6.4.4.1 Installing MySQL Enterprise Audit

This section describes how to install MySQL Enterprise Audit, which is implemented using the audit_log plugin. For general information about installing plugins, see Section 5.5.1, “Installing and Uninstalling Plugins”.

Note

If installed, the audit_log plugin involves some minimal overhead even when disabled. To avoid this overhead, do not install MySQL Enterprise Audit unless you plan to use it.

To be usable by the server, the plugin library file must be located in the MySQL plugin directory (the directory named by the plugin_dir system variable). If necessary, configure the plugin directory location by setting the value of plugin_dir at server startup.

The plugin library file base name is audit_log. The file name suffix differs per platform (for example, .so for Unix and Unix-like systems, .dll for Windows).

To load the plugin at server startup, use the --plugin-load-add option to name the library file that contains it. With this plugin-loading method, the option must be given each time the server starts. For example, put the following lines in the server my.cnf file, adjusting the .so suffix for your platform as necessary:

[mysqld]
plugin-load-add=audit_log.so

After modifying my.cnf, restart the server to cause the new settings to take effect.

Alternatively, to load the plugin at runtime, use this statement, adjusting the .so suffix for your platform as necessary:

INSTALL PLUGIN audit_log SONAME 'audit_log.so';

INSTALL PLUGIN loads the plugin, and also registers it in the mysql.plugins system table to cause the plugin to be loaded for each subsequent normal server startup without the need for --plugin-load-add.

To verify plugin installation, examine the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PLUGINS table or use the SHOW PLUGINS statement (see Section 5.5.2, “Obtaining Server Plugin Information”). For example:

mysql> SELECT PLUGIN_NAME, PLUGIN_STATUS
       FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PLUGINS
       WHERE PLUGIN_NAME LIKE 'audit%';
+-------------+---------------+
| PLUGIN_NAME | PLUGIN_STATUS |
+-------------+---------------+
| audit_log   | ACTIVE        |
+-------------+---------------+

If the plugin failed to initialize, check the server error log for diagnostic messages.

If the plugin has been previously registered with INSTALL PLUGIN or is loaded with --plugin-load-add, you can use the --audit-log option at server startup to control plugin activation. For example, to load the plugin at startup and prevent it from being removed at runtime, use these options:

[mysqld]
plugin-load-add=audit_log.so
audit-log=FORCE_PLUS_PERMANENT

If it is desired to prevent the server from running without the audit plugin, use --audit-log with a value of FORCE or FORCE_PLUS_PERMANENT to force server startup to fail if the plugin does not initialize successfully.

For additional information about the parameters used to configure operation of the audit_log plugin, see Audit Log Options and System Variables.

Audit log file contents are not encrypted. See Section 6.4.4.2, “MySQL Enterprise Audit Security Considerations”.