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Change Auditor for Active Directory Queries 7.2 - User Guide

Configure AD Query Auditing

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Introduction
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AD Query Auditing pageThe AD Query Auditing page displays when you select AD Query from the Auditing task list in the navigation pane of the Administration Tasks tab. From this page you can specify the Active Directory containers to include and exclude in Active Directory query auditing.
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AD Query Auditing wizard
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AD Query settings

Introduction

Because the overhead of recording each Active Directory query read operation is likely to be high, you can optimize the process by summarizing similar operations from the same client, and only record the summary periodically. Quest highly recommends that you perform the following steps to optimize the Active Directory query auditing/reporting process to reduce the number of events being generated:

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Use the AD Query Auditing page to specify the containers to include and exclude from Active Directory query auditing.
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Use the AD Query settings to optimize the auditing process and define the interval to be used for recording Active Directory query operations.

 

AD Query Auditing pageThe AD Query Auditing page displays when you select AD Query from the Auditing task list in the navigation pane of the Administration Tasks tab. From this page you can specify the Active Directory containers to include and exclude in Active Directory query auditing.

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NOTE: Authorization to use the administration tasks on the Administrations Tasks tab is defined using the Application User Interface page under the Configuration task list. If you are denied access to the tasks on this page, refer to the Change Auditor User Guide for more information on how to gain access.
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NOTE:  
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By default, all containers are included
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Due to the high volume of Active Directory queries performed against the Schema, RootDSE, and the Configurations containers, Quest recommends that you add these to the exclusion list.

Inclusion and exclusion rules

Only objects that are included (and not excluded) are monitored. For example:

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When an object is included and excluded at the same time, it will not be monitored.
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When an object is included and some of its child objects are excluded, only child objects that are not excluded will be monitored.
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When an object is excluded and some of its child objects are included, none of the child objects will be monitored.

AD Query Auditing page

The AD Query Auditing page contains an expandable view of Active Directory containers included and excluded from Active Directory query auditing.

Added containers display the following information:

Type
Displays the type of container.
Status
Indicates whether the container is temporarily included\excluded (enabled) or not included\excluded (disabled) from Active Directory query auditing.
Scope
Displays the scope of coverage:
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Object - excludes this object only
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Subtree - excludes this object and all child objects
Included Container
Displays the name of the container selected for inclusion.
Excluded Container
Displays the name of the container selected for exclusion.
To include a container to the AD Query audit list:
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Open the Administration Tasks tab.
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Click Auditing.
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Select AD Query (under the Forest heading in the Auditing task list) to open the AD Query Auditing page.
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Click Add to open the AD Query Auditing wizard.
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Select the scope:
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RootDSE - select this to include the RootDSE object.
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This Object and All Child Objects - select this to specify the containers to include. (Selecting a container will also include any child objects.)
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If the This Object and All Child Objects option is selected, use the Browse and Search pages to locate and select a directory object. Click Add to add the selected directory object to the inclusion list.
Repeat this step to add additional directory objects.
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Click Finish to close the wizard and return to the AD Query Auditing page, where your selections will now be listed.
 
To exclude a container to the AD Query audit list:
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Open the Administration Tasks tab.
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Click Auditing.
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Select AD Query (under the Forest heading in the Auditing task list) to open the AD Query Auditing page.
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Click Add to open the AD Query Auditing wizard.
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Select the scope:
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RootDSE - select this option to exclude the RootDSE object. (Selecting this container will not exclude child objects.)
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This Object and All Child Objects - select this option to specify the containers to exclude. (Selecting a container will also exclude any child objects.)
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If the This Object and All Child Objects option is selected, use the Browse and Search pages to locate and select a directory object. Click Add to add the selected directory object to the exclusion list.
Repeat this step to add additional directory objects.
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Click Finish to close the wizard and return to the AD Query Auditing page, where your selections will now be listed.
To disable the inclusion or exclusion of a container:

The disable feature allows you to temporarily stop including or excluding an individual container from Active Directory query auditing without having to remove it from the AD Query Auditing list.

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On the AD Query Auditing page, use one of the following methods to disable the exclusion of a container:
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Place your cursor in the Status cell for the container to be disabled, click the arrow control and select Disabled.
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Right-click the container to be disabled and select Disable.
The entry in the Status column for the container will change to ‘Disabled’.
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To re-enable the exclusion or inclusion of the selected container, use the Enable option in either the Status cell or right-click menu.
To delete a container from the inclusion or exclusion list:
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On the AD Query Auditing page, select the container to be deleted and click Delete.
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Click Yes to confirm to deletion.

