Using AuditMaster Viewer

A Tour of the Main Window and a Reference List of Tasks

The topics in this chapter include:

n	AuditMaster Viewer Concepts

n	AuditMaster Viewer GUI Visual Reference

AuditMaster Viewer Concepts

The viewer is a Microsoft Windows client user interface to the Pervasive AuditMaster system. From this main window, you may work with the following features:

n	AuditMaster Server

n

Data Tree

n

View File

n

Alerts

n

Reports

AuditMaster Server

An AuditMaster server is a Pervasive PSQL database server on which the Pervasive AuditMaster event handler and configuration files are installed and running. The event handler monitors the database and logs audit records which can then be queried for display in the AuditMaster Viewer client. Each AuditMaster server is a top branch in the AuditMaster data tree.

Data Tree

The data tree presents your auditing system in graphical form. Each branch of the tree holds an AuditMaster server and its current view file, archived files, and saved queries. For more information, see AuditMaster Viewer GUI Visual Reference.

View File

Audit records in an AuditMaster event handler log are moved to a view file for query and display. The records reside in the view file until they are moved to an archived file. Each server in the data tree has its own view file and archived files. For more information, see AuditMaster Viewer GUI Visual Reference.

Alerts

An alert is an automated notification that a set of conditions has matched a newly captured audit record. A tripped alert can send email to a selected group of recipients. It also starts an application on the server. See Working with Alerts.

Reports

Reports for viewing on-screen and printing are loaded with queries for selecting audit records. See Printing Reports.

AuditMaster Viewer GUI Visual Reference

This section provides a reference to main window of the AuditMaster Viewer graphical user interface (GUI). This window displays when the client application first starts. Once you have logged in as a user and run a query to display audit records, the GUI should resemble the following figure. The window includes the following objects:

n

Title Bar

n	Menu and Toolbar

n

Data Tree

n	Audit Record Grid

n	Audit Record Detail

n	Status Bar

For details, click any item in the list, or click an area of the image.

Figure 5-1 AuditMaster Viewer main window

Title Bar

This section explains the title bar of the main window.

The title bar lists the name of the application, the active server, and the current screen. In this example, the system being monitored is a Pervasive PSQL database.

Menu and Toolbar

This section describes items in the main window menu and toolbar, shown in the following figure. For details, click an area of the image.

Figure 5-2 Menu and Toolbar

 

Table 5-1

Menu commands

Menu or Toolbar	Command	Description
File	Query or	Displays the Query Builder to search for records. A query may be based on user, date, action, and other criteria. For details, see Chapter 7: Querying Audit Records.
	Alert or	Builds an alert based on a query (e.g., a certain user has made a change or when a check is cashed for over $100,000). A tripped alert flags the monitored record with an icon and performs an action, either sending email or starting a program. See details under Working with Alerts.
	Report or	Prints the selected audit records. See details under Printing Reports.
	Exit	Select Exit to log out and close the viewer
Edit	Copy	Copies selected fields to the clipboard as tab-delimited text strings
	Select All	Highlights all records
Tools	Search or	Searches for specific text in audit records. For details, see Searching Audit Records.
	Sort or	Sorts audit records based on the currently selected column. For details, see Sorting Audit Records.
	Export or	Exports a current or archived view file to a text file. For details, see Exporting Audit Records to Other Applications.
View	Show Active Local Monitors	Displays an icon in the data tree to provide information about the currently installed event handler. The default for this setting is off and is left off under normal use.
	Set Archives to Show	Sets how many items are displayed under Archived Files in the data tree. For details, see Using the Data Tree to Archive Audit Records.
	Show AM Debug Messages	Sets whether debug messages are displayed in query results during certain integration development activities. The default for this setting is off and is left off under normal use.
	Show AM Monitor Messages	Sets whether internal messages are displayed in query results during certain integration development activities. The default for this setting is off and is left off under normal use.
Server	Add	Creates a connection from an AuditMaster Viewer client to an AuditMaster server.
	Remove	Removes an AuditMaster server connection. The server continues to capture new audit records, but the client cannot currently access them, although it still can query and display records already in its current view and archived files.
	Update Current View File or	Refreshes the current view file from the audit log so that queries display the most up-to-date audit records.
	Archive Current View File	Archives all audit records in the current view file, including any captured in the log file but not yet updated to the view.
	Archive and Compress View File	Archives and compresses all audit records in the current view file, including any captured in the log file but not yet updated to the view.
	Change Password	Changes the password for the user currently logged into an AuditMaster server.
Admin (Available only to administrative logins.)	View Status Log	Displays the status log of Pervasive AuditMaster activity.
	Audit Configuration	Sets the files for an AuditMaster server to monitor, including any operations to be monitored for individual files.
	User Maintenance or	Allows you to add or remove users.
	Server Settings	Maintains paths and other system settings for an AuditMaster server.
Help	Contents	Provides an online version of the user’s guide..
	Trouble-shooting	Provides steps for troubleshooting common problems. For additional support, visit www.pervasive.com.
	Index	Displays the index of the user’s guide.
	About	Displays Pervasive AuditMaster version information.
Visible Columns	—	A drop-down list to set which columns display in the audit record grid. For steps, see Setting visible columns in the audit record grid.
AM Server and Data Source	—	The toolbar lists the current AuditMaster server login and the audit files selected for the last query, as shown in the following examples: • AM Server: \\DB_SERVER\PVSWAUDIT$\DATA\ • Data Source: Current View File - \\DB_SERVER\PVSWAUDIT$\data\amview • Data Source: Multiple View Files (i.e., both current view and archived files)

Data Tree

The data tree displays an AuditMaster server. Branches of the tree can be expanded by clicking the plus signs for more detail. You can also right-click tree icons for various command options. Queries may be run against the current view or archived files.

Figure 5-3 Data Tree

Audit Record Grid

When a query is run against the current view or an archived file, the audit record grid shows the result.

Figure 5-4 Audit Record Grid

Audit Record Detail

Audit records capture both AuditMaster operations and database activity. For database activity, the audit record detail area in the lower part of the AuditMaster Viewer window shows the fields of the data record where activity occurred.

Figure 5-5 Audit Record Detail

Note Data record detail may be in human language or in hexadecimal, depending on whether the database schema has been imported for AuditMaster to use in displaying data. For more information, see Working with Audit Configurations.

Status Bar

This section explains the text in the status bar at the bottom of the main window.

The status bar displays two messages during AuditMaster Viewer operation:

n	The active server to which the viewer is currently a client, typically the following string:

Active Server: \\server_name\PVSWAUDIT$\DATA\

n	The active view file, typically the following string:

Active View File: \AMVIEW.