How to enable Audit for IBM AS400/iSeries Journal Logs

For analyzing Journal logs of IBM AS400/iSeries devices, you need to initially enable auditing in those systems.

To enable auditing for AS400/iSeries journal logs you have to:

Once the journal receiver is created and the logs specified are collected in it, EventLog Analyzer will fetch those logs for monitoring, report generation and alert notification.

Note: For setting up Security auditing in AS 400/iSeries machines, you must have the *AUDIT special authority.

Create a Journal Receiver

You can create a journal receiver in a library of your choice by using the following command:

CRTJRNRCV JRNRCV(JRNLIB/AUDRCV0001) +

THRESHOLD(100000) AUT(*EXCLUDE) +

TEXT('Auditing Journal Receiver')

Note: This example uses a library called JRNLIB for journal receivers.

You can place the journal receiver in any library of your choice. However, assure that it is not placed in the QSYS library, since this is a system library.

Choose a name for the journal receiver using a naming convention which can be used for future journal receivers (eg.AUDRCV0001). This type of naming convention is useful when the journal receiver name is changed by the system.

When you want the naming convention to be applied in naming all journal receivers, use the *GEN option.

Specify an appropriate threshold level that suits your system size and activity. The size you choose should be based on the number of transactions on your system and the number of actions you choose to audit. For system change- journal management support, the threshold must be atleast 5000KB.

To limit access to the information stored in the journal, specify *EXCLUDE on the AUT parameter.

Attach the Journal Receiver to a Journal

Create the QSYS/QAUDJRN journal by using the following command:

CRTJRN JRN(QSYS/QAUDJRN)+

JRNRCV(JRNLIB/AUDRCV0001)+

MNGRCV(*SYSTEM)DLTRCV(*NO)+

AUT(*EXCLUDE) TEXT('Auditing Journal)

The journal name QSYS/QAUDJRN must be used.

Note: To create this journal you must have the authority to add objects to QSYS.

Specify the journal receiver name that you created, using the JRNRCV parameter.

Specify *EXCLUDE on the AUT parameter to limit access to the information stored in the journal.

(*SYSTEM) is passed as the parameter for Manage Receiver (MNGRCV). Thus when the attached journal receiver reaches its threshold size, the system itself detaches this receiver and creates and attaches a new journal receiver.

Avoid detaching receivers and creating & attaching new receivers manually, using the CHGJRN command.

To retain the detached journal receivers, specify (*NO) as the value for DLTRCV. This will prevent the automatic deletion of detached receivers by the system.

QAUDJRN receivers are your security audit trail. Hence, ensure that they are adequately archived.

Specify the logs that are to be captured by the Journal Receiver

Use the following command to specify the logs that are to be stored in the Journal Receiver created:

CHGSECAUD QAUDCTL(*ALL) QAUDLVL(*ALL)

To specify which actions are to be logged into the audit journal for all the users on the system, you need to set the audit level to the QAUDLVL system value using the WRKSYSVAL command.

If you want to set action and object auditing for specific users, use the CHGUSRAUD command.

You can also set object auditing for specific objects as per your requirement, using the CHGOBJAUD and CHGDLOAUD commands.

Setting the QAUDENDACN system value helps you determine the systems action when it is unable to write an entry to the audit journal.

With the QAUDFRCLVL system value parameters, you can control the transfer of audit records from memory to auxiliary storage.

To start auditing set the QAUDCTL system value to any value other than *NONE.

Once this security auditing set up is completed, EventLog Analyzer will automatically fetch the logs collected in the journal receiver of the AS400/iSeries device that is added for monitoring. If the AS400/iSeries machine is not added to EventLog Analyzer server, add the device to begin collecting its logs.