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RE: SQL Server Auditing - Part 1

Wayne West — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:02:00 GMT

Very cool, I definitely need to implement this. I have two servers that go through a ridiculous amount of logins every day, so this will be good to help monitor them more effectively.I've also taken to forcing the error log to cycle every two weeks, syncing with our pay period. At 11:59pm Sunday night, I have a scheduled job that runs a sp_cycle_errorlog to keep the logs a bit more tidy.Thanks!

RE: SQL Server Auditing - Part 1

Hans Birndaila — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 09:48:00 GMT

Hi. This is my first post to this forum, so please excuse me if I'm doing wrong.And excuse my poor english, I am german.First of all great thanks for your article. Been great help... and sounding a good idea, so I added some more code and I'd ike to share the results with you.1st: I used exactly the code provided in the article for creating the base table, only renaming the table from #errorlog to sk_errorlog according to our programming rules.2nd: I built a second table as follows:------------tbl-----------------CREATE TABLE [sk_errorlog2] ( [rowID] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL , [datum] [varchar] (10) COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS NULL , -- datum is german for date [textRow] [varchar] (4000) COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS NULL , [uhrzeit] [varchar] (10) COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS NULL , -- uhrzeit is german for time [kategorie] [varchar] (100) COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS NULL -- same for category) ON [PRIMARY]GO--------------------------------I will add colums like "servername" or similar later on when using it for multiple servers.This table is meant to be a permanent depository for all sql-logs in my environment (only 5 sql-servers here)3rd: I created some sp's for updating the second tablehere is the first for inserting new rows:----------------------SP1-----------------------CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[sp_sk_errorlog] ASinsert into sk_errorlog2 (textrow) (select RTRIM(a.textrow) + COALESCE (b.textrow,'') as textrowFROM ( SELECT * FROM sk_errorlog WHERE continuationrow=0 ) as A LEFT OUTER JOIN ( SELECT * FROM sk_errorlog WHERE continuationrow=1 ) as B ON A.rowID = B.rowID - 1 where ( RTRIM(a.textrow) + COALESCE (b.textrow,'') not in (select textrow from sk_errorlog2) and a.continuationrow=0 ))GO-------------------------------------------------------the second sp will separate some values from the textrow:-----------------sp2-------------------------CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[sp_sk_errorlog_update] AS-----Check your collation/datetime settings here!-----update sk_errorlog2 set datum =(select (case when (left (textrow,2) = '20') then left (textrow,10)else null end)),uhrzeit =(case ( right (left (textrow,12),1) ) when '0' then right ((left (textrow,19)),8) when '1' then right ((left (textrow,19)),8) when '2' then right ((left (textrow,19)),8) else null end) ,kategorie =(case ----check for language settings here, e.g.: fehler is german for error! ----Here you can put the messages into categories, I started with the following when textrow like '%[F,f]ehler%' or textrow like '[F,f]ehler%' then 'error' when textrow like '%backup%' and textrow like '%datenbankprotokoll%' then 'protokoll' when textrow like '%backup%' then 'backup' when textrow like '%server%' then 'server' when textrow like '%logon%' then 'logon' else 'sonstiges' end)where datum is null----------------------------------------/*NOTE: the following 3 MS standard entries are the only ones without datetime information ( at least here :-)May 3 2005 23:18:38Copyright (c) 1988-2003 Microsoft CorporationStandard Edition on Windows NT 5.2 (Build 3790: Service Pack 2) */So now you should have some information in a better queryable form than directly from xp_readerrorlog.Now use the gui you like best for creating some "management dashboard" where you can list the events separated by time and category. Looking foward to part 2 and Keep on coding!SK

RE: SQL Server Auditing - Part 1

scout — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 02:09:00 GMT

Hi.

Only a little humble suggestion: to read/write configuration settings into the Windows Registry, Enterprise Manager uses xp_instance_regread and xp_instance_regwrite, that are the same as xp_regread and xp_regwrite, except already focused on the actual instance...

For those who want to SQL for the current instance, they are easier to use.

Note: You can profile (SQL Profiler) the activity of E.M.

Bye,

Daniele.

RE: SQL Server Auditing - Part 1

jacob sebastian — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:43:00 GMT

Very helpful information!

RE: SQL Server Auditing - Part 1

Emelie Clarin — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 13:56:00 GMT

Thank you for this article. Very timely since I am right now creating a document that includes sql server auditing.

RE: SQL Server Auditing - Part 1

Mike Schmidt — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 16:12:00 GMT

Thank you -- well written.

RE: SQL Server Auditing - Part 1

K. Brian Kelley — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 13:18:00 GMT

Glad that snippet of code was helpful.

RE: SQL Server Auditing - Part 1

hoo-t — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 10:02:00 GMT

Not an hour before I read this article, I was staring at a script in query analyzer, trying to figure out how I was going to import the current SQL error log into my table. The script has been staring back at me for a couple of days. After reading this article, I'm back on track! Thanks for a great article!

Steve

RE: SQL Server Auditing - Part 1

cppwiz — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 08:43:00 GMT

Excellent article - well done. I especially liked the screen prints with the red outline showing the important part of the display. I'm looking forward to Part Two...

SQL Server Auditing - Part 1

K. Brian Kelley — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 22:04:00 GMT

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