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Change Auditor 7.3 - User Guide

Change Auditor Overview Agent Deployment Change Auditor Client Overview Overview Page Searches Search Results and Event Details Custom Searches and Search Properties Enable Alert Notifications Administration Tasks Agent Configurations Coordinator Configuration Purging and Archiving your Change Auditor Database Disable Private Alerts and Reports Generate and Schedule Reports SQL Reporting Services Configuration Change Auditor User Interface Authorization Client Authentication Certificate authentication for client coordinator communication Integrating with On Demand Audit Enable/Disable Event Auditing Account Exclusion Registry Auditing Service Auditing Agent Statistics and Logs Coordinator Statistics and Logs Change Auditor Commands Change Auditor Email Tags

Coordinator Configuration tool

You can use the Coordinator Configuration tool to modify the credentials used by the coordinator when accessing the database. Right-clicking the coordinator system tray icon and selecting Coordinator Configuration, displays the Coordinator Configuration tool. From here, you can:

•
modify the credentials to be used to access the Change Auditor database
•
change the database instance
•
specify static SCP listening ports to be used to communicate with the coordinator
•
specify where the Active Directory and GPO protection templates are to be stored: SQL (default) or Active Directory

This tool consists of the following tabbed pages:

•
Security page
•
Ports page
•
Protection page
Security page

From the Security page, you can change the database instance and service accounts used to access the database.

* 
NOTE: If User Account Control (UAC) is enabled, a confirmation dialog appears where you can authorize the Coordinator Configuration tool to use the required elevated rights.

Use the fields/options to enter the credentials to be used to access the designated SQL Server/instance as described below:

SQL server and instance
Enter the name or IP address of the SQL instance to be used. (i.e., <Server Name>\<Instance Name>). You can also click Browse to locate and select the SQL server and instance.
* 
NOTE: If your database is in a SQL AlwayOn Availability Group, specify the name of the availability group listener for the SQL Server name.
Name of database Catalog
This displays the name assigned to the Change Auditor database.
Connect using
Specify whether Windows authentication, Azure Active Directory authentication or SQL server authentication will be used when communicating with the SQL database instance. (The authentication method is set up when SQL is installed.)
* 
NOTE: Azure Active Directory authentication is only supported for SQL Managed Instances.
Depending on the authentication option selected, enter the appropriate user credentials.
•
Windows Authentication - this is selected by default and will use Windows authentication to access the database.
* 
NOTE: If you are using a group Managed Service Account, ensure that the account ends with '$' and the password is left blank.
•
SQL Server Authentication - select this to use SQL Server authentication to access the database.
•
Azure Active Directory Authentication - select this to use Azure Active Directory authentication to access the database located on an Azure SQL Managed Instance.
Azure SQL Managed Instance:
•
For a private endpoint, specify the managed instance host name in the following format: MyHostName.dns_zone.database.windows.net
For private endpoint with default port, port specification is not explicitly required. For example: MyHostName.b1b2a3d4e5f7.database.windows.net
or
MyHostName.b1b2a3d4e5f7.database.windows.net,1433
•
For a public endpoint, specify the managed instance host name and port in the following format: MyHostName.public.dns_zone.database.windows.net,3342
For public endpoint, port specification is required. For example: MyHostName.public.b1b2a3d4e5f7.database.windows.net,3342
* 
NOTE:  
•
Azure SQL Managed Instance (PaaS) is supported using SQL authentication or Azure Active Directory Authentication with an encrypted connection. Windows authentication is not supported.
•
For an Azure SQL Managed Instance (PaaS), SQL authentication or Azure Active Directory authentication with an encrypted connection must be used.
•
Single User Mode is not supported during installation or upgrade when using Azure SQL Managed Instance. Ensure that all SQL connections to the Change Auditor database are closed before and during the upgrade.
•
Azure SQL Managed Instance (HA) high availability is supported using the read-write listener endpoint.
•
Performance may vary depending on network configuration, topology, and Azure SQL Managed Instance configuration.
Login ID
Enter the user name for the account to be used to access the SQL server instance.
Password
Enter the password associated with the user account entered above.
Domain
Enter the domain name for the Windows account used to access the designated SQL server instance. (Only valid for Windows Authentication.)
Encrypt connection
Select to use SSL encryption for all data sent between the coordinator and the SQL server. To use this option, the SQL server must have a certificate installed and the format of the SQL server name specified must be an exact match to the name format used in the certificate (for example FQDN or NetBios).
Ports page

By default, Change Auditor dynamically assigns communication ports for each installed coordinator. However, using the Ports page of the Coordinator Configuration dialog, you can specify static SCP listening ports to be used to communicate with the coordinator.

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NOTE: If you upgraded from a 5.x installation where static ports were defined, these static ports are retained as part of the upgrade process. However, the Agent Port setting, which is used by 6.0 agents, is set to use a dynamic port. Check with your system administrator to determine whether this new connection should also be using a static port.

Enter the ports to use to communicate with the coordinator:

* 
NOTE: A zero (0) indicates that a dynamic port is being used. If you have set a static port and wish to use a dynamic port, change the port number back to 0.
Client Port
Enter the static port number to be used by the client to communicate with the coordinator.
Public SDK Port
Enter the static port number to be used by external applications to access the coordinator.
Agent Port
Enter the static port number to be used for communication between a agent and a coordinator.
Protection page

By default, Change Auditor stores the Active Directory and GPO protection templates in SQL. However, you can use the Protection page of the Coordinator Configuration dialog to store the Active Directory and GPO protection templates in Active Directory instead of SQL.