AD Query Auditing wizard

The AD Query Auditing wizard is displayed when you click Add on the AD Query Auditing page. This wizard enables you to locate and select Active Directory containers to include and exclude from Active Directory query auditing.

Only objects that are included and not excluded are monitored. For example:

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When an object is included and excluded at the same time, it will not be monitored.
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When an object is included and some of its child objects are excluded, only child objects that are not excluded will be monitored.
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When an object is excluded and some of its child objects are included, none of the child objects will be monitored.

The following table provides a description of the fields and controls in the AD Query Auditing wizard.

 
Table 2. AD Query Auditing wizard
Add Objects to include from AD Queries page

RootDSE

Select this option to include the RootDSE container.

This Object and All Child Objects

Select this option to specify the containers to include. When this option is selected, use the Browse and Search page to locate and select a container.

Browse page

Displays a hierarchical view of the containers in your environment allowing you to locate and select the required containers. Once you have selected a container, click Add to move the entry to the list at the bottom of the page.

Search page

Use the controls at the top of the Search page to search your environment to locate the required containers. Once you have selected a container, click Add to move the entry to the list at the bottom of the page.

Options page

Use the Options page to modify the search options used to retrieve directory objects.

Included Containers List

The containers selected for inclusion for Active Directory query auditing are displayed in the list box located across the bottom of this page. Use the buttons located above this list box to add and remove containers.

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Add - Select a container in the Browse or Search page and click Add to add it to the list.
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Remove - Select an entry in the list and then click Remove to remove it.
Add Objects to exclude from AD Queries page

RootDSE

Select this option to exclude the RootDSE container.

NOTE: Selecting this option will NOT exclude any child objects.

This Object and All Child Objects

Select this option to specify the containers to exclude. When this option is selected, use the Browse and Search pages to locate and select a container.

Browse page

Displays a hierarchical view of the containers in your environment allowing you to locate and select the containers to exclude from Active Directory query auditing.

Once you have selected a container, click Add to move the entry to the list at the bottom of the page.

Search page

Use the controls at the top of the Search page to search your environment to locate the containers to exclude from Active Directory query auditing.

Once you have selected a container, click Add to move the entry to the list at the bottom of the page.

Options page

Use the Options page to modify the search options used to retrieve directory objects.

Excluded Containers List

The containers selected for exclusion from Active Directory query auditing are displayed in the list box located across the bottom of this page. Use the buttons located above this list box to add and remove containers.

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Add - Select a container in the Browse or Search page and click Add to add it to the list.
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Remove - Select an entry in the list and then click e Remove to remove it.

AD Query settings

From the Agent Configuration page on the Administration Tasks tab you can define how to optimize the Active Directory query auditing process, summarizing similar operations from the same client.

Use the AD Query tab at the top of the Configuration Setup dialog to define the settings for summarizing similar operations from the same client and only record the summary in the Active Directory query event:

Discard query results less than nn records
This setting instructs Change Auditor to only generate an event if an Active Directory query returns more or equal to the number of results specified.
The default value is 0; therefore Change Auditor will generate an event even if the Active Directory query returns no results.
Discard queries taking less than nn milliseconds
This setting instructs Change Auditor to only generate an event if the Active Directory query takes longer than or equal to the specified number of milliseconds.
The default value is 20 milliseconds.
Discard duplicate queries occurring within nn minutes
This setting defines how long Active Directory query events are to be ‘held’ to determine if duplicates have occurred before they are forwarded to the Change Auditor client.
The default is 15 minutes meaning Change Auditor will gather Active Directory query events and hold them in a queue to determine if any duplicate queries have been generated during the specified interval. Change Auditor will then forward the AD Query event to the client specifying how many occurrences of that query were performed during the 15 minute interval.
AD Query auditing enabled
This check box is selected by default which enables AD Query auditing. Clearing this check box disables all AD Query auditing on the agents using the agent configuration selected in the left pane, which is often times desired for busy agents.
To set the AD Query settings:
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Open the Administration Tasks tab.
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Click Configuration.
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Select Agent in the Configuration task list to display the Agent Configuration page.
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Click Configurations.
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On the Configuration Setup dialog, select an agent configuration from the left pane.
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Open the AD Query tab and set the Active Directory query event settings as defined above.
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Once you have set these settings, click OK to save your selections, close the dialog and return to the Agent Configuration page.
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On the Agent Configuration page, select the agents assigned to the selected agent configuration and click Refresh Configuration to ensure the agent are using the latest configuration.
 
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NOTE: If you do not refresh the agent’s configuration, the agent will automatically check for a new agent configuration based on the polling interval setting (located on the System Settings tab of the Configuration Setup dialog). The default is every 15 minutes.

 

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