ApexSQL Log
Important notice
ApexSQL Log cannot read the following from the transaction log:
- Encrypted data
- FILESTREAM BLOBs
If you are unsure whether a particular feature of SQL Server is supported, please contact support@apexsql.com
Licensing and evaluation
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How is Apex SQL Log licensed?
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ApexSQL Log is licensed per-computer on which SQL Server is installed. A single license allows ApexSQL Log to be activated on one computer with SQL Server installed. This allows that instance of SQL Server to connect with any installation of the ApexSQL Log client application. A computer is considered any instance of an operating system, so, if you have a physical computer running 8 VMs each with its own SQL Server, then you will need 8 licenses. On the other hand, the ApexSQL Log client can be installed on any PC without any limitation
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Are there any restrictions or limitations on the evaluation version of ApexSQL Log?
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The ApexSQL Log evaluation version can be installed on any number of server instances and users are not restricted to use with only predetermined databases. However, the evaluation version has two important limitations:
- The trial is limited to 14 days for any given instance of SQL Server
- Generation and export of UNDO/REDO scripts is limited to every 10th operation
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What is the licensing model of your server tools in a clustered SQL Server environment?
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In a clustered environment, each active node must have its own license.
General
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Does ApexSQL Log use triggers?
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Does ApexSQL Log have a large performance overhead?
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No. ApexSQL Log has no performance overhead during audit trail capture. The application simply reads the transaction logs to gather audit data. This allows auditing to be performed during low load times or even be offloaded to another server
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Can ApexSQL Log audit SELECT statements?
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Can changes to database schema or permissions be viewed or rolled back?
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Yes. You can view and roll back changes caused by “ALTER/CREATE/DROP database objects” and “GRANT/REVOKE permissions” statements
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Does ApexSQL Log support reading of transactions logs on SQL Server Express?
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Yes, ApexSQL Log fully supports reading and analysis of transaction logs and databases on SQL Server Express
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Can ApexSQL Log read backups created by third-party tools?
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No. ApexSQL Log can successfully read only SQL Server native transaction log backups. The transaction log backups created or compressed by a third party tool, even when uncompressed/converted back to native using the same tool, don’t provide sufficient info for successful auditing and/or data recovery
Server-side components
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Do I have to install the server side components?
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I don’t want to install anything on my SQL Server. Is there a way to use ApexSQL Log?
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Yes. You can audit your databases on the test SQL Server where ApexSQL Log server side components will be installed
Transaction Log auditing
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Do I have to map the log directory of the server as a network drive on the client machine before I can access it?
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Is it possible to run ApexSQL Log automatically or unattended?
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Yes. This can be done using the command line interface
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Will ApexSQL Log be able to identify a specific user id if passed from a web application?
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No, if a web application uses only one account to connect to SQL Server. ApexSQL Log will show only that account. This issue must be addressed from within the web applications by altering how they login
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Can the product read both archive and online transaction logs while the database is active?
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Yes. ApexSQL Log needs the database to be active in order to retrieve necessary information that is not available in the transaction log
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ApexSQL Log is showing UPDATE records as DELETE/INSERT pairs for clustered index value. Can this information be shown as UPDATE record?
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No. The DELETE/INSERT pair is expected as this is what SQL Server when a value that's part of a clustered index is changed
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Can ApexSQL Log read UPDATE operations for NTEXT, TEXT, IMAGE?
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No. ApexSQL Log doesn’t support auditing of changes produced by WRITETEXT, UPDATETEXT and UPDATE operations affecting only BLOB data stored in obsolete BLOB types (NTEXT, TEXT, IMAGE)
Software configuration
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How does ApexSQL Log handle failover in a clustered environment?
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It depends on whether the ApexSQL Log client is running on the active node or if it is running outside of the cluster.
- If ApexSQL Log client is running on the active node you will have to have the same configuration (e.g. batch files for command line interface) on each node in the cluster. When the failover happens, log auditing on the new active node will need to be started manually
- If ApexSQL Log client is running outside of the cluster, ApexSQL Log auditing will be automatically redirected by the cluster itself to the active node (same as all other applications running outside of the cluster)
In both cases you will need to install and activate server-side components on each node in the cluster