Change Auditor 7.3 - User Guide


	NOTE: When accessed through the Coordinator Configuration page, these settings will apply globally to all alert emails. However, if accessed through the Alert tab, these settings will apply to the selected alert only.


	NOTE: The Alert Body Configuration settings do not apply to email reports. To define the content (columns) to be included in a report, use the Layout tab. In addition, you can use the Report Layouts page (Administration Tasks tab) to create customized report layout templates defining the header and footer information to be used in your reports.

To customize alert email content:

Click Configure Body to display the Alert Body Configuration dialog.

Select the appropriate option (at the bottom of the dialog) to edit either the Plain Text (default) or the HTML representation of the alert emails.

Use the Main Body tab to enter the text to be included and define the overall layout of the alert body.

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Select the Show Variables check box to display the variables that can be added to the main body of your email.

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To add a variable, double-click the variable from the Variable list at the bottom of the page. You can also drag and drop a variable from the Variable list into the main body text box.


	NOTE: The event details defined in the Event Details tab are placed in the Main Body pane using the following tag: %EVENT_DETAILS%. This tag should not be removed from the Main Body tab if you want to include the event details in the alert emails.

Use the Event Details tab to specify the event details to be included. That is, you can rearrange the entries, remove entries, or modify text, etc.

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Select the Show Variables check box to display a list of the variable that can be added to the event details of your alert email.

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To add a variable, double-click the variable from the Variable list at the bottom of the page. You can also drag and drop a variable from the Variable list into the Event Details text box.


	NOTE: Do NOT modify the blue text surrounded by percent signs (e.g., %USERNAME%). These are tags which represent actual data retrieved from the Change Auditor event that triggered the alert. See Change Auditor Email Tags for more information on these tags and the data retrieved by each.

Use the Signature tab to define the content of the signature line to be used in alert emails.

After you have entered the body content and defined the event details and signature line to be included, select the Preview tab to view a sample email using your defined format and content.

Once defined, click OK to save your settings and close the Alert Body Configuration dialog.


	NOTE: Click Restore to Default to revert back to the default email content and format.

Shared Folder Configuration

To allow users to send reports to a shared folder, you must specify credentials to use to write reports and a default shared folder.

To configure the ability to send reports to a shared folder:

Open the Administration Tasks page and click Configuration.

Select Coordinator in the Configuration task list to open the Coordinator Configuration page.

Under Shared Folder Configuration, select Enable Shared Folder for Reporting. Checking this option will activate the remaining fields on this page to define the account credentials and folder to use.

Enter the credentials (account name and password) for the coordinator to use to write the reports to a shared folder. The credentials are used to write reports to the default shared folder as well as custom shared folders specified for individual reports.


	NOTE: If you are using a group Managed Service Account, ensure that the account ends with '$' and the password is left blank.

Select a shared folder to use as the default when users select to enable reporting for a search. Select Test access to ensure that the folder exists and the specified account has permissions to write to it.


	NOTE: If the default shared folder path is updated, it will be used for each report that uses it.

Group Membership Expansion

The middle pane of the Coordinator Configuration page contains options which allow you to define the schedule for expanding nested membership of Active Directory groups that are referenced in searches (Who search criteria) or groups that are defined in the Member of Group feature. Group membership will be recursively enumerated in order to determine nested group membership.

Use the following options to define group membership expansion behavior:

Table 2. Coordinator Configuration page: Group membership expansion options

Options

Description

Select the groups to expand

Select one of the following options to define how you want to expand groups:

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Expand all groups - This expands all groups in the forest. Use this only if you are using SSIS and need the freedom to make requests for any group in the forest.

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Expand groups that are referenced in existing queries - Change Auditor must expand all groups in queries in order to get their membership. With the membership, the events for the groups can be retrieved. This is always done and cannot be disabled.

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Expand groups that are referenced in existing queries and selected groups (default) - In addition to the groups referenced in existing queries, you have the ability to select other groups. This would be useful when you have groups that need expansion for SSIS database requests, but you do not want to burden your production system with expanding all groups in the environment.

Group Membership Expansion list

The Group Membership Expansion list box is only available when the Expand groups that are referenced in existing queries and selected groups option is selected and displays a list of the groups to be expanded. Use Add to add groups to this list box and Remove to remove groups from the list box.

Add

Use to add groups to the group membership expansion list. Clicking this button will display the Select Active Directory Objects dialog allowing you to locate and select the groups to be added.

See Directory object picker for a description of the Browse, Search and Options pages. Note that the Find field on this dialog will display Group and cannot be changed.

Remove

Use to remove the selected group from the group membership expansion list.

Select the refresh frequency

Select from the following options to define how often you want to refresh the group membership expansion list.

Refresh group membership every nnn minutes

By default, group membership will be refreshed every 360 minutes. Use the arrow controls to increase or decrease this value.

Valid range: 10 - 43200

Number of groups to expand every 5-minute cycle

By default, 20 groups will be expanded every 5-minute cycle. Use the arrow controls to increase or decrease this value

Valid range: 1 - 100000

Refresh the list of expanded groups every nnn minutes

By default, the group membership expansion list is refreshed every 180 minutes. Use the arrow controls to increase or decrease this value.

Valid range: 10 - 43200

Defaults

Use to reset the fresh frequency settings back to the factory defaults.

Add groups to Group Membership Expansion list

By default, the Expand groups that are referenced in existing queries and selected groups option is selected on the Group Membership Expansion pane of the Coordinator Configuration page. With the option selected, you can add groups to the Group Membership Expansion list as described below:

Click Add to display the Select Active Directory Objects dialog.

Use either the Browse page or Search page to locate and select a group to be added to this list. Once a group is selected, click Add to add it to the selection list at the bottom of the dialog.

Repeat this step to add each additional group.

Once you have selected all the groups to be added, click Select to save your selection.

The specified groups will now be listed in the Group Membership Expansion list on the Coordinator Configuration page.

On the Coordinator Configuration page, click Apply Changes to apply your changes regarding group membership expansion.