Thursday, February 10, 2005

Tracking user activity with the Sign-On: Audit Level Profile Option

This post provides tips on how to monitor user activity online and via reports available in the system administration responsibility.

The online monitoring of user activity within Oracle Applications is achieved via the Monitor Users form (Form Name: FNDSCMON.fmx). The navigation path within the Sysadmin responsibility is Security > User > Monitor. In order to activate the capability of this form one has to select an appropriate option for the profile option Sign-On: Audit Level Profile Option. The available options are: -

• NONE - No monitoring.
• USER - Will only show you a list of logged in users.
• RESPONSIBILITY - Will show you the user logged in and the responsibility they are using.
• FORM - Will go down to the lowest level of detail and show you the User, Responsibility and Form being accessed.

The screen shot below indicates what you would see if you had chosen the FORM option for the profile option in question.

I like this feature since one look at this screen tells me exactly who is doing any work in the system at a particular point in time. If you are a DBA it’s quite useful to take a look at before you bounce or shutdown the system just to make sure everyone is logged out. My personal preference is to use the form option since this gives you more information than all the other options. Obviously there will be an impact on system performance if you use this option which you may have to consider. Depending on what audit level you have selected for the profile option under discussion you may also generate various reports as indicated below: -

• Signon Audit Concurrent Requests Report - used to view information about who is requesting what concurrent requests and from which responsibilities and forms.
• Signon Audit Forms Report - used to view who is navigating to what form and when they do it.
• Signon Audit Responsibilities Report - used to view who is selecting what responsibility and when they are doing it.
• Signon Audit Users Report - used to view who signs on and for how long.