Introduction › Is It Difficult to Use CA Auditor?

Is It Difficult to Use CA Auditor?

Before we developed CA Auditor, only experienced EDP auditors and security specialists with a systems programming background could perform an extensive operating system review. They had to do much of the work manually or with utilities that were difficult to use. Even with the necessary data processing expertise, a z/OS review could take weeks or even months to perform. In addition, the problem of what to do once the experts left always existed.

In contrast, we designed CA Auditor for those without a wide systems software background. You do not have to be a z/OS expert to use CA Auditor. As part of the support that CA International, Inc. (CA) offers with CA Auditor, we provide detailed instructions on using the system and comprehensive educational material, both online and in print, to aid those users new to the z/OS environment. An expansive help feature guides you through your use of CA Auditor. In addition to this guide, we provide an extensive System Review Checklist that provides a detailed series of tests to perform on each aspect of the operating system. Each section corresponds to the structure of the online CA Auditor system.

CA Auditor includes an easy‑to‑use report generator, so it is simple to print CA Auditor displays. With the system’s report options, you can tailor printed output.

You can use CA Auditor online or in a batch mode, which we also call the “Silent Auditor”. With the batch job facility, you can use CA Auditor to run time‑consuming functions in batch while you use CA Auditor, TSO, or another application in split‑screen mode. In addition, repetitive audit functions can be captured in batch scripts and then run automatically using automated job scheduling solutions such as CA Scheduler or CA 7. See the Technical Reference for detailed information about this user profile information option (0.4).

Data center users can combine CA Auditor batch scripts with SNMP trap Support or CA Audit event support to automatically audit parts of their systems periodically and send messages to a Unicenter workstation or CA Audit client about any exceptional conditions found.