1 Overview of Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall Installation

This chapter gives an overview of Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall (Oracle AVDF) and its installation.

Topics

• About Oracle AVDF

• About Oracle AVDF Installation

See Also:

Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall Administrator's Guide for general information about secure installation, data protection, and general recommendations for deploying Oracle AVDF in a network and in special configurations

About Oracle AVDF

Topics

• Oracle AVDF Features

• Oracle AVDF Components

Oracle AVDF Features

Oracle AVDF secures databases and supported operating systems as follows:

• For databases, Oracle AVDF provides:

  • A firewall that can monitor and block SQL statements, using a firewall policy designed by an auditor

    In Oracle databases, the auditor can set and provision audit policies from the Audit Vault Server console.

  • A set of firewall reports

• For both databases and supported operating systems, Oracle AVDF collects audit data and makes it available in audit reports.

See Also:

Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall Administrator's Guide for more information about Oracle AVDF features

Oracle AVDF Components

This section briefly describes the Oracle AVDF components that you will install.

Topics

• Audit Vault Server

• Database Firewalls

• Audit Vault Agents

See Also:

Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall Administrator's Guide for more information about Oracle AVDF components, including a diagram of how they work together

Audit Vault Server

An Audit Vault Server is a dedicated server that has:

• Tools to configure Oracle AVDF to collect audit data from, and apply firewall policies to, secured targets

  A secured target is a supported database or nondatabase product that you secure using an Audit Vault Agent, a Database Firewall, or both. For more information about the secured targets, see Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall Administrator's Guide.

• An Oracle database, which reporting tools can access through a data warehouse

For more information about the Audit Vault Server, see Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall Administrator's Guide.

Database Firewalls

A Database Firewall is a dedicated server that collects SQL data from network traffic going to and from a secured target database and sends the data to the Audit Vault Server. Oracle AVDF has one or more Database Firewalls, depending on your network scenario. For more information about Database Firewalls, see Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall Administrator's Guide.

Audit Vault Agents

An Audit Vault Agent retrieves audit trail data from a secured target database or nondatabase (such as an operating system) and sends it to the Audit Vault Server. Each secured target database has its own dedicated Audit Vault Agent, which retrieves data from one or more of its audit trails. For more information about Audit Vault Agents, see Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall Administrator's Guide.

About Oracle AVDF Installation

Briefly, the Oracle AVDF installation steps are:

1. Understand the Oracle AVDF components to be installed.

   For information about the components, see "Oracle AVDF Components".

2. Plan the system configuration that best suits your needs.

   For details, see Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall Administrator's Guide.

3. Ensure that your system meets the pre-install requirements.

   For details, see Chapter 2, "Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall Pre-Install Requirements."

4. Install the Oracle AVDF software.

   This step includes creating installation passphrases for the Audit Vault Server and the Database Firewalls.

   For details, see Chapter 3, "Installing Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall Software."

5. Using the passphrases that you created in step 4, do the post-install configuration tasks.

   For details, see Chapter 4, "Post-Install Configuration Tasks."

Periodically, you might need to update the Oracle AVDF software. For instructions, see Chapter 5, "Updating the Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall Software."

If you must remove Oracle AVDF software from your system, see the instructions in Chapter 6, "Removing Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall."