MODEL FOR CAPTURING AUDIT TRAIL DATA WITH REDUCED PROBABILITY OF LOSS OF CRITICAL DATA

• US 20130198138A1
• Filed: 01/30/2012
• Published: 08/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: SAMBAMURTHY, Govinda Raj, Rao, Hari Charan Ramachandra, Pasupuleti, Viswanath
• Granted Patent: US 9,659,041 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/648
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/219 Managing data history or versioning querying versioned data G06F16/2474; querying temporal data G06F16/2477

Abstract

An aspect of the present invention provides for capturing of audit trail data related to processing of requests. In an embodiment, the received requests are classified into a first category and a second category. For each request in the first category, the corresponding audit trail data is stored directly into non-volatile storage upon processing of the request. On the other hand, for each request in the second category, the audit trail data is first stored into a volatile memory upon processing of the request, and then later copied from the volatile memory to non-volatile storage. Thus, the audit trail data corresponding to both categories of requests is eventually available stored on non-volatile storage.

Claims

1. A method of capturing audit trail data related to processing of requests, said method comprising:

receiving a plurality of requests;

classifying said plurality of requests into a first category and a second category;

for each request in said first category, storing audit trail data directly into a non-volatile storage upon processing of the request; and

for each request in said second category, storing audit trail data first into a volatile memory upon processing of the request and then copying data from said volatile memory to said non-volatile storage.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first category comprises more critical requests compared to said second category.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said more critical requests comprise write requests and less critical requests comprise read requests, whereby the audit data corresponding to write requests is immediately stored in said non-volatile storage upon processing of the corresponding request, and

the audit data corresponding to read requests is first stored only in said volatile memory upon processing of the corresponding request, and later transferred in a batch mode to said non-volatile storage.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said non-volatile storage comprises a first database system and a second database system,

wherein said first database is implemented with a schema that does not enforce constraints with respect to storing of the audit data, and said second database is implemented with a schema that implements constraints with respect to storing of the audit data,

wherein said storing first stores the audit trail data corresponding to said more critical requests in said first database system without constraints,

wherein said storing then copies the audit trail data from said first database system to said second database system.

5. The method of claim 4, for said non-critical requests, wherein said copying copies the audit data for each of the non-critical requests from said volatile memory to said second database system upon lapse of a pre-specified duration since previous copying or when the data stored in said volatile memory exceeds a pre-specified threshold, and

wherein said storing copies the audit trail data for said critical requests from said first database system to said second database system only upon lapse of a corresponding pre-specified duration since previous copying.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising generating reports, covering both of said read requests and said write requests, based on the audit trail data stored in said second database system.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein said more critical requests comprise read requests directed to secure objects.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein both of said first database system and said second database system are implemented using a single database system.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions, wherein execution of said one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors contained in a server system causes said server system to capture audit trail data related to processing of requests, wherein execution of said one or more instructions by one or more processors contained in said server system causes said server system to perform the actions of:

receiving a plurality of requests;

classifying said plurality of requests into a first category and a second category;

for each request in said first category, storing audit trail data directly into a non-volatile storage upon processing of the request; and

for each request in said second category, storing audit trail data first into a volatile memory upon processing of the request and then copying data from said volatile memory to said non-volatile storage.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein said first category comprises more critical requests compared to said second category.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein said more critical requests comprise write requests and less critical requests comprise read requests, whereby the audit data corresponding to write requests is immediately stored in said non-volatile storage upon processing of the corresponding request, and

the audit data corresponding to read requests is first stored only in said volatile memory upon processing of the corresponding request, and later transferred in a batch mode to said non-volatile storage.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein said non-volatile storage comprises a first database system and a second database system,

wherein said first database is implemented with a schema that does not enforce constraints with respect to storing of the audit data, and said second database is implemented with a schema that implements constraints with respect to storing of the audit data,

wherein said storing first stores the audit trail data corresponding to said more critical requests in said first database system without constraints,

wherein said storing then copies the audit trail data from said first database system to said second database system.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, for said non-critical requests, wherein said copying copies the audit data for each of the non-critical requests from said volatile memory to said second database system upon lapse of a pre-specified duration since previous copying or when the data stored in said volatile memory exceeds a pre-specified threshold, and

wherein said storing copies the audit trail data for said critical requests from said first database system to said second database system only upon lapse of a corresponding pre-specified duration since previous copying.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein said more critical requests comprise read requests directed to secure objects.

15. A server system comprising:

a memory to store instructions;

a processor to retrieve said instructions and execute the retrieved instructions, wherein execution of said instructions causes said digital processing system to perform the actions of;

receiving a plurality of requests;

classifying said plurality of requests into a first category and a second category;

for each request in said first category, storing audit trail data directly into a non-volatile storage upon processing of the request; and

for each request in said second category, storing audit trail data first into a volatile memory upon processing of the request and then copying data from said volatile memory to said non-volatile storage.

16. The server system of claim 15, wherein said first category comprises more critical requests compared to said second category.

17. The server system of claim 16, wherein said more critical requests comprise write requests and less critical requests comprise read requests, whereby the audit data corresponding to write requests is immediately stored in said non-volatile storage upon processing of the corresponding request, and

the audit data corresponding to read requests is first stored only in said volatile memory upon processing of the corresponding request, and later transferred in a batch mode to said non-volatile storage.

18. The server system of claim 17, wherein said non-volatile storage comprises a first database system and a second database system,

wherein said first database is implemented with a schema that does not enforce constraints with respect to storing of the audit data, and said second database is implemented with a schema that implements constraints with respect to storing of the audit data,

wherein said storing first stores the audit trail data corresponding to said more critical requests in said first database system without constraints,

wherein said storing then copies the audit trail data from said first database system to said second database system.

19. The server system of claim 18, for said non-critical requests, wherein said copying copies the audit data for each of the non-critical requests from said volatile memory to said second database system upon lapse of a pre-specified duration since previous copying or when the data stored in said volatile memory exceeds a pre-specified threshold, and

wherein said storing copies the audit trail data for said critical requests from said first database system to said second database system only upon lapse of a corresponding pre-specified duration since previous copying.

20. The server system of claim 16, wherein said more critical requests comprise read requests directed to secure objects.