18 Configuring Auditing

Oracle Identity Manager provides a powerful audit engine to collect extensive data for audit and compliance purposes. You can use the audit functionality together to capture, archive, and view entity and transactional data for compliance monitoring and IT-centric processes and forensic auditing. Therefore, with the audit and compliance modules, Oracle Identity Manager provides profile auditing, reporting, and attestation features. You can capture, transport, store, retrieve, and remove historical data over its life cycle. Security is maintained at every stage of the data life cycle. For information about attestation processes, see"Managing Attestation Processes".

This chapter consists of the following topics:

• Overview

• User Profile Auditing

• Role Profile Auditing

• Catalog Auditing

• Enabling and Disabling Auditing

18.1 Overview

This section provides an overview of auditing in the following sections:

• Auditing Design Components

• Profile Auditing

• Standard and Customized Reports

18.1.1 Auditing Design Components

Figure 18-1 shows the design components for Oracle Identity Manager auditing process.

Figure 18-1 Design Components of the Auditing Process

Description of "Figure 18-1 Design Components of the Auditing Process"

Any action that a user performs in Oracle Identity Manager translates into an Application Programming Interface (API) call or into a Message Driven Bean (MDB) picking up a message to process an action.One action can cause multiple changes. All changes are combined into an audit transaction. Each API method that can modify data objects calls the startTransaction method in the audit engine at the beginning of the API call and the endTransaction method at the end of the API call. This defines boundaries for the audit transaction. The audit engine generates a transaction ID to identify the changes made in the transaction.

18.1.2 Profile Auditing

Oracle Identity Manager provides auditing and historical archiving of profile information. It takes a snapshot of a profile, stores the snapshot in an audit table in the database, and updates the snapshot each time the profile data changes. In the context of profile auditing, the term snapshot means a copy taken of the entire profile data at any instant when the data is modified.

18.1.3 Standard and Customized Reports

The BI Publisher provides standard reports for viewing archived data. You can also create customized reports.

For information about reporting, refer to the following:

• "Using Reporting Features"

• "Configuring Reports" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle Identity Manager for information about reporting

18.2 User Profile Auditing

User profile audits cover changes to user profile attributes, user membership, resource provisioning, access policies, and resource forms.

This section discusses the following topics:

• Data Collected for Audits

• Post-Processor Used for User Profile Auditing

• Tables Used for User Profile Auditing

• Archival

18.2.1 Data Collected for Audits

By default, user profile auditing is enabled and the auditing level is set to Resource Form when you install Oracle Identity Manager. This auditing level specifies the minimum level required for attestation of form data.

You configure the audit level in the System Configuration part of the Advanced Administration by using the XL.UserProfileAuditDataCollection system property.

See Also:

"System Properties in Oracle Identity Manager" for information about the XL.UserProfileAuditDataCollection system property

The supported audit levels are:

• Process Task: Audits the entire user profile snapshot together with the resource lifecycle process.

• Resource Form: Audits user record, role membership, resource provisioned, and any form data associated to the resource.

• Resource: Audits the user record, role membership, and resource provisioning.

• Membership: Only audits the user record and role membership.

• Core: Only audits the user record.

• None: No audit is stored.

This section discusses the following topics:

• Capture of User Profile Audit Data

• Storage of Snapshots

• Trigger for Taking Snapshots

18.2.1.1 Capture of User Profile Audit Data

Each time a user profile changes, Oracle Identity Manager takes a snapshot of the user profile and stores the snapshot in an audit table in the database.

A snapshot is also generated when there is a change in a user profile that must be audited, even if an initial snapshot is missing. The current snapshot is treated as the initial snapshot.

The following are the components of a user profile and the tables that store these components:

• User Record: Contains the USR table, including all User Defined Fields (UDFs).

  The USR table stores user attributes. When you create a user, Oracle Identity Manager adds an entry to this table.

• User Role Membership: Contains the RUL, UGP, and USG tables, as listed in Table 18-1.

  Table 18-1 User Group Membership Tables

  Table Name	Description
  RUL	Stores rule definitions.
  UGP	Defines roles (or groups) in the system.
  USG	Defines which users are in which groups and lists priorities for the users in a specific group. Oracle Identity Manager might use these priorities when making task assignments for a group. For example, a process task might be assigned to the user having highest priority. In addition, if a role/group is granted through a rule, then it lists the specific rule.

  
  

• Admin Role Membership: Contains the ARM_AUD table.

