SharePoint Audit Log Reports
The SharePoint audit log is accessible through the SharePoint API, PowerShell or
the “View Auditing Reports” page in Site Collection Administration.
The auditing reports in Site Collection Administration is the practical option for
most administrators. These reports allow you to select a category of activity, date
range and optionally a specific user or object (e.g. list, library) for further
filtering. The report is produced as an Excel spreadsheet and stored in a specified
document library. From the document library you can view the report.
Here is an example Security Settings report which lists access control related changed
to groups, permissions and roles.
As you can see the audit trail is there and it is comprehensive. But there is a
plethora of unresolved ID codes, GUIDs and bit masