Data Review Overview
This content applies to ScrewDrivers Pro and Enterprise editions.
ScrewDrivers Administration provides comprehensive data review capabilities through its auditing and reporting functions. These tools let you track changes to your database, analyze assignment patterns, and generate compliance reports. Whether you're troubleshooting assignment issues, tracking configuration changes for compliance purposes, or analyzing your deployment's structure, these data review functions give you the visibility you need.
Overview
Two primary functions are available in ScrewDrivers Administration for reviewing and analyzing the data in your ScrewDrivers database: audits and reports. Audits track all the changes that have been made to an entity in the database over a specified time period, such as the create and update operations for an application object. Reports provide different information about your ScrewDrivers installation, such as all the objects that are currently assigned by owner.
The auditing system maintains a complete history of database modifications, including who made each change and when. This audit trail is invaluable for compliance requirements, troubleshooting unexpected behavior, and understanding how your configuration has evolved over time. The reporting system complements auditing by providing snapshot views of your current configuration, showing you the relationships between objects and owners across your entire deployment.
Auditing the Database
The Audit tool in ScrewDrivers Administration tracks all changes made to the ScrewDrivers database. You have three options for auditing these changes: Audit Object (which tracks the history of an object since its initial creation date), Audit Owner (which tracks the history of all assignments ever made to an owner), and Searching Audit Data (which allows you to search for specific audit data based on user-specified criteria such as Users, Actions, and so on).
Auditing an Object or Owner
You can audit any object or owner in the database to see its complete change history. If you need to search for an object or owner first, see the searching procedures in earlier chapters of this guide.
To audit an object, select the object in the Objects pane, and in the Information pane, open the Audit tab. To audit an owner, select the owner in the Assignments pane and in the Information pane, open the Audit tab. The Audit tab displays all the changes that have ever been made to the entity in the database, showing each modification along with the user who made the change and the timestamp.
You can optionally search for specific audit data by entering your search criteria in the filter field displayed at the top of the Audit tab. Note the following about the search: The search results are limited to the exact order of the characters in the string, but the string isn't case-sensitive, and the search string can appear anywhere in the search results. As you enter the search string, the list of matching search results is dynamically updated.
For example, a search string of "ID" could return results of "set OwnerID" and "set SID" because both contain the "ID" character sequence.
Searching Audit Data
When you need to find specific audit information across multiple objects or owners, the Audit Search view provides powerful filtering capabilities. On the ScrewDrivers Administration Icon bar, click the Audit Search icon. The Audit Search view opens in the main window, providing options for searching for specific data that has been audited.
You can specify your search criteria using the available filters. You can leave all values set to their default values, or you can edit them as needed. To view assignments that were made by different SQL accounts, search by User (and not by Owner). In larger environments, it might be suitable to create a separate SQL account (or grant db_owner to administrator accounts for ScrewDrivers Administration) for tracking purposes.
After you specify your search criteria, click Search. The matching audit entries are displayed in the Results pane at the bottom of the Audit Search view. You can optionally search within these results for specific audit data by entering your search criteria in the filter field displayed above the search results, then clicking Apply.
The same search behavior applies: search results are limited to the exact order of characters in the string, but the string isn't case-sensitive, and the search string can appear anywhere in the results. As you enter the search string, the list of matching search results is dynamically updated.
Generating Reports
Different ScrewDrivers reports provide different information about your ScrewDrivers database, such as all the objects that are currently assigned by owner. Currently, you can generate two ScrewDrivers reports from ScrewDrivers Administration: the Assigned Objects by Owner report (which lists all of the objects assigned to each owner in the ScrewDrivers database) and the Assigned Owners by Object report (which lists each object and all of the owners to whom each object is assigned in the ScrewDrivers database).
Report Generation Procedure
On the ScrewDrivers Administration Icon bar, click the Reporting icon. The Reporting view opens in the main window with two reporting options displayed: Assigned Objects by Owner and Assigned Owners by Object.
Select the appropriate report option, either Assigned Objects by Owner or Assigned Owners by Object, then click Run Report. The selected report opens in the Reports pane displayed at the bottom of the Reporting view. The toolbar at the top of the pane contains options for working with the report, such as searching for information in the report, printing the report, and so on. You can hold your mouse pointer over an icon on the toolbar to open a tooltip that explains the purpose of the icon.
Assigned Objects by Owner Report
The Assigned Objects by Owner report provides a comprehensive view of your configuration from the owner perspective. For each owner in your database, the report lists all objects currently assigned to that owner. This view is particularly useful when you need to understand what resources a specific user, group, or organizational unit has access to. You can use this report to verify that assignments are correct, identify over-assignment (where users have more resources than needed), or troubleshoot access issues.
The report displays owner information hierarchically, making it easy to see patterns in your assignment strategy. For example, you might notice that certain groups have consistent assignment patterns, or you might identify outliers that need attention.
Assigned Owners by Object Report
The Assigned Owners by Object report provides the inverse view—for each object in your database, it lists all owners to whom that object is assigned. This perspective is valuable when you need to understand the distribution of a specific resource. For example, if you're planning to retire a printer or change a print server configuration, you can quickly see which users, groups, or OUs will be affected.
The report also helps you identify assignment patterns that might need optimization. You might discover that certain objects are assigned to very few owners (suggesting underutilization) or to many owners (suggesting that the object might be a good candidate for more granular assignment rules).
Working with Reports
Both reports provide the same toolbar options for working with the generated data. You can search within the report to find specific owners or objects, print the report for documentation purposes, or export the report to share with other administrators. The search function works across all data in the report, making it easy to locate specific information even in large deployments.
You can hold your mouse pointer over any icon on the toolbar to display a tooltip explaining that icon's function. The toolbar provides standard report manipulation options that work consistently across both report types.
Use Cases for Data Review
The data review functions in ScrewDrivers Administration serve several important use cases. For compliance and auditing, you can track all configuration changes and identify who made specific modifications. For troubleshooting, you can review the history of an object to understand when problems might have been introduced. For capacity planning, you can analyze assignment patterns to understand resource utilization. For documentation, you can generate reports that provide snapshots of your current configuration state.
When troubleshooting assignment issues, start with the Assigned Objects by Owner report to verify that the expected objects are assigned to the affected owner. If assignments look correct but users still can't access resources, review the audit history for both the owner and the objects to see if recent changes might have introduced the problem.
When planning infrastructure changes, use the Assigned Owners by Object report to identify all affected owners before making modifications. This proactive approach helps you communicate changes to affected users and minimize disruption.
Related Resources
- How-To Guide: See the auditing and reporting guides in the How-To Guides section for detailed task-oriented procedures
- Explanation: See the architecture overview for conceptual information about the database structure
- Reference: See the earlier chapters for detailed information about managing objects and assignments