  The ARM_AUD table defines the membership ID, admin role ID, user ID, organization, hierarchy, action, and logged-in user.

• User Policy Profile: Contains the following tables:

  • UPD: Stores User Policy Profile data. This is a policy-centric view of the resources that are provisioned to a user.

  • UPP: Stores User Policy Profile-related details. This is a user-centric view of all the applicable policies for a user, and the resources they allow/deny.

  Note:

  When you change a role name by using Oracle Identity Self Service, the User Profile Audit (UPA) tables in the database are not updated with the change until the next snapshot of the user.

• User Resource Profile: This component can be divided into the following subcomponents:

  • User Resource Instance: Contains the OBI, OBJ, and OIU tables, as listed in Table 18-2.

    Table 18-2 User Resource Instance Tables

    Table Name	Description
    OBI	Stores resource (object) instance information. Oracle Identity Manager creates a resource instance every time a resource is provisioned. This instance stores all generic information related to that provisioned instance, including a request key (if the resource has been provisioned through a request), the corresponding process instance, and the instance status.
    OBJ	Represents the resource object data, including details about the resource, such as resource name, whether or not auto-save and auto-prepopulate are set, and whether or not the resource object allows multiple instances.
    OIU	Associates applicable user information to the resource object instance when provisioning takes place. In addition, it stores policy-related information for the specific resource instance.

    
    

  • Resource Lifecycle (Provisioning) Process: Contains the MIL, ORC, OSI, PKG, SCH, and TOS tables, as listed in Table 18-3.

    Table 18-3 Resource Lifecycle Process Tables

    Table Name	Description
    MIL	Defines the process task definitions. Each entry corresponds to a process task. A process definition (PKG table) comprises of multiple tasks, which are a part of the various workflows in the definition.
    ORC	Stores process instance information when provisioning takes place. When provisioning starts, Oracle Identity Manager generates an associated process (or workflow) instance that stores process-related information specific to the provisioning instance.
    OSI	Stores information about tasks created for process instance.
    PKG	Defines processes or workflows in Oracle Identity Manager, including process details such as process name, process type, descriptive field mapping, and associated resources and process forms.
    SCH	Stores information related to running of a specific task instance such as the task status, status bucket, and timing of when the adapter run started or ended.
    TOS	Stores atomic process information.

    
    

  • Resource State (Process) Form: This information is stored in the UD parent and child tables. The UD_* tables are user-defined field tables that store the account state.

18.2.1.2 Storage of Snapshots

When Oracle Identity Manager takes a snapshot of a user profile, it stores the snapshot in the UPA table. The structure of the UPA table is described in Table 18-4.

Table 18-4 Definition of the UPA Table

Column	Data Type	Description
UPA_KEY	NUMBER (19,0)	Key for the audit record
USR_KEY	NUMBER (19,0)	Key for the user whose snapshot is recorded in this entry
EFF_FROM_DATE	TIMESTAMP (6)	Date and time at which the snapshot entry became effective
EFF_TO_DATE	TIMESTAMP (6)	Date and time at which the snapshot entry was no longer effective In other words, this is the date and time at which the next snapshot entry was created. For the entry representing the latest user profile, the To Date column value is set to NULL.
SRC	VARCHAR2 (4000)	User ID of the user responsible for the change, and the API used to carry out the change
SNAPSHOT	CLOB	XML representation of the snapshot
DELTAS	CLOB	XML representation of old and new values corresponding to a change made to the snapshot
SIGNATURE	CLOB	Can be used to store a digital signature for the snapshot (for nonrepudiation purposes)

Note:

The initial audit snapshots for default users in Oracle Identity Manager is not UTF-8 encoded. However, auditing of subsequent modifications to these users have UTF-8 encoded snapshots.

18.2.1.3 Trigger for Taking Snapshots

When any data element in a user profile changes, Oracle Identity Manager creates a snapshot.

The following events trigger the creation of a user profile snapshot:

• Modification of any kind to the user record (for example, through reconciliation and direct provisioning)

• Role membership change for the user

• Changes in the policies that apply to the user

• Provisioning a resource to the user

• Deprovisioning of a resource for the user

• Any provisioning-related event for a provisioned resource:

  • Resource status change

  • Addition of provisioning tasks to the provisioning process

  • Updates to provisioning tasks in the provisioning process, for example, status changes, escalations, and so on

  • Creation of or updates to Process Form data

18.2.2 Post-Processor Used for User Profile Auditing

The user profile auditor has an internal post-processor that normalizes the snapshot XML into the reporting tables: UPA_USR, UPA_FIELDS, UPA_GRP_MEMBERSHIP, UPA_RESOURCE, UPA_UD_FORMS, and UPA_UD_FORMFIELDS. These tables are used by the reporting module to generate the appropriate reports.

18.2.3 Tables Used for User Profile Auditing

Table 18-5 lists the tables in the database that User profile audits use:

Note:

For more information about the User Profile Audits tables, such as column names and how to use them, refer to the schema documentation provided with Oracle Identity Manager.

Table 18-5 User Profile Audit Tables

Table Name	Description
AUD	Stores detailed information about all of the Auditors (for example, the User Profile Auditor) supported by Oracle Identity Manager.
AUD_JMS	Staging table that stores information about changes made as a part of any business transaction. This is an intermediate table to temporarily store data changelog data before the audit engine consumes it. When Audit messages are successfully processed, corresponding records are deleted from the table. Note: This table is not intended for end users and must not be used directly.
UPA	Main auditing table for storing all snapshots and changes made to the user profiles.
UPA_FIELDS	Stores user profile audit history changes in denormalized (vertical) format.
UPA_GRP_MEMBERSHIP	Stores groups membership history in denormalized format.
UPA_RESOURCE	Stores user profile resource history in denormalized format.
UPA_USR	Stores user profile history in denormalized format.
UPA_UD_FORMS	Together with the UPA_UD_FORMFIELDS table, contains information about changes to the user's account profile (process form). This table keeps track of the changes to the various forms, such as parent or child forms, which are being changed in any transaction. The changes to the account or entitlement attributes are stored in the UPA_UD_FORMFIELDS table.
UPA_UD_FORMFIELDS	Stores the names of account or entitlement profile fields that are modified. This table also keeps track of the old and new values of the modified fields.

Note:

• The UPA_UD_FORMS and UPA_UD_FORMFIELDS tables together store the audit trail of changes to the user's account profile in a de-normalized format. These tables can be used in various audit-related reports.

• The UPA_UD_FORMS and UPA_UD_FORMFIELDS tables will be populated only if the XL.EnableExceptionReports system property is set to TRUE. For more information about this property, see "System Properties in Oracle Identity Manager" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle Identity Manager.

• The Form Upgrade Job schedule task updates the form version to the latest active version and the form data to the value specified during the field's creation for all accounts. If this scheduled task is not run, then the form version and data will be incorrect in the audit snapshot and the reporting tables.

  For more information about this job, see "Using the Form Upgrade Job and Form Version Control Utility".

18.2.4 Archival

User Profile audit data growth is based on the setting of the audit levels, and the growth can be significant in most of the deployments.

There is also a requirement to clean or archive the old user profile audit data to accommodate future growth.

You can use Audit Archival and Purge Utility to meet these requirements. See "Using the Audit Archival and Purge Utility" for detailed information about this utility.

18.3 Role Profile Auditing

Role profile audits cover changes to role profile attributes, role administrators, and direct subroles.

This section discusses the following topic:

• Data Collected for Audits

18.3.1 Data Collected for Audits

Role profile auditing is determined by the value of the Level of Role Auditing system property with keyword XL.RoleAuditLevel. This property controls the amount of audit data collected when an operation is performed on a role, such as creation or modification. The supported levels are:

• None: No audit data is collected. This is the default value.

• Role: Creation, modification, and deletion of role is audited.

• Role Hierarchy: Changes made to the role inheritance is audited.

This section discusses the following topics:

• Capture and Archiving of Role Profile Audit Data

• Storage of Snapshots

• Trigger for Taking Snapshots

18.3.1.1 Capture and Archiving of Role Profile Audit Data

Each time a role profile changes, Oracle Identity Manager takes a snapshot of the role profile and stores the snapshot in an audit table in the database.

Oracle Identity Manager generates a snapshot when an audit is created for a role, even if an initial snapshot is missing. The current snapshot is treated as the initial snapshot.

The following are the components of a role profile and the tables that constitute these components:

• UGP: Role record, including all UDFs for roles

• GPG: Subrole/parent role information

18.3.1.2 Storage of Snapshots

When Oracle Identity Manager takes a snapshot of a role profile, it stores the snapshot in a GPA table. The structure of this table is as described in Table 18-6.

