Auditing Configuration Changes made using the eG Administrative Interface

eG Enterprise provides auditlog reports using which you can keep tabs on critical configuration changes made using the eG admin interface, such as password changes, test parameter changes, new server additions, threshold changes etc., which can significantly alter the way the eG Enterprise system performs monitoring. Sometimes, these configuration changes, if not done properly or if carried out by unauthorized/unqualified personnel, can cause the eG Enterprise system to generate false alerts and perform inaccurate diagnosis. 

As these auditlog reports reveal what admin settings were modified by which user, along with the details of the original settings, they greatly help administrators in quickly identifying and rectifying errors (if any) in configuration.

To generate these reports, do the following:

  1. Login to the eG administrative interface as admin.
  2. Select the Admin option from the Audits menu.

  3. Figure 1 then appears, providing a wide range of options for report generation.

    Admin Audit Log Report Filters

    Figure 1 : Options for generating Admin Audit Log reports

  4. The default Timeline for the report is 24 hours. You can choose any other fixed period from the Timeline list, or select the Any option from this list. Choosing the Any timeline, allows you to provide a From and To date and time for report generation. If you change the Timeline settings, then make sure that you click the right-arrow button at its end, to register the changes.

  5. Administrators can configure the target environment for monitoring by logging into the eG administrative interface or by using the admin command line interface provided by the eG manager. This is why, by default, the audit log not only captures those configuration changes that are effected via the web-based eG administrative interface, but also logs those activities that are performed via the eG Admin Command Line Interface. While generating audit log reports, you have the option of viewing changes across both these interfaces, or only those changes that pertain to a particular interface. To indicate your choice, use the Interface drop-down list. The options available in the Interface list are as follows:

    • Web: Select this option to view those changes that were effected only via the web interface;
    • Command Line: Select this option to view those changes that were effected only via the eG command line interface;
    • All: Select this option to view all changes, regardless of interface.

    If required, you can choose not to maintain audit logs for activities performed via the admin command line interface by setting the Include activities from the admin command line interface flag in the Auditing section of the MANAGER SETTINGS page to No. In this case therefore, the Interface drop-down list will not appear.

  6. Next, select the User whose admin activities you want to audit. By default, the All option is displayed here, indicating that the report provides the details of the configuration changes effected by all users to the eG administrative interface. However, if only one user has actively used the eG administrative interface till date, then, by default, that user’s name is displayed in the User list.
  7. The Host IPs list displays all the IP addresses from which the chosen user(s) has accessed the eG administrative interface (see Figure 1). If you are looking for information on the admin accesses from specific IPs, select those IP addresses alone from the Host IPs list.
  8. After the selection, the Modules list will be populated with those admin modules that the chosen user(s) worked with while accessing the eG admin interface from the selected Host IPs (see Figure 1). If you want the details of changes that the user made in specific admin modules, select those modules alone from the Modules list. 
  9. Based on the Modules selection, the Activities list will be populated. While working with the eG admin interface, the selected user(s) might have performed a few specific operations on the chosen Modules. eG Enterprise automatically discovers the operations that correspond to the chosen user-host IP-module combination from the audit logs, and populates the Activities list with the operations so discovered (see Figure 1). If you want the details of specific activities only, select the required options alone from the Activities list.

  10. Finally, click the Show button to generate the report.

    SNAGHTML2390ac

    Figure 2 : An ADMIN AUDITLOG REPORT

  11. The resulting report provides the following details (see Figure 2):

    • the date/time of the change
    • the name of the user who made the change
    • the IP address of the host from which the user accessed the eG admin interface
    • the module that was accessed by the user
    • the specific operation/activity that was performed by the user on that module
    • the Interface type that was used - whether web or command line
    • the detailed description of the change, followed by a snapshot of the settings prior to change, and the settings after the change; if a configuration has been newly introduced (for eg., a server has been newly managed), then only the Current Settings will be displayed

      • Note:

      By default, every change record that the report displays will be accompanied by the Current and Previous configuration settings. This can sometimes clutter the report view, making it difficult for you to read and analyze the report. You can therefore hide the both these columns from the report, by setting the ShowChanges parameter in the [audit_log_settings] section of the eg_ui.ini file to No.

