Implementation Guide › Implementation Overview › SiteMinder Components › Data Stores › SiteMinder Audit Database

SiteMinder Audit Database

(Optional) By default, the Policy Server writes audit events to a text file, which is known as the Policy Server log. The purpose of audit logs is to track information about all user activity, including:

• All successful authentications
• All failed authentications
• All successful authorization attempts
• All failed authorization attempts
• All administrative login attempts
• All administrative actions, such as changes to administrator passwords, the creation of policy store objects, and changes to policy store objects

However, you can configure a stand–alone SiteMinder audit database (audit database). When deciding where to store audit events, consider that:

• The Report Server requires a connection to an audit database to create audit–based reports. The Report Server cannot create audit–based reports from a Policy Server log written to a text file.
• Storing audit logs to a database is more secure than logging the information to a text file.
• If supported, a policy store can also function as an audit database.

Note: For more information about configuring an audit database, see the documentation roadmap.