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Change Auditor 7.6 - 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 Working with 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

Define report content and layout

For each search, built-in or custom, the data displayed in both the client and in the associated report (when reporting is enabled) is predefined. However, you can use the Layout tab of the Search Properties tabs to customize the content (columns) to display for each individual search. See Layout tab in Custom Searches and Search Properties for a detailed description of the Layout tab.

Enable and schedule reporting

When reporting is enabled, a report containing the search results of an individual search, built-in, or custom, can be sent as an attachment through email to the designated recipients or written to a shared folder. Use the Report tab, which is one of the Search Properties tabs, to enable reporting for the selected search, define the format, and how and when to distribute the report.

To email reports, you need to enable SMTP for alerting and reporting and specify the Mail Server to use in the SMTP Configuration pane on the Coordinator Configuration page. The same SMTP configuration is used for both alert notifications and reporting. See Configure email alert notifications/reports for more information.

To send reports to a shared folder, you need to enable shared folders for reports and specify the credentials that will be used to write to a shared folder. See Shared Folder Configuration for details.

Change Auditor calculates the Next Run of the reports, archive, and purge jobs based on the master time zone. For new deployments, the maser time zone is set to the time zone of the server where the first coordinator is installed. During an upgrade, the master time zone is set to UTC. You can manually change the master time zone, using the set-CAScheduleMaserTimeZone and get-CAScheduleMasterTimeZone commands. See the Change Audit PowerSell Command User Guide for details. Quest recommends that you set the master time zone to the time zone where most the users are located.

* 
NOTE: Because Daylight Saving Time changes on different dates worldwide, Change Auditors schedules follow the time change of that specific time zone.
Report tab (Search Properties tabs)

The Report tab displays the current report configuration for the selected search definition. From the Report tab you can perform the following tasks:

•
Enable and disable reporting for the current search
•
Specify the format for the report attachment (PDF, Html, Word, Text, Excel, CSV)
•
Select the recipients who are to receive the report through email
•
Select the shared folder where you want to write a report
•
Define a schedule for sending the report
•
Select the template for the report’s headers and footers or design a custom report layout using the report designer

Use the controls on the Report tab as described in the following table:

 
* 
NOTE: All dates and times are based on the client’s current local date and time. The format used to display the date and time is determined by the local computer’s regional and language setting.
Table 1. Report tab: Field and Control descriptions
Field and Control
Description

Report Enabled

Select to enable reporting for the current search definition.

NOTE: This option becomes available only after a valid address is entered in the Report Configuration section of this tab. Use an e-mail address to send a report to mailbox and a network address to send a report to a shared folder.
Report Configuration

Layout

Specifies the report template to use for the report’s headers and footers.

The Default report template is defined for you. To define more templates, use the Report Layouts page on the Administration Tasks tab.

NOTE: This setting is disabled if you click Design Report to define a custom report layout for the selected search.

Report

Specifies if the report is generated and sent on a weekly (default) or monthly schedule.

NOTE: When Monthly is selected, specify the schedule to generate the report. For example, 1 for every month (default), 2 for every other month, 6 for every six months or twice a year.

Every

When a Weekly report is selected, specify the schedule to use to generate the report. For example, 1 for every week (default), 2 for every other week, 3 for every third week, and 4 for every fourth week.

On Days

When a Weekly report is selected, define the days of the week to generate the report. The default is Monday through Friday.

On Day of Month

When a Monthly report is selected, specifies on which day of month to generate the report:

•
First (default)
•
Last
•
Day #

Run Time

Specifies the time to generate the report.

 

Reset

Use to reset the settings back to the factory defaults.

Send to a mailbox

Use to select the options to share reports through email.

Enter the email address of one or more persons who are to receive the report.

You can also use the browse button to locate and select the users who are to receive the report. Selecting this button displays one of the following dialogs:

•
The Select Active Directory Objects dialog (directory object picker) where you can use the Browse or Search page to locate Active Directory users. This dialog is displayed when no Exchange host is specified in the SMTP Configuration pane of the Coordinator Configuration page.
•
The Search Users dialog allowing you to locate and select an Exchange user (Exchange tab) or an Active Directory user (Active Directory tab). This dialog is displayed when an Exchange host is defined in the SMTP Configuration pane of the Coordinator Configuration page.

Click Expand Properties (right arrow) to the left of the To field to enter additional recipients and/or change the subject. When expanded, you can enter the following information:

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To: Enter or use the browse button to specify the email address of users who are to receive the report.
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Reply: Enter or use the browse button to specify the email address to which reply emails are to be sent.
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Cc: Enter or use the browse button to specify the email address of users who are to receive a copy of the report email.
•
Bcc: Enter or use the browse button to specify the email address of users who are to receive a blind copy of the report email.

Click Collapse Properties (down arrow) to hide these additional properties and show the other settings available on the Report Configuration pane.

NOTE: You can enter an individual email address or distribution list in any of the email address fields. Separate multiple email addresses with a semicolon.

Send to a shared folder

Use to select a shared folder to write reports to. You must enter a network path; a local address will not be accepted.

The To field is automatically populated with the default shared folder path. However, you can specify a different path.

