Auditing servers presents some special
challenges.
First and foremost they are not like a user PC
in that they are not routinely logged into or rebooted on a
regular basis. As such auditing via logon script is not an
option for many users.
E-Z Audit can resolve the problem easily using
the Windows Task Scheduler function and automated auditing.
The first example is to set up automatic
audits. A further example will discuss adding the ability
to audit servers at any time "on demand" using E-Z Audit
On-Demand, or just setting it up for auditing on demand.
It's your choice!
Step 1.
Create a configuration file specific to server
audits. The reason for this is described
below,
and you can learn about creating configuration files in the
section
Configure audits.
Step 2.
Create a task in the Windows Task Scheduler at
your server or servers. The task should be set to run
daily at a time of day of your choosing. The actual
frequency of how often your server is audited is controlled by
the configuration file. The task scheduler merely starts
E-Z Audit's scanner at the server and it checks whether or not
an new audit is needed. If it is, one is created, and if
not it terminates immediately.
This example is from Server 2003. Your
setup may be different but the concept is the same. To set
up tasks for your particular version and type of Windows Server
installation, check the Microsoft documentation.
We assume here that you know how to access and
use the Task Scheduler. We cannot support third-party
software, so please refer to Microsoft documentation for use of
the Task Scheduler.
Start a scheduled task and browse to the
folder on the server with ezstart.exe and your "server.ezc"
configuration file.
Browse to the location for "ezstart.exe" then click Next.
Give it a name and select Daily then click Next.
Set a time to do the audit and click Next.
Enter your domain name and user name and password and click Next.
Check to open advance properties and click
Finish.
Modify the Run entry adding the command line /auto
and the cfg- switch followed by the name of the server-specific
configuration file, in this example it's server.ezc.
Note: The path must be enclosed in quote marks, and the
command switches are outside the quote marks:
"D:\Users
Shared Folders\ezaudit\ezstart.exe"
/auto cfg-server.ezc
IMPORTANT:
You must create a configuration file specific to servers.
Here's why:
If your "save-to" path for saving audits is a UNC, the server
cannot save to itself using UNC convention.
If you enter the server's local path, e.g.
D:\shared\ezaudit\audits, PCs cannot save to that path as it
would look for a local D: drive path on their own PCs.
So, for the server, use the D:\shared\ezaudit\audits path (using
your own path, of course) as the save-to location and save the
configuration with a name obvious to you that it's for server
use, e.g. server.ezc
The command line would need to reference the
server's configuration file, for example the file server.ezc :
"D:\ezaudit\ezstart.exe /auto
cfg-server.ezc"
Audit servers using E-Z Audit On-Demand
You can set up the server to be available for
On-Demand auditing either exclusively or in addition to the
scheduled audits you just set up in the above example.
To do so, set up a task via the Windows Task
Scheduler as in the example above. Browse to ondemand.exe
as the program to trigger. No command line switch is
required.
Set the task to run at system startup, and
deselect the "throttle" that Task Scheduler defaults to to
terminate the task if it runs longer than 'x' hours. The
task should run all the time.
Save the task then right-click it and select
Run so the task is started.
The server will now be available for you to
run audits on demand from your PC.