* 
NOTE: When you select to store your Active Directory and Group Policy protection templates in Active Directory, you can use the Security feature on the Active Directory Protection page or Group Policy Protection page to provide an additional layer of security. The additional setting is intended when you require tighter security ACLs on your Active Directory and GPO objects and templates (for example, the Change Auditor SQL database may not be fully secured by ChangeAuditor Administrators). For more information about setting this additional security on protected objects, see the Change Auditor for Active Directory User Guide.

Specify the appropriate option for storing Active Directory/GPO protection and ADAM (AD LDS) protection:

Store Active Directory/GPO protection in:
Select one of the following options:
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SQL (default)
•
AD
Store ADAM (AD LDS) protection in:
Select one of the following options:
•
SQL (default)
•
AD
 

View coordinator status and statistics

To view coordinator status and statistics (Overview page):
1
Open the Overview page and if the Coordinator Status overview pane is not being displayed, click the arrow button on an overview pane and select one of the following commands:
•
Coordinator Status | Enterprise View
•
Coordinator Status | <domain>
This displays a pie chart depicting the current status of all the coordinators installed in either the entire enterprise or in a selected domain.
2
By default, this pane only includes installed coordinators in the pie chart. You can however, select the Show Uninstalled Coordinators check box to include uninstalled coordinators in the pie chart.
3
Double-clicking the pie chart displays the Coordinator Statistics page.
To view coordinator status/statistics (Coordinator Statistics page):
1
Open the Coordinator Statistics page.
2
Click Show Uninstalled Coordinators to include coordinators set as ‘uninstalled’. Click Hide Uninstalled Coordinators to exclude these coordinators from the display.
The values in the different event columns are links, which when selected will open up a new Search Results tab to display the related details for these events.
To view coordinator status/statistics on current coordinator only (coordinator system tray icon):
1
From the server where the coordinator is installed, right-click the coordinator system tray icon and select Coordinator Status.
2
This displays the Change Auditor Coordinator Status dialog with the status and statistics regarding the coordinator, database, agent connections and events and alerts.
3
Click OK to close this dialog.

Manage Change Auditor coordinators

To stop a coordinator:
* 
NOTE: You can use Action | Agent Notifications to hide (or display) the desktop notifications that are displayed when these processes are performed.
1
From the server where the coordinator is installed, right-click the coordinator system tray icon and select Disable Coordinator.
2
On the confirmation dialog, click Yes to stop the coordinator service.
A message displays explaining that the coordinator is being stopped.
In addition, a desktop notification displays in the lower right-hand corner of your screen explaining that the selected coordinator is being disabled.
Once disabled, the coordinator system tray icon contains a red light indicating that the coordinator is disabled.
3
If you so choose, click Set Coordinator Uninstalled to flag the selected coordinator as ‘Uninstalled’.
4
Click Show Uninstalled Coordinators to include uninstalled coordinators in the Coordinator Statistics list. Click Hide Uninstalled Coordinators to exclude uninstalled coordinators from the display.
To start a coordinator:
•
From the server where the coordinator is installed, right-click the coordinator system tray icon and select Enable Coordinator.
A message displays explaining that the coordinator is being started.
In addition, a desktop notification is displayed in the lower right-hand corner of your screen explaining that the selected coordinator is being started.
Once restarted, the coordinator system tray icon no longer contains a red or yellow button indicating that the coordinator is now active.

Coordinator Log page

Two new log pages are created whenever you select View Coordinator Log. These log pages contain the event details that were recorded in each of these trace logs for the selected coordinator:

•
Service: CA4xCompat.exe.nptlog - this log includes the messages logged during agent to coordinator communications.
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Service: ChangeAuditor.ServiceLog.nptlog - this log includes the messages logged during client to coordinator communications.

The data grid and event details pane on this page contains the following information for each log entry. The default column in the table below identifies the fields that are displayed in the data grid by default. To display different fields, click the Field Chooser button located to the far left of the column headings.

 
Table 4. Coordinator Log page: Field descriptions
Column
Default
Description

File

No

Specifies the name of the source file that logged the message.

Function

No

Displays the name of the function that logged the message.

ID

No

Displays the event ID used to identify the event.

Level

Yes

Indicates the severity of the event message:

•
Info - ‘For your information’; does not require attention
•
Error - events that indicate a problem has occurred; requires attention
•
Warning - events that warn of potential problems; does not require immediate attention

Line

No

Specifies the line within the source file that logged the message.

Logger

No

Specifies the logger used to log events.

Message

Yes

Displays the event message that was posted to the log.

Thread

No

Specifies the thread within the source file that logged the message.

Timestamp

Yes

Displays the date and time when the entry was posted to the log.

NOTE: Based on the client’s current local date and time. The format used to display this date and time is determined by the local machine’s regional and language setting.

Use the tool bar buttons at the top of the log page to scroll through the log and search for log entries.

 
Table 5. Coordinator Log page: Tool bar buttons

Refresh

Use to refresh and reload the log entries from the source file.

NOTE: Not available when the log page is launched using the View Coordinator Log command.

Copy

Use to copy the selected content to the clip board. Use with the Select All button to copy and paste the contents of the entire log into another application.

Select All

Use to select the entire contents of the log. Use with the Copy button to copy and paste the contents of the log into another application.

Find:

Enter a specific string of characters or word to be located in the log and use the Find button to locate the text.

Show Matched Entries Only (Ctrl+M)

Use to display only the entries that match the word/string of characters entered in the search text.

Match Case

Use to locate entries that match the case as it was entered in the search text.

Previous

Use to move to the previous entry that contains the search text.

Next

Use to move to the next entry that contains the search text.

Print

Use one of the Print options to print or save the contents of the log.

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