Archiving audit logs

You can reduce the size of the audit logs and security logs for a database by archiving some of the records in them.

Archiving logs using Audit Viewer

When you use iBase Audit Viewer you can choose to archive the audit log to a file or to a SQL Server database.

If the Audit History option in Database Properties is unchecked, the audit log is archived to a file. Open Audit Viewer and connect to the iBase database. Select the log entries you want to archive, and then click Action > Archive. If you click Yes to the prompt, Audit Viewer creates an archive file with the extension .idla in the same folder as the database. The archive file is password protected.

If the Audit History option is checked, the audit log is archived to a SQL Server database. Open Audit Viewer and connect to the iBase database. Click Action > Archive, and select a SQL Server database to archive the log to. Audit Viewer creates a new archive database in the same instance as the SQL Server database. The archive database has the same name, but with _log appended. For example if the database is called User_Guide, the archive database is called User_Guide_log.

Archiving logs using external tools

If you want to archive logs using tools external to iBase and Audit Viewer, you need to know where the logs are stored. Different locations are used for different types of databases and logs.

For Access databases, the database log is held in the _AuditLog table of the .idl file that is stored in the same folder.

For SQL Server databases, the database audit log is created as a separate SQL Server database with a name constructed from the database name with the added text _log, for example dbname_log. This database can get large, so you can either:

  • Use Audit Viewer to extract sections to store as archives. For more information, see Archiving SQL Server databases.

  • Use a Microsoft SQL Server backup tool to archive the whole log, and then delete the audit log database. After you delete the audit log database, open the main database in iBase designer to create a blank audit log database.

Opening an archive in Microsoft Access

For iBase databases in Microsoft Access format, the audit log is held as an archive file, .idla, a password-protected database file.

The password for Access databases is the database password, which is listed in iBase Designer > Tools > Feature Availability > Options > Advanced.

The database password is the same for all databases that are accessed through one security file.