Security Auditing

Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

This navigation topic for the IT professional describes the documentation available to plan, implement, and monitor events by using features found in Windows Security Auditing.

Security auditing is one of the most powerful tools that you can use to maintain the security of your system. As part of your overall security strategy, you should determine the level of auditing that is appropriate for your environment. Auditing should identify attacks (successful or not) that pose a threat to your network, and attacks against resources that you have determined to be valuable in your risk assessment.

Note

Windows Security Auditing documentation has been republished to include additional versions of Windows. For updated information and links to current topics, see Security Auditing Overview.

Getting started

  • Advanced Security Auditing Walkthrough

    This step-by-step guide uses Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 to demonstrate the process of setting up an advanced audit policies infrastructure in a test environment. During this process, you will create an Active Directory domain, install Windows Server 2008 R2 on a member server, install Windows 7 on a client computer, and configure two advanced audit policies.

  • Advanced Security Auditing FAQ

    This topic lists common questions and their answers about understanding, deploying, and managing security audit policies.

  • Which Editions of Windows Support Advanced Audit Policy Configuration

    This topic provides information about the versions of Windows that support advanced audit policy configuration, in addition to special considerations that apply to various tasks associated with auditing enhancements.

Deployment

  • Planning and Deploying Advanced Security Audit Policies

    This topic explains the options that security policy planners must consider and the tasks they must complete to deploy an effective security audit policy in a network. Advanced security audit policies were introduced in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, but they also apply to other versions. This topic also lists the supported versions.

Technical reference

Installed Help

  • Auditpol

    This topic provides syntax and examples for using the Auditpol command-line tool. Auditpol can be used to display information about audit policies and to perform functions to manipulate them.

Additional resources