LOGbinder SP - Frequently Asked Questions

Visit Randy's SharePoint section at UltimateWindowsSecurity.com.

Click here for a list of event IDs generated by LOGbinder SP.

"Nothing" and "no" are the short answers. LOGbinder SP is a Windows service that runs independently of SharePoint. There are NO changes to SharePoint whatsoever other than configuring SharePoint's audit feature and purging the SharePoint audit log of old events if you configure LOGbinder SP to do so.

No, the LOGbinder SP service is a tiny executable program that efficiently checks the SharePoint audit log for entries and uses limited resources while processing events. 

LOGbinder SP runs at a lower priority than SharePoint, so it will never compete with SharePoint for resources.

Your SharePoint audit policy has the biggest impact on what resources LOGbinder needs; for each site collection, consider whether you really need to audit read/view access. 

LOGbinder is fully integrated with Windows security and complies with widely accepted secure design and coding techniques.

At installation, LOGbinder secures the folder permissions where the software files reside.  To protect LOGbinder's configuration from tampering, LOGbinder encrypts its configuration data.

LOGbinder security requirements are greatly simplified since LOGbinder does not store your audit log data.  LOGbinder is designed to quickly get audit events out of the SharePoint audit log and to the destination of your choice, at which point your log management solution takes over.  If you configure LOGbinder SP to direct events to the Windows security log, you leverage the significant effort Microsoft has invested in protecting the security log.  And if you are already collecting Windows security logs with your log management application, SharePoint events will automatically be included when you install LOGbinder SP.

LOGbinder SP's design helps you fulfill separation of duty and audit trail integrity requirements by quickly getting audit events off the system where they are produced (and thus vulnerable to intruders or malicious administrators) and into your separate and secure log management system.   

LOGbinder SP installs in about 2 minutes and only requires a few settings:

1. Select which site collections for LOGbinder to translate the audit log
2. Specify the user account LOGbinder should run as

 Check the Application log for warnings or errors from source LOGbndSE

These are functions of a log management solution.  LOGbinder complements and enhances the value of your log management solution. If you do not already have a log management solution, we can provide a simple, inexpensive but dependable solution from our partner and we will help you install and configure it.

With LOGbinder, any log management solution that supports Windows event logs, text file or syslog can now collect, monitor, archive, and report on SharePoint audit log activity.  Also, see next Q&A.

LOGbinder can output to either the Windows Security Log, syslog, text file, or a custom Windows event log called LOGbinder SP. 

Click here for pricing and licensing information.

You do not need to install SharePoint on a production SharePoint server.

The SharePoint object model classes that provide access to the SharePoint audit log require code to run locally. To audit a given SharePoint farm, LOGbinder SP needs to be installed on just one of the servers to fully audit the farm. This can be an exisitng SharePoint production server or a new server you deploy for LOGbinder SP (usually a virtual machine).

The account you choose for the LOGbinder service must be a member of the server's local Administrators group.  The account must also be an administrator on each site collection being monitored. These requirements come from SharePoint in order to access the SharePoint audit log. The account needs to be authorized to run as a service, and if using the security log, must be authorized to write to the security log.

Yes.  With LOGbinder SP you can configure the SharePoint audit policy and enable/disable translation of the audit log for each site collection on the SharePoint server.