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Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 53
Thisappendixexplainstheformatofthedatastoredinthedatabaseandthebestwaystoaccessthisdata.This
appendixincludesthefollowingtopics:
“UsingDatabaseReportingToolsonpage 53
“DatabaseSchema”onpage 53
“QueryingtheAuditEventLogData”onpage 57
Using Database Reporting Tools
YoucanuseathirdpartydatabasemanagementorreportingtoolwiththeVMwareACEManagementServer
database.Youcancreatecustomreportsofthesystemstatebyusingareportingtool.Youcanalsousea
reportingtooltoinspecttheaudittrailoftheadministratororuseractionsstored
intheEventtable.For
example,youmightfindactiveinstanceswithoutdatedACEpolicysets,orexcessivefailedauthentication
attempts.
TheRDBMSaccesscontrolmechanismprotectsthedatastoredinthedatabase.Donotallowthedatabaseuser
accountthatyourreportingtoolusestohaveahigherthannecessary
levelofaccesstothedata.Otherwiseyou
mightcompromisethesecurityofyourVMwareACEsystem.
Forexample,reportingtoolstypicallydonotneedwriteaccesstothedatabase.Instead,youcancreatea
separatereadonlyaccountforthereportingtool.Youmightalsowanttodisallowreadaccess
todatabase
fieldsthatcontainsensitiveinformation,suchasuserpasswords,instancecustomizationdata(whichmight
havethedomainadministratorlogin),orinstancediskencryptionkeys.TheembeddedSQLitedatabasedoes
notsupportauthentication,soaccesscanbeprotectedonlybyfilebasedsecuritythatprovidesreadonly
permissionsor
permissionstoperformanyoperation.
Database Schema
TablesintheACEManagementServerdatabaserepresentthemajorconfigurationobjectsofACE
ManagementServer,includingAce,Package,Instance,AccessPolicy,RuntimePolicy ,andUserData,which
containsimagecustomizationsettingsandotherdataforeachuser.Administratoranduseractionsareaudit
loggedintheEventtableinthe
database,whilepossibleeventtypesarelistedintheEventTypetable.
Notethefollowingaboutthedatabaseschema:
Afewtableswithinternalsysteminformationandindexesarenotlisted.
BooleanvaluesarestoredasstringswithTRUEorFALSEvalues.
Timestampsarestoredasdecimal64bitnumberstringsshowingthenumberofmicrosecondsfrom12:00
a.m01/01/1970.
Appendix: Database Schema and Audit Event
Log Data