SharePoint Audit Log Reports

The SharePoint audit log is accessible through the SharePoint API, PowerShell or the “View Auditing Reports” page in Site Collection Administration.

The auditing reports in Site Collection Administration is the practical option for most administrators. These reports allow you to select a category of activity, date range and optionally a specific user or object (e.g. list, library) for further filtering. The report is produced as an Excel spreadsheet and stored in a specified document library. From the document library you can view the report.

Here is an example Security Settings report which lists access control related changed to groups, permissions and roles.

As you can see the audit trail is there and it is comprehensive. But there is a plethora of unresolved ID codes, GUIDs and bit masks. Both the report and the other 2 log access methods listed above produce the raw data records like this which require additional processing before they are ready for human consumption and/or log management.

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