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How to check audit status

It is useful to check the current audit status of an SkyVault Content Services installation. You can do this via the AuditService Java API, but this can also be done via the REST API. The REST API can be accessed via web scripts, or simply using a command line client such as Curl.

You can check the status of auditing conveniently from the command line by using a tool such as curl to access the Audit Control web script.

Curl options used:

Option Description
-u Specify the user.
-d (HTTP) Sends the specified data in a POST request to the HTTP server, in the same way that a browser does when a user has filled in an HTML form and presses the submit button.

Use man curl for further information.

To check the global status of auditing issue a command such as:

curl -u admin:password "http://localhost:8080/alfresco/service/api/audit/control"      

This invokes the web script with a GET request. This will result in a JSON response such as the following if auditing is currently enabled:

{
   "enabled" : true,
   "applications": 
   [
      {
         "name": "SkyVault Tagging Service",
         "path" : "/tagging",
         "enabled" : true
      }
         ,
      {
         "name": "alfresco-access",
         "path" : "/alfresco-access",
         "enabled" : true
      }
         
   ]
}
    

While this does return the global status of the auditing framework, audit data will only be generated if audit.alfresco-access.enabled is enabled.

If auditing is currently disabled the response will be:

{
   "enabled" : false
}  

In this case no audit data will be generated as the audit framework is disabled.

Auditing can also be globally enabled or disabled using the control web script. To do this a POST request is sent to the web script. For example, using curl, auditing can be enabled using the following command:

curl -u admin:password -d "" "http://localhost:8080/alfresco/service/api/audit/control?enable=true"

This results in the following response:

{
   "enabled" : true
}  

To disable auditing issue the following command:

curl -u admin:password -d "" "http://localhost:8080/alfresco/service/api/audit/control?enable=false"

This results in the following response:

{
   "enabled" : false
}  

While the global status of the auditing framework can be switched on and off in this manner, audit data will only be generated if audit.alfresco-access.enabled is enabled in the global properties file.

Note: Enabling or disabling auditing using the Audit Control web script only remains valid in force while the server is running; the setting will not be retained following a server restart, but will subsequently be set according to the values in SkyVault-global.properties.

Using JMX to control auditing

A JMX client can be used to access global properties. The properties can be modified using the JMX client. A server restart will be required for changes to properties to take effect.