Audit Table Design

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Audit Table Design

kwoznica

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February 15, 2014 at 2:25 pm

#285590

Hello all,
I am building the backend of a web application and came across a scenario for the audit logging table design that I would to receive some opinions on.
There are 2 audit tables.
Table: AuditType - Contains all of the audit types
Fields: AuditTypeID, Type, Description, CreatedBy, CreatedOn, ModifiedBy, ModifiedOn
Table: AuditLog - The associated record for each Audit Type/activity we would like to record.
Fields: AuditLogID, UserID, AuditInformation, AuditDate, AuditTypeID, CreatedBy, CreatedOn, ModifiedBy, ModifiedOn
Those two tables will be reacting to the following events (AuditType): Password Change, Logins, Logouts, Login Failure, SessionTimeout, LoginCreation, LoginDeletion
The client would like to record more detail of what occurs with the user login information. Below are two tables with fields for each login profile.
Table: UserProfile - Contains basic user login information
fields: UserDetailId, UserID, FirstName, LastName, BusinessPhone, CellPhone, PrimaryEmail, SecondaryEmail, StreetAddress, CityID, Zip, BusinessTitle, WebAccess, Createdby, Createdon, ModifiedBy, ModifiedOn.
Table:UserCustomerRelation - Linking table to associate UserProfile Records to Customers
Fields: UserCustRelationID, UserID, CustomerId, FromDate, ToDate, CreatedBy, CreatedOn, ModifiedBy, ModifiedOn
Now if a field in the UserProfile table is modified we would like that action logged. For instance if a user with a login of jsmith had 2 new customers added to his login via the UserCustomerRelation table, those new record creations would be logged.
My initial thought is to expand the AuditTypes to include new types: Customer Add, Customer Remove,Street Address Change, Primary Email Address, First Name, Last Name, Web Access.
This way when any of these fields in the UserProfile table are modified a trigger would write to the AuditLog table with the correct type.
Is this thought the optimal way of logging such activity?
what is a more optimal way to perform logging?
Would a separate trigger need to be created for each field we wish to log?

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Michael L John One Orange Chip Points: 27038 More actions · Answer 1

kwoznica (2/15/2014)
Hello all,
Is this thought the optimal way of logging such activity?
what is a more optimal way to perform logging?
Would a separate trigger need to be created for each field we wish to log?

Is this optimal? Maybe. What are your audit requirements? Here are some things to consider. Auditing should be separate from your production data. This is a typical requirement. Review the requirements again. And again. And again. Have the actual auditors review your plan. You may the tracking the correct data, but the METHOD you are using to track the data may not fit the audit requirements. For example, we had our audit plan rejected because the same DBA's had access to the source data and the audit data. These needed to be separate persons.

More optimal? From what perspective? Performance? Meeting or exceeding audit requirements? Architecture?

My first generic thought was that a single audit table will probably not scale well. Separate audit tables for each "table" you are auditing may make more sense. If you are going to do this with triggers (Ugh!) the contention for this table from multiple places may become a blocking and locking issue. It may work well for 10 users, but it will become an issue with 100. The audit table may be a good candidate for a heap. The activity on this table will likely be primarily inserts, so make inserts as fast as possible. Indexes will slow this down.

Would a separate trigger need to be created for each field we wish to log?

Huh? Sounds like a trip to Books Online land is in order. Look up UPDATED

Sample syntax:

If UPDATED(field) Begin

Do something

End

You need three triggers (Ugh!); insert, update and delete.

Lastly, do some significant performance testing. Capture your baselines when you do 100, 10000, and 1000000 inserts/updates/deletes on the tables to be audited. Then add your triggers and do the same test.

Michael L John
If you assassinate a DBA, would you pull a trigger?
To properly post on a forum:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/61537/

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1003857 More actions · Answer 2

Michael L John (2/15/2014)
You need three triggers (Ugh!); insert, update and delete.

Actually, you don't. Just calculate whether it's an INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE and mark a column with I, U, or D. Remember that when a trigger fires, it won't contain mixed events. It will be because of an INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE and never a mixture.

If I recall correctly, here's one of the faster ways to determine what the triggering action was.

IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT TOP 1 1 FROM DELETED)

SELECT @TriggerAction = 'I'

ELSE IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT TOP 1 1 FROM INSERTED)

SELECT @TriggerAction = 'D'

ELSE SELECT @TriggerAction = 'U'

;

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Michael L John One Orange Chip Points: 27038 More actions · Answer 3

Correct. But.

I prefer three separate triggers (Ugh!) for task such as this. To me, it's easier to maintain. And it's also easier to sort through the spaghetti with separate triggers (Ugh!).

You may end up with extra maintenance because the code is duplicated in all three triggers (Ugh!).

Michael L John
If you assassinate a DBA, would you pull a trigger?
To properly post on a forum:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/61537/