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Change Auditor - For Advanced Users 7.3 - Technical Insight Guide

Change Auditor Services Change Auditor licensing processes Component Start-up Considerations Change Auditor network communications Coordinator internal tasks Registry Settings Change Auditor built-in fault tolerance Change Auditor protection Database Considerations Account exclusions best practices

How to move the Change Auditor database and coordinator to another server

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NOTE: These instructions are for Change Auditor 5.6 (or higher).
To move the database from one SQL server to another:
1
Determine the current database path
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Open SQL Server Management Studio.
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Go to the properties of the Change Auditor database and determine where the database files are located. You need to know this path to copy the files later.
2
Disable the coordinator
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Go to the Change Auditor server.
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Right-click the coordinator system tray icon and select Disable Coordinator.
3
Detach the database
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Open SQL Server Management Studio.
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Locate and right-click the Change Auditor database.
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Select Tasks | Detach.
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On the General page of the Detach Database screen, selecKeep and click OK.
4
Copy the old database to the new SQL server
Copy the files (.mdf and .ldf) to your new SQL Server (most likely to the same location as the other database’s on the new server).
5
Attach the old database
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Open or connect to the new SQL Server.
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Using SQL Server Management Studio, right-click Databases and select Attach.
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On the General page of the Attach Databases screen, click Add and select the database you copied over.
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On the warning dialog, click OK.
6
Point your old Change Auditor coordinator/server to your new SQL Server
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IMPORTANT: Only perform this step on the old Change Auditor server if you do not plan to replace the old coordinator. If you plan to install a new Change Auditor server to replace your old Change Auditor server, proceed to the next step and do not do anything to your old Change Auditor server yet.
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Go to the Change Auditor server.
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Right-click the coordinator system tray icon and select Coordinator Configuration.
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On the Security page of the Coordinator Configuration Tool, enter the following information:
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SQL Server and instance of the new SQL Server
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Database name of the original database
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Credentials to access the new SQL Server
This completes the database move.
7
Start up the coordinator service.
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Go to the Change Auditor server.
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Right-click the coordinator system tray icon and select Enable Coordinator.
The agents should reconnect. Run the client to ensure that everything is back to normal.
To move the Change Auditor coordinator to another server after moving the SQL database:

If you plan to replace the old Change Auditor coordinator/server, install a newer version of Change Auditor and it connects your existing agents to the new Change Auditor server without a problem. Make sure that you join the existing installation.

1
Install the new version of the coordinator.
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On the Customer Installation Information page, enter the same installation name as the original.
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On the SQL Server Information page, select the (new) SQL server and (original) database name you attached earlier.
After you have completed the installation, start up the coordinator service. Agent communication is re-established.
2
Use Add or Remove Programs to uninstall the disabled coordinator from your old Change Auditor server.
This should remove the old Service Connection Point (SCP) and create a new SCP. If the new SCP is not present when you start the client (Profile field is blank on the Change Auditor Connection screen), restart the coordinator server on the new Change Auditor server.
Restarting the coordinator service on the new Change Auditor server recreates the SCP and you should be able to connect to the default profile when you start the client.
3
Open the Agent Statistics page to review the agents’ status. Agents automatically reconnect. Agent activity was not interrupted.
4
You can now upgrade your agents using the Deployment page.
To move the Change Auditor coordinator/server to another Windows Server:

Use the following steps if your SQL database is already on another server and you do not plan to move it. This scenario installs a second Change Auditor coordinator and then disables and uninstalls the first one. All agents transition over to the new Change Auditor server.

1
Install a second coordinator.
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On the Product Licensing page, use the same license files used for the first coordinator.
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On the Customer Installation Information page, be sure to enter the same installation name as the first coordinator.
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On the SQL Server Information page, select the SQL Server and database name used in the first coordinator installation.
2
You now have your new Change Auditor coordinator attached to the database. Start up the coordinator service.
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Go to the new Change Auditor server.
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Right-click the coordinator system tray icon and select Enable Coordinator.
3
Disable the first coordinator
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Go to the first Change Auditorserver.
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Right-click the coordinator system tray icon and select Disable Coordinator.
4
To ensure the agents connect to the second coordinator, pen the Agent Statistics page.
5
Use Add or Remove Programs to uninstall the disabled coordinator from your first Change Auditor server.

How to estimate the required SQL server disk space

The Change Auditor database (version 6.x or later) can grow indefinitely without a decrease in performance. This makes it unnecessary to create periodic archives.

Adequate disk space should be reserved to accommodate the volume of events dictated by your compliance and retention policies. Testing shows that events take approximately 8,000 bytes per event.

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Example 1: 1,000 events = 8 MB estimated disk size required
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Example 2: 30,000 events = 240 MB estimated disk size required

In addition to the volume of events, the type of events and the volume of alerting also affect disk consumption. To predict disk consumption for your intended retention period, configure Change Auditor as you intend to use it in your environment for a period sufficient to project long-term space requirements.

How SQL Server Autogrow affects Change Auditor

How SQL Server Autogrow affects Change Auditor

The Change Auditor database (version 6.x or later) is created with SQL Server Autogrowth set to 10%. This may cause issues for large databases that require an extended amount of time to grow the database.

If you begin to see frequent timeouts in the coordinator log, check the SQL Errorlog for “Autogrow of file ‘ChangeAuditor’ in database ‘ChangeAuditor’ was cancelled by user or timed out after 30121 milliseconds.” to confirm that it is related to Autogrowth. If you see this error, consider changing the Autogrowth setting to a smaller value or implementing “Instant File Initialization” on the SQL server hosting the Change Auditor database. You can also pre-allocate a larger size for the Change Auditor database manually.

How to query an archive database

To query an archive database (version 6.x or later), you need to:

1
Create a connection profile for your archive databases.
2
Connect to an archive database.
3
Create and run searches and reports as you normally would.
To create and connect to a connection profile for an archive database:
1
Open the client.
2
On the Connection Profile screen, select Manage.
3
On the Manage Connection Profiles dialog, select Add to start the Connection wizard.
4
On the first page of the wizard, select Database Direct and Next.
5
Select the name of your SQL Server and enter the name of the archive Change Auditor database you want to connect to.
6
On the last page of the wizard, name your profile and select Finish to save it.
7
On the Connection Profile screen, use the Profile drop-down to select the archive database to use and click Connect.
8
After you connect to an archive database, you can create and run searches and reports as you normally would.
 
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NOTE: When users connect to an archive database, they are bypassing the coordinator service and making a direct connection to the SQL Server so they need the appropriate permissions on these archive databases.

An easy way to configure the appropriate SQL security for all users is to add them to the appropriate Change Auditor database role that is created during the coordinator installation. Essentially you will use the Change Auditor security groups that were created during the coordinator installation. Create corresponding SQL logins for these two groups, and then assign each of those logins the appropriate database role for each of the archive databases:

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ChangeAuditor Administrator group to ChangeAuditor_Administrator role
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ChangeAuditor Operator group to ChangeAuditor_Operator role

For more information about adding accounts to the Change Auditor database role, see the Change Auditor Installation Guide.

 

 

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