  12. In a redundant setup, the auditlog report will have an additional MANAGER NAME column, which displays the IP or host name of the manager to which a record pertains.

  13. You can print the report by clicking on the Print icon at the right, top corner of Figure 2 or save the report as a PDF file by clicking on the Save icon. You can even save the report as a CSV file by clicking on the csv icon in Figure 2.

    Note:

    If the threshold for a measure is changed to -/-/-, then the Current Settings column of the Audit Log Report will indicate that the threshold has changed to none.

  14. You can also schedule the audit log report to be automatically emailed to specific recipients at configured intervals. For that, click on the Schedule this Report icon in the tool bar. Figure 3 will then appear.

    Scheduling Audit Log Report for eG Admin Interface

    Figure 3 : Scheduling an Audit Log report

  15. Provide the following in Figure 3:

    • Specify the Schedule Name.

    • Indicate how frequently you want eG Enterprise to mail the report by picking an option from the Mail drop-down. The options provided therein include: Hourly, Daily, Day(s) of the week, Weekly, Monthly, Weekend, and Month-End. If you select the Day(s)of the week/Weekly option, you even get to select the exact day(s) of the week on which you want the report mailed, from the Mail On list. If you select the Monthly option from the Mail list, you can select the exact date of the month on which you want the report to be mailed, from the Mail On list. Select the Hourly option if you want the report to be mailed during a specific one-hour time window on chosen days of the week. In this case, use the Start Hr and End Hr controls to configure the time window for email delivery, and use the Mail On list to select the days of the week.

      Note:

      • If a report is set to be mailed 'Weekly', such a setting only ensures that the report is mailed once a week; it does not alter the Timeline of the original report. The same applies to 'Monthly' schedules.

      • By default, WeekEnd reports are mailed every Sunday. This default setting can however, be modified by editing the eg_services.ini file (in the <EG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory). The ScheduleMailWeekend parameter in the [MISC_ARGS] section of this file is set to Sunday, by default. If you so wish, you can specify any other day of the week against this parameter, as shown below:

        [MISC_ARGS]

        ScheduleMailWeekend=Friday

    • Provide a comma-separated list of Mail IDs to which the audit log report is to be emailed.

    • Indicate how you want the audit log report sent via email - as an attachment, or in the body of the email. Pick the Attachment option if you want the report to the attached to the email. To include the report in the body of the email, select the Inline option.

    • Then, indicate the Schedule Type. You can indicate when report scheduling is to occur by picking an option from the Schedule Type list. To generate schedule reports at the end of every day, pick the Day-End option from this list. To generate schedule reports at a configured time every day, pick the Anytime option from this list, and then indicate the exact time of generation using the Schedule at time controls that then appear.

    • Then, click on Save to save the schedule.  

    Note:

    By default, when an audit log report is emailed as per schedule, this scheduled report will display only those configuration changes that were effected from the Host IPs chosen (see Figure 1) at the time the report was originally generated. If configuration changes were made from a new IP address in the meantime - i.e., from when the schedule was created to when the scheduled report is actually emailed - then the emailed report will not carry details of those changes made from the new IP by default. This is because, the Consider_IPs_OnSchedule parameter in the [MISC_ARGS] section of the eg_services.ini file (in the <EG_MANAGER_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory on Windows; on Unix, this will be the opt/egurkha/manager/config directory) is set to Yes by default. If required, you can override this default setting by editing the eg_services.ini file and changing the value of the Consider_IPs_OnSchedule parameter to No. When this is done, then, when emailing a scheduled report, eG will disregard the Host IPs chosen for the original report. The scheduled report in this case will display changes made from any IP address, regardless of what the original selection is.