Table 18-6 Definition of the GPA Table

Column	Data Type	Description
GPA_KEY	NUMBER (19,0)	Key for the audit record
UGP_KEY	NUMBER (19,0)	Key for the role whose role snapshot is recorded
EFF_FROM_DATE	TIMESTAMP (6)	Date and time at which the snapshot entry became effective
EFF_TO_DATE	TIMESTAMP (6)	Date and time at which the snapshot entry was no longer effective In other words, this is the date and time at which the next snapshot entry was created. For the entry representing the latest user profile, the To Date column value is set to NULL
SRC	VARCHAR2 (4000)	Source of the entry, User ID of the user responsible for the change, and the API used to carry out the change
SNAPSHOT	CLOB	XML representation of the snapshot
DELTAS	CLOB	XML representation of old and new values corresponding to a change made to the snapshot
SIGNATURE	CLOB	Can be used to store a digital signature for the snapshot (for nonrepudiation purposes)

When Oracle Identity Manager takes a snapshot of a admin role membership profile, it stores the snapshot in the ARM_AUD table. The structure of this table is as described in Table 18-7.

Table 18-7 Definition of the ARM_AUD Table

Column	Data Type	Description
ARM_AUD_ID	NUMBER(20)	Admin role audit ID
MEMBERSHIP_ID	NUMBER(20)	Admin role membership ID
ROLE_ID	NUMBER(20)	Admin role ID
USER_ID	VARCHAR2(256 CHAR)	User member ID
SCOPE_ID	NUMBER(20)	Scope ID of the admin role membership
INCLUDE_HIERARCHY	NUMBER(1)	Whether or not organization hierarchy is included
ARM_AUD_EFF_FROM_DATE	TIMESTAMP(6)	Date from which admin role audit is effective
ARM_AUD_EFF_TO_DATE	TIMESTAMP(6)	Date up to which admin role audit is effective
USR_ACTION	VARCHAR2(10 CHAR)	Action of the user members
USR_LOGIN	VARCHAR2(256 CHAR)	Login names of the user members

18.3.1.3 Trigger for Taking Snapshots

When any data element in the role profile snapshot changes, Oracle Identity Manager creates a snapshot.

The creation of role profile snapshots is triggered by events that result in changes in any of the following:

• Role profile data

• Parent role information

• Adding or revoking users or user memberships

18.4 Catalog Auditing

See "Configuring Catalog Auditing" for information about catalog auditing.

18.5 Enabling and Disabling Auditing

This section describes how to enable and disable auditing in Oracle Identity Manager in the following sections:

• Disabling Auditing

• Enabling Auditing

18.5.1 Disabling Auditing

To disable auditing in Oracle Identity Manager:

1. Set the values of User profile audit data collection level (XL.UserProfileAuditDataCollection) and Level of Role Auditing (XL.RoleAuditLevel) system properties to None, as described in "Modifying System Properties".

2. Disable the Issue Audit Messages Task scheduled job as described in "Disabling and Enabling Jobs".

   If pending audit changes are required to be recorded in the audit tables, then disable the scheduled task after all the pending audit changes are processed.

To disable catalog auditing, set the value of the XL.CatalogAuditDataCollection system property to none.

18.5.2 Enabling Auditing

To enable auditing in Oracle Identity Manager:

1. Set the values of User profile audit data collection level (XL.UserProfileAuditDataCollection) and Level of Role Auditing (XL.RoleAuditLevel) system properties to one of the levels defined in "User Profile Auditing" and "Role Profile Auditing" for user profile and role profile auditing respectively.

   See "Managing System Properties" for information about modifying the values of system properties.

2. Enable the Issue Audit Messages Task scheduled job as described in "Disabling and Enabling Jobs".

3. For user profile auditing, generate snapshots by running the GenerateSnapshot script as described in "Generating an Audit Snapshot" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle Identity Manager.

   The following is the command-line usage of the GenerateSnapshot script:

   ./GenerateSnapshot.sh -username OIM_ADMIN_USERNAME -numOfThreads 8 -serverURLt3://WLS_SERVER:PORT -ctxFactory weblogic.jndi.WLInitialContextFactory[-inputFile fileWithUserKeys]
   

   Here:

   • OIM_ADMIN_USERNAME is the Oracle Identity Manager administrator username.

   • WLS_SERVER is the Oracle WebLogic Server name.

   • PORT is the port number of the WebLogic Server.

To enable catalog auditing, set the value of the XL.CatalogAuditDataCollection system property to catalog.