The credentials from the Shared Folder Configuration are used to write reports to the shared folder. (The credentials are specified under the coordinator configuration Shared Folder Configuration option. See Shared Folder Configuration for details.) Ensure that the account has permissions to write to the shared folder.

If you change the shared folder, the new path does not display in the search grid until you refresh the searches tree (click F5 while on the searches tree).

Do not send empty reports

When selected, a report will not be sent to email or a shard folder if it does not contain any results.

Send empty report email notification

Select this to receive an email notification for a report that ran but did not contain any results.

NOTE: This is only available if you have selected the Send to a mailbox and the Do not send empty reports options

Attach

The report is sent as an email attachment. Select the appropriate Attach option to define the format to be used for the report:

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PDF (default)
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Html
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Word
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Text
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Excel
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CSV

Columns

Defines how the report content is to fill the page:

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Fit to Page (default)
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Fixed Width nn.nn Inches/Column
NOTE: These settings are disabled if you click Design Report to define a custom report layout for the selected search.

Time Zone

Specifies the time zone to be used for the time stamp in the name of the report attachment. By default, the time zone of the computer where the Change Auditor client resides is used.

Last Run

This read-only field specifies the last time (date and time) the report ran.

Next Run

This read-only field specifies the next time (date and time) when the report is scheduled to run.

To enable/schedule reporting:
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NOTE: To distribute reports through email (SMTP) or to a shared folder you must first enable the corresponding configuration on the Coordinator Configuration page of the Administration Tasks tab. See Click Test Mail to test the configuration. and Shared Folder Configuration.
1
Open the Searches page.
2
Expand the Private or Shared folders in the explorer view to locate the search to which reporting is to be enabled. Select the search from the Search list in the right pane.
3
Open the Report tab.
a
To share a report through email, select Send to a mailbox, enter a valid email address in the To field and then select the Report Enabled check box.
b
To send a report to a folder, select Send to a shared folder, enter a valid network path in the To field and then select the Report Enabled check box.
4
Specify the report configuration settings:
•
Layout: Select the report template to be used.
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Report: Specify when the report is to be generated/sent (i.e., on a weekly or monthly schedule).
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Run Time: Specify the time (based on the client’s current local date and time) at which the report is to be run.
•
Attach: Select the report format to be used.
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Columns: Define how the report content is to fill the page.
•
Time Zone: Select the time zone to be used for the time stamp in the name of the report attachment. By default, the time zone of the computer where the Change Auditor client resides is used.
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NOTE: See Table 1 for a detailed description of the report configuration settings.
5
Click Save.
When reporting is enabled, the following details are added to the search entry in the Searches list:
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Report column displays ‘Enabled’
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Report To, Report Cc and Report Bcc columns display the email address of specified recipients or a shared folder path.
To disable a scheduled report:
1
Open the Searches page.
2
Expand the Private or Shared folders in the explorer view to locate the search whose reporting is to be disabled. Select the search from the Search list in the right pane.
3
Use one of the following methods to disable reporting for the selected search:
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Right-click the search and select Report | Disable Report.
•
Open the Report tab and clear the Report Enabled check box. Click Save.

Launch Report Designer

The report designer in Change Auditor uses StimulReport.Net components for designing reports. For a detailed description and functionality of each component available, click F1 to view the Stimulsoft online help (www.stimulsoft.com).

To launch the report designer:
1
Open the Searches page, locate and select a search definition.
2
Open the Report tab for the selected search and click Design Report.
The report designer appears allowing you to create a custom report layout for the selected search.
 
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NOTE: Once the report designer is launched, the Layout and Columns settings on the Report tab for the selected search are disabled. To re-enable these settings, click Reset at the bottom of the Report tab.

Publish reports

Publish reports

ChangeAuditor supports Microsoft's Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SRS), providing a comprehensive, server-based solution that enables the creation, management and delivery of reports.

To publish reports to a SRS server:
1
Open the Searches page.
2
Expand the Private and Shared folders and select a folder in the explorer view to display the list of search/report definitions stored in the selected folder.
3
From the right-hand pane, right-click a search/report definition and select Publish reports using SQL Reporting Services. This displays the Create Report dialog allowing you to configure the SQL Server Reporting services to be used and to specify the report details. (To publish a series of reports (folder), select a folder in the explorer view.)
4
If not already configured, select the Configure button to specify the reporting services and Change Auditor shared data source to be used.
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Enter the URL of the SRS server that is to host the ChangeAuditor reports For example: http://<SQL_Server>/<ReportServer>
Where: <SQL_Server> is the name of the server hosting SRS and <ReportServer> is the name of the report server virtual directory. (In a default Reporting Services installation, the name of the virtual directory is reportserver.)
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NOTE: You can use the Import SRS Settings button on the Reporting Services Setup dialog to import a SQL Reporting Services template that was previously created to define the necessary SRS settings or enter the SRS settings as defined below.
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Enter the user account, credentials and domain for a Windows account that has permissions to copy files to SRS.
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NOTE: This Windows account requires rights to create SRS reports and data sources on the server (a.k.a. Content Manager).
•
Enter the user account and credentials to be used to access the Change Auditor database (data source).
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Click Test to verify the credentials entered above.
5
Once you have entered the requested information, Change Auditor will publish the reports to the specified server, which will then be available through SQL Server Reporting Services.
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