Using Alert Auditing

Learn how to monitor system activity using alert notifications.

Table of Contents

Introduction

This topic describes alert auditing functions and tools that allow you to monitor system activity based on alert notifications.

Location: Auditing > Alert Audit Trails section of the Policy Manager Management Console.

Activate Alert Auditing

To capture alert data, the alert auditing feature must be activated for each alert code definition you would like to monitor. To do this:

  1. Go to Alerts > Alert Codes.
  2. Select Add Alert Code (for new alert code definitions), or Modify Alert Code (for existing alert code definitions).
  3. Enable (checked) or Disable (unchecked) the Log Alert option, and Apply to save your changes.

Alert Audit Trail Functions

Alert audit trail functions include:

  1. Go to Auditing > Alert Audit Trails.

    Note: The initial search results display presents a listing of all audit trail data associated with the user who is currently logged in.

  2. Enter the following search criteria and click Filter. See Audit Trail Search Criteria for a description of each option.
    • Enter Date Range—Click Start Date or End Date to invoke a Calendar pop-up.
    • Enter Time Range—Manually enter times into the Start and End time fields using the 24-hour clock format (for example, 20\:00\:01).
    • Enter Action—Refers to Add, Modify and Delete actions.
    • Enter User—The username you want to audit.
    • Audit Status—Filter your search by Audit Trails that have been Observed, Unobserved or Both.

Configure Alert Audit Trail Status

Configure a system object to observe system activity and create a log (audit trail).

Note: You can configure an Unobserved system object to be Observed. Once a system object is configured as Observed the operation cannot be reversed.

  1. Go to Auditing > Alert Audit Trails.
  2. Perform an Alert Audit Trail Search. Each line item in search results corresponds to a system object.
  3. Select the desired system object line item, and click the Observed checkbox.
  4. Click Apply.

View Alert Audit Trail

Configure a system object to observe system activity and create a log (audit trail).

Use the Audit Trails Export Wizard to export Audit Trail data to an XML file so that it can be archived or utilized in third-party statistical tools. Customize the data you are exporting to align with your business needs by running an Alert Audit Trail Search.

  1. Perform an Alert Audit Trail Search. Each line item in search results corresponds to a system object.
  2. Select the desired system object line item, and click the Observed check-box.
  3. Click Apply.

View Alert Audit Trail Details

To assist in configuring of your audit data, you can view a profile of a policy object using the View Audit Trail feature via the Alert Audit Trails Summary screen.

  1. Go to Auditing > Alert Audit Trails.
  2. Perform an Alert Audit Trail Search.
  3. Select the desired system object line item, and click View Audit Trail.
  4. Refer to Audit Trail Field Descriptions for descriptions of the displayed policy object information.
  5. Click Close.

Export Alert Audit Trail

Use the Audit Trails Export Wizard to export Audit Trail data to an XML file so that it can be archived or utilized in third-party statistical tools. Customize the data you are exporting to align with your business needs by running an Alert Audit Trail Search.

  1. Go to Auditing > Alert Audit Trails.
  2. Perform an Alert Audit Trail Search
  3. Click Audit Trails Export Wizard.
  4. Enter a Filename.

    Note: Exported files are always saved to the export directory of the current Policy Manager installation directory.

  5. (Optional) Check to Append Date to Filename (Date=current system date).
  6. (Optional) Check Overwrite File if you want to overwrite an existing Audit Trail data file (if present).
  7. (Optional) Check Delete Exported Audit Trails to remove gathered Audit Trail data from the Policy Manager system.
  8. Click Finish, the Close.

Schedule an Alert Audit Trail Job

In addition to the Export Alert Audit Trail option, you can create a scheduled job that invokes a batch script that exports alert audit trail data.

Functionality is equivalent to the Export button in the Monitoring > Audit Trails > Alert Audit Trails section of the Management Console, except that it allows you to run the export program as a batch script synchronously. Export results are achieved when the program exits.

Filtering is optional. If any of the filtering criteria is not specified, the following is used:

  • filterStartDate—today's date
  • filterStartTime—00\:00\:00
  • filterEndDate—today's date
  • filterEndTime—23\:59\:59

Note: In case of error during export, a partially exported file does not get deleted.

For a list of usage options, see Schedule an Alert Audit Trail Job Usage Options.