Managing Microsoft

Kerrie Meyler

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Auditing using Operations Manager 2007

By Kerrie Meyler on Fri, 05/22/09 - 3:47am.

Audit Collection Services (ACS) is a component of OpsMgr that enables you to collect records generated by an audit policy and store them in a centralized database. These records are normally written to the local Security log; ACS enables taking that information and storing it in a centralized SQL Server repository. You can then filter and analyze information using the data analysis and reporting tools provided by SQL Server. ACS also comes with a number of reports out of the box.

ACS is protected from the rest of OpsMgr operations by design. Only those users specifically given the right to access the ACS database can run queries and create reports on the collected data.

Deploying ACS requires three components: forwarders (those machines you wish to capture security log information from), a collector (which receives information from forwarders), and a database. The database can be installed on the collector or separately for better performance.

Operations Manager is most popularly known for its ability to monitor and manage your servers, ACS is an optional component that you may want to investigate if you have not already.

Here are several references for additional information on ACS:

System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed (Sams, 2008), Chapter 15
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb381373.aspx (overview)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb309523.aspx (capacity planning)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb309607.aspx (deploying)

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About Managing Microsoft

Kerrie Meyler, MVP, MCSE, MCTS, MCT, is an independent consultant and trainer with over fifteen years of experience in IT. While at Microsoft in Field Technical Sales for four years she focused on infrastructure and mangement, presenting at numerous product launches. Kerrie has presented Operations Manager 2007 at TechEd 2007, MMS 2009, MMS 2011, and internal Microsoft conferences, receiving company recognition and awards including a SPAR MGS award. Kerrie worked with Microsoft Learning to develop functional specifications for the original Operations Manager Microsoft courseware, 2550: Implementing Microsoft Operations Manager 2000 and did the beta teach for that course.She also participated in development for several System Center certification exams.

Kerrie is the lead author of Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Unleashed, System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 Unleashed, System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Unleashed, System Center Opalis Integration Server 6.3 Unleashed and System Center Service Manager 2010 Unleashed.

Check out an excerpt from System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed, Chapter 3: Looking Inside OpsMgr.

You can also check out an excerpt from System Center Configuration (SCCM) Manager 2007 Unleashed, Chapter 3: Looking Inside ConfigMgr.

Read a sample chapter of System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Unleashed at Chapter 1: Introduction and What's New.

You can also read a sample chapter of System Center Opalis Integration Server 6.3 Unleashed at Chapter 1: Introducing Opalis Integration Server 6.3 and System Center Service Manager 2010 Unleashed at Chapter 1:Service Management Basics.

System Center Service Manager 2010 Unleashed was selected as the September, 2011 book giveaway for Microsoft Subnet.

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Read a free chapter excerpt of System Center Service Manager 2010 Unleashed

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