Edit

Share via

CREATE DATABASE AUDIT SPECIFICATION (Transact-SQL)

  • Article

Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Managed Instance

Creates a database audit specification object using the SQL Server audit feature. For more information, see SQL Server Audit (Database Engine).

Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

CREATE DATABASE AUDIT SPECIFICATION audit_specification_name
{
    FOR SERVER AUDIT audit_name
        [ ADD (
            { <audit_action_specification> | audit_action_group_name }
            [ , ...n ] )
        ]
        [ WITH ( STATE = { ON | OFF } ) ]
}
[ ; ]
<audit_action_specification>::=
{
    action [ , ...n ] ON [class::]securable BY principal [ , ...n ]
}

Arguments

audit_specification_name

The name of the audit specification.

audit_name

The name of the audit to which this specification is applied.

audit_action_specification

The specification of actions on securables by principals that should be recorded in the audit.

action

The name of one or more database-level auditable actions. For a list of audit actions, see SQL Server Audit Action Groups and Actions.

audit_action_group_name

The name of one or more groups of database-level auditable actions. For a list of audit action groups, see SQL Server Audit Action Groups and Actions.

class

The class name (if applicable) on the securable.

securable

The table, view, or other securable object in the database on which to apply the audit action or audit action group. For more information, see Securables.

principal

The name of database principal on which to apply the audit action or audit action group. To audit all database principals, use the public database principal. For more information, see Principals (Database Engine).

WITH ( STATE = { ON | OFF } )

Enables or disables the audit from collecting records for this audit specification.

Remarks

Database audit specifications are non-securable objects that reside in a given database. When a database audit specification is created, it's in a disabled state.

Permissions

Users with the ALTER ANY DATABASE AUDIT permission can create database audit specifications and bind them to any audit.

After a database audit specification is created, users with the CONTROL SERVER permission, or the sysadmin account, can view it.

Examples

The Transact-SQL code samples in this article use the AdventureWorks2022 or AdventureWorksDW2022 sample database, which you can download from the Microsoft SQL Server Samples and Community Projects home page.

A. Audit SELECT and INSERT on a table for any database principal

The following example creates a server audit called Payroll_Security_Audit and then a database audit specification called Payroll_Security_Audit that audits SELECT and INSERT statements by any member of the public database role, for the HumanResources.EmployeePayHistory table. Every user is audited, because every user is always member of the public role.

USE master;
GO

-- Create the server audit.
CREATE SERVER AUDIT Payroll_Security_Audit
TO FILE (FILEPATH = 'D:\SQLAudit\'); -- make sure this path exists
GO

-- Enable the server audit.
ALTER SERVER AUDIT Payroll_Security_Audit
WITH (STATE = ON);
GO

-- Move to the target database.
USE AdventureWorks2022;
GO

-- Create the database audit specification.
CREATE DATABASE AUDIT SPECIFICATION Audit_Pay_Tables
FOR SERVER AUDIT Payroll_Security_Audit ADD (
    SELECT, INSERT ON HumanResources.EmployeePayHistory BY PUBLIC
)
WITH (STATE = ON);
GO

B. Audit any data modification on all objects in a schema for a specific database role

The following example creates a server audit called DataModification_Security_Audit and then a database audit specification called Audit_Data_Modification_On_All_Sales_Tables that audits INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements by users in a new database role SalesUK, for all objects in the Sales schema.

USE master;
GO

-- Create the server audit.
-- Change the path to a path that the SQLServer Service has access to.
CREATE SERVER AUDIT DataModification_Security_Audit
TO FILE (FILEPATH = 'D:\SQLAudit\'); -- make sure this path exists
GO

-- Enable the server audit.
ALTER SERVER AUDIT DataModification_Security_Audit
WITH (STATE = ON);
GO

-- Move to the target database.
USE AdventureWorks2022;
GO

CREATE ROLE SalesUK
GO

-- Create the database audit specification.
CREATE DATABASE AUDIT SPECIFICATION Audit_Data_Modification_On_All_Sales_Tables
FOR SERVER AUDIT DataModification_Security_Audit ADD (
    INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON SCHEMA::Sales BY SalesUK
)
WITH (STATE = ON);
GO

Server audit specifications:

Database audit specifications:

Catalog views and DMVs:

Related content