This article assumes you already have a basic understanding of SQL Server Audit, but if not, use this link to catch up on all the details. Are you required to have xp_cmdshell enabled on one of your servers? If so, then setup a SQL Audit now to track its use. Never mind the implications of enabling xp_cmdshell, as a DBA you are responsible for what happens on your servers and tracking the use of xp_cmdshell should be a priority. The first step is to create a server audit to hold the events that we collect. You’ll notice that we added a...
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Blob Auditing for Azure SQL Database
In February 2017, Microsoft announced the general availability of Blob Auditing for Azure SQL Database. While auditing features were available before in Azure, this is a huge leap forward, especially in having more granular control over what audit records are captured. Before Blob Auditing, there was Table Auditing. This is something I like to equate to the C2 auditing feature of SQL Server. It’s only configurable options were ON or OFF. In reality, Table Auditing has a few more controls than that, but you get the idea. There was no way to audit actions against one specific table. Blob Auditing...
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