2.5

Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 75
Thisappendixexplainstheformatofthedatastoredinthedatabaseandthebestways
toaccessthisdata.Thisappendixincludesthefollowingtopics:
“UsingDatabaseReportingToolsonpage 75
“DatabaseSchema”onpage 76
“QueryingtheAuditEventLogData”onpage 81
Using Database Reporting Tools
YoucanuseathirdpartydatabasemanagementorreportingtoolwiththeVMware
ACEManagementServerdatabase.Youcancreatecustomreportsofthesystemstate
byusingareportingtool.Youcanalsouseareportingtooltoinspecttheaudittrailof
theadministratororuseractionsstored
inthe Eventtable.Forexample,youmightfind
activeinstanceswithoutdatedACEpolicysets,orexcessivefailedauthentication
attempts.
TheRDBMSaccesscontrolmechanismprotectsthedatastoredinthedatabase.Donot
allowthedatabaseuseraccountthatyourreportingtoolusestohaveahigherthan
necessary
levelofaccesstothedata.Otherwiseyoumightcompromisethesecurityof
yourVMwareACEsystem.
Forexample,reportingtoolstypicallydonotneedwriteaccesstothedatabase.Instead,
youcancreateaseparatereadonlyaccountforthereportingtool.Youmightalsowant
todisallowreadaccess
todatabasefieldsthatcontainsensitiveinformation,suchas
userpasswords,instancecustomizationdata(whichmighthavethedomain
administratorlogin),orinstancediskencryptionkeys.TheembeddedSQLitedatabase
doesnotsupportauthentication,soaccesscanbeprotectedonlybyfilebasedsecurity
thatprovidesreadonlypermissionsor
permissionstoperformanyoperation.
Appendix: Database Schema and
Audit Event Log Data