A closer look at NetWrix File Server Change Reporter

In order to cultivate a productive and fast-paced environment, most organizations don’t store their documents on local machines but instead rely on file servers for storage. As a growing number of breaches in the past year have shown, unauthorized access to sensitive documents can be quite a costly affair. Beside malicious access, also a viable problem are accidental changes, something every IT department has to deal with on a daily basis.

To minimize intentional and unintentional security threats and subsequent data loss, the IT department should take charge and protect their documents. Here’s where NetWrix File Server Change Reporter (v.3.2.176) comes into the picture. The software generates reports on access and changes to file servers, including changes and access attempts to files, folders, shares, and permissions.

Key features

• Detects who changed what and when – Daily reports list all changes and note who made them and at what time.
• Reports previous and current values for every change – The user is able to understand every revision by comparing current with previous settings.
• Web-based advanced reporting – By leveraging SQL Server Reporting Services the software provides on-demand Web-based reporting and generates reports and export them to several formats including HMTL, XLS and PDF.
• Predefined and custom reports – The software comes with lengthy filtering, sorting, and grouping features.
• Long-term historical reporting – Historical reporting for any period of time enables the software to make sure you adhere to compliance or internal regulations.

NetWrix File Server Change Reporter is available in freeware and enterprise editions. The enterprise edition provides additional information about who made the change or who accessed what and when it occurred, including detailed information about permission changes.

As expected, the installation procedure is very fast and, once completed, offers the user the opportunity to select a simple user interface aimed at novice users or launch a fully integrated management tool with built-in reporting and multiple domains support. Here’s a look at the NetWrix Management Console:

The setup process is straightforward, first you select the managed object type, then you setup a proper password. Just remember not to cut corners with the password, use a good one.

If you’d like to receive your reports via e-mail, you can configure your SMTP settings:

Once your up and running, it’s a good idea to setup the automatic generation of reports. Depending on your configuration and number of users, you might want to schedule the creation of reports to be during the night.

Changes to the view of the console are saved in your profile. Keep in mind that if you delete these files from your profile will remove all your previous customizations to console files.

To streamline your reports, the Enterprise edition of NetWrix File Server Change Reporter comes with a variety of predefined reports that will cover all your bases:

System Requirements
Processor

• Minimum: Intel or AMD 32 bit, 2GHz
• Recommended: Intel or AMD 64 bit, 3GHz.

Memory

• Minimum: 512MB RAM
• Recommended: 2GB RAM.

Disk

• Minimum: 50MB physical disk space for product installation. More space is required amount depends on the number of files on your file servers and can be calculated considering at least 15 bytes of storage per file per day
• Recommended: 20Gb of disk space available.

Operating Systems

• Windows XP SP3 or above.

Supported file server configurations

• Microsoft Windows 2000 or later
• NetApp Filer (supports CIFS shares only, commercial version only)
• EMC Celerra (supports CIFS shares only, commercial version only).

Supported Microsoft SQL Server databases (Standard and Enterprise edition only):

• SQL Server 2005: Express Edition with Advanced Services (recommended) (SP3 or above); Standard or Enterprise Edition.
• SQL Server 2008: Express Edition with Advanced Services; Standard or Enterprise Edition.
• SQL Server 2008 R2: Express Edition with Advanced Services; Standard or Enterprise Edition.

Note: SQL Server is not included with the product installation and is required to be installed manually or through the wizard.

For download and more information on NetWrix File Server Change Reporter go here.