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Audit Logging

A centralized and immutable audit trail is automatically maintained for all activity performed by the users via all supported interfaces (UI and programmatic). Administrators are provided with centralized access to the audit logs. The audit logs can also be configured to be streamed in real time to a configured SIEM.

Audit Logs

!!! note Learn more about how Audit Logs are centrally aggregated in the Rafay platform.

Why is it required?

Centralized audit logging is crucial for multi-tenant environments for several important reasons:

Security and Incident Response

  • Comprehensive Monitoring: Centralized audit logs provide a complete and consistent record of all activities, including user actions, API requests, and changes to resources. This is essential for monitoring suspicious activities, detecting security incidents, and responding to breaches.
  • Forensic Analysis: In the event of a security incident, centralized audit logs enable detailed forensic analysis to understand the scope and impact of the breach. This helps identify the root cause, the sequence of events, and any affected resources.

Compliance and Regulatory Requirements

  • Audit Trail: Many regulatory frameworks (such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS) require organizations to maintain an audit trail of all access and changes to sensitive systems. Centralized audit logging ensures that these requirements are met by capturing all relevant actions across the entire cluster.
  • Reporting and Verification: Centralized logs make it easier to generate compliance reports and verify that policies and procedures are being followed, as all logs are aggregated in one place and can be queried or analyzed systematically.

Operational Efficiency

  • Automated Alerts and Monitoring: With centralized logging, it's easier to set up automated alerts and monitoring for specific events or patterns of behavior that may indicate an issue. This can help in proactive detection and resolution of problems before they escalate.

Visibility and Transparency

  • Unified View of Activity: Centralized audit logs provide a unified view of all activities within the tenant, making it easier for administrators, security teams, and auditors to understand what is happening across the environment. This visibility is crucial for maintaining control over complex and dynamic environments.
  • Transparency for Multi-Tenant Environments: In multi-tenant environments, centralized logging ensures that activities from all tenants are logged and can be reviewed. This promotes transparency and accountability, ensuring that tenants' actions are visible and can be audited if necessary.

Troubleshooting and Debugging

  • Root Cause Analysis: When issues arise, centralized audit logs provide a complete history of actions and events that can help in diagnosing and resolving the problem. By having all logs in one place, it becomes easier to trace issues across different components and identify the root cause.
  • Cross-Component Correlation: Centralized logging allows for correlating events across different components, making it easier to understand complex interactions and dependencies.

Consistent Policy Enforcement

  • Audit Policy Compliance: By aggregating logs in a centralized system, organizations can ensure that their audit policies are consistently applied and enforced across the entire environment.

In summary, centralized audit logging is essential for maintaining security, compliance, operational efficiency, and visibility. It provides a single, reliable source of truth for all activities enabling effective monitoring, troubleshooting, and governance.