Importing data to the new Management History database
You may need to populate the newly created Management History database with your existing Management History data, so that the data remains available to the Active Roles user interfaces after you have configured the Administration Service to use the new Management History database. You can do this by using Active Roles Configuration Center on the computer running the Administration Service.
IMPORTANT: The reports produced by the Change History or User Activity command include information only about the changes made using a certain group of Administration Service that share a common database from the connected management history database. If the Change History data is not imported from the previously available database, the data is not displayed in the new Management History database.
To import Management History data
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In the Configuration Center main window, under Administration Service, click Manage Settings.
Start the Configuration Center by selecting Active Roles 8.1.4 Configuration Center on the Apps page or Start menu, depending on the version of your Windows operating system.
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On the Administration Service page, click Import Management History to open the Import Management History wizard.
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On the Source database page, specify the database from which you want to import the Management History data (source database):
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Database Type: Select the required database type from the drop-down (on premises or Azure SQL).
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Database Server name: Enter the name of the SQL Server instance that hosts the source database.
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Database: Enter the name of the source database.
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Under Connect using, select the authentication option:
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If your Windows logon account has sufficient rights to write data to the destination database, click Windows authentication.
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If you have a SQL Server login with sufficient rights, click SQL Server authentication and enter the login name and password.
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If you have an Azure AD login with sufficient rights, click Azure Active Directory authentication and enter the login name and password.
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Click Next.
The Destination database page identifies the database of the Administration Service to which you are going to import data (destination database), and allows you to select the authentication option.
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Under Connect using, select the authentication option:
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If your Windows logon account has sufficient rights to write data to the destination database, click Windows authentication.
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If you have a SQL Server login with sufficient rights, click SQL Server authentication and enter the login name and password.
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If you have an Azure AD login with sufficient rights, click Azure Active Directory authentication and enter the login name and password.
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Click Next.
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On the Records to Import page, specify whether you want to import all data records or only a certain range of the data records.
NOTE: The data for unfinished temporal group membership is imported when the Management History data is imported for a selected date range.
You can choose not to import all the data records as importing a large volume of data can take hours. Later, you can import additional data by choosing a different range of data records. During subsequent import sessions, the wizard only imports the data records that were not imported earlier.
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Click Next and follow the instructions in the wizard to complete the import operation.
The Import Management History wizard merges the Management History data found in an existing Active Roles database with the data stored in the Management History database. The wizard only adds new data, keeping intact any data that already exists in the Management History database. You may import Management History data at any convenient time after you have configured the Administration Service to use the new Management History database, without being afraid of losing any data.
Viewing change history
The Change History log can be accessed from the Active Roles Console, allowing you to quickly examine what changes were made to a given user or group, as well as when it was done and by whom. For example, if someone reset a user’s password via Active Roles, you might use change history to see when and by whom the password was reset.
To examine changes made to a given object, such as a user or group object, right-click it in the Active Roles Console and click Change History. By default, the Change History window only displays basic options. You can display more choices by clicking the plus sign (+) in the top-left corner, next to the first column heading.
In the Change History window, you can find the following information:
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Name: The name of the object for which you are examining change history.
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Requested: The date and time that the changes were requested.
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Requested by: The user account that requested the changes.
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Completed: The date and time that the changes were applied.
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Properties: The properties of the object that were changed, including information about the changed property values.
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Status: Indicates whether the requested changes are applied (status COMPLETED) or waiting for approval (status PENDING).
The Change History window also includes the following areas:
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Properties changed during this operation: Information about the object property values that were changed (old values), new values assigned to the properties, and the user account that was used to make the changes.
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Workflow activities and policy actions: Detailed information about all policies and workflows performed by Active Roles when processing the change request.
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Operation details: Additional information on when and by whom the changes were requested.
The Workflow activities and policy actions area displays a report of the policy actions and workflow activity actions. The report organizes the action results into sections, each containing report items specific to a single policy or activity. You can expand the area by clicking its title. To expand a section, click the title of the section.
For certain items, the report provides the option to further expand the view and display additional information. The List option displays a list of items, such as user or group properties, affected by the policy or activity. By clicking Details, you can examine the policy or activity action result in more detail.
The following topics list the possible sections and report items in the Workflow activities and policy actions area. Each section in the report describes results of the action performed by a certain workflow activity or policy. The report items within the section inform about success or failure of the policy or activity action. In the event of a failure, the report item includes an error description.
Not all the listed sections and items must necessarily be present in a report. An actual report only includes the sections corresponding to the workflow activities and policies that Active Roles performed when processing the operation request.
The following topics elaborate on the report sections and report items you encounter in the Workflow activities and policy actions area:
Workflow activity report sections
In a Change History report, the report sections specific to workflow activities list all activities that Active Roles ran when processing a given operation request. For each activity, from the respective report section you can determine whether the activity was completed successfully or returned an error. In case of error, the report section provides an error description. For activities requesting changes to directory data (for example, activities that create new objects or modify existing objects), you can examine the requested changes in detail by clicking the Operation ID number in the report section.
This topic lists the contents of the activity report sections you may encounter in a Change History report. Each report section has a header that identifies the name of the activity; the target object of the activity (the object, such as a user, group or computer that the activity is applied to or acts upon); the time that the activity was initiated; and the name of the workflow containing that activity. If the activity encountered an error, then the text in the header of the activity report section is red. You can expand the report section by clicking the header to view the body of the report section. The contents of the body varies depending on the type of the activity. In case of an error condition, the body displays an error description.
The remainder of this topic covers the contents of the report section body for each activity type in situations where no errors have occurred.
“Approval” activity report section
The report section specific to an approval activity provides information about the approval task created by that activity, and varies depending on the state of the approval task. Normally, the activity does not create an approval task if the operation that is subject to approval was requested by an Active Roles administrator or an approver. In this case, the section body displays a message indicating that the activity is bypassed. Otherwise, the contents of the report section body is as follows.
Task status: Pending
The following information is displayed if the task is waiting for approver action.
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Approval task details
- Task ID: <number>
- Title: <title of the approval task>
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Status: Pending
- Requested: <date and time that the task was created>
- Requested by: <name that identifies who requested the operation>
Task status: Completed
The following information is displayed if the approver allowed the requested operation.
Task status: Rejected
The following information is displayed if the approver denied the requested operation.
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Approval task details
- Task ID: <number>
- Title: <title of the approval task>
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Status: Rejected
- Requested: <date and time that the task was created>
- Requested by: <name that identifies who requested the operation>
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Rejected: <date and time that the task was completed>
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Rejected by: <name of the approver who performed the task>
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Rejection reason: <text supplied by the approver>
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Approver action: <resolution the approver chose to deny the operation>
Task status: Canceled
The following information is displayed if the approval task is canceled.
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Approval task details
- Task ID: <number>
- Title: <title of the approval task>
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Status: Canceled
- Requested: <date and time that the task was created>
- Requested by: <name that identifies who requested the operation>
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Canceled: <date and time that the task was canceled>
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Canceled by: <identifies who canceled the task>
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Cancellation reason: <indicates why the task was canceled>
Task status: Any
The following information is always displayed in addition to the approval task details.
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Approval task settings
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Approvers: <list of names that identify who is authorized to approve the operation>
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Possible actions of approver: <list of resolutions the approver may choose from>
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Approver is requested to supply or change these properties: <list of property names>
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Approver is allowed to change properties submitted for approval: <Yes | No>
