Executive Summary:
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 includes a feature called Audit Collection Services (ACS). ACS is a reporting tool, based on SQL Server Reporting Services, which simplifies the task of collecting and auditing security event log events on multiple Windows systems by gathering events from systems in your network and consolidating them in one location for reporting. ACS provides a number of useful reports, accessible through a Web browser, on security event types including access violations, account management events, forensic reports, planning, system integrity, and usage. |
Security event-log auditing is an important compliance tool for Windows administrators because the log contains an audit trail of security-related events that occurred on a system. Ordinarily, to seek proof of compliance, an auditor might need to search through the logs from multiple systems, which can be a time-consuming, error-prone job. Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager 2007’s Audit Collection Services (ACS) feature simplifies the task of collecting and auditing security events on multiple Windows systems, by gathering security-log events from systems in your network and consolidating them in a centralized location. We’ll look at how to plan for, set up, and configure ACS in Operations Manager 2007, then explore how to use it for Security event-log auditing. . . .