • User - Enter a username
    • Content - Enter a dashboard or perspective name
    • Team Folder - Enter the name of a Team Folder
    • Enterprise Application - Enter the EA name
  2. Filter:
    Optionally, you can filter further by selecting from the dynamically generated dropdown list, or leave it to the default setting to show all events.
  3. Visualize:
  4. Timeframe:
    The timeframe picker at the top of the screen can be used to adjust the graph timeframe. Timeframes up to 12 months and custom are supported
  5. Minimize the editor:
    Beneath the config editor is an arrow
    , clicking this arrow will minimize the config panel, allowing the output to fill the screen. This is useful for taking screenshots of the result or for viewing more columns in a grid.
  6. Export to Excel:
    Auditing data can be exported to Excel using the Export to Excel button shown at the top right of the screen:

Troubleshooting Auditing

The current status of auditing can be viewed in ≡ > System > Auditing. Auditing can be in one of several states:

When auditing is not enabled the status will be as follows:

A message indicating that auditing is disabled

When auditing is enabled and functions correctly the following is displayed:

A message that auditing is enabled and working correctly

If auditing failed to startup correctly, which occurs during DS for SCOM starting up or an auditing configuration change, then no auditing will take place and a red banner will be displayed. Auditing can fail to start up for a number of reasons including misconfiguration or issues communicating with the SQL server. Here’s an example of what it can look like:

A message that the audit system has failed and not functioning

If one or more audit events failed to record correctly a warning message is displayed and it is noted in the DS for SCOM log, see Where to find log files. This can indicate auditing may or may not be working (for example the SQL server has unexpectedly become unavailable). The date and time of the last error is also included in the message. Here’s an example message:

Auditing in HA

Auditing is supported in HA mode and both DS for SCOM instances will read and write to the same audit table. The server that adds an audit entry is distinguished by the NodeId.

When changing settings (including enable/disable) in HA mode the settings are not automatically reflected on both servers. The server you change the settings on will be updated immediately, but you need to wait 1 minute then recycle the application pool of the other server to take effect. If you don’t recycle the application pool of the other server it will continue to use the old settings or have auditing in the incorrect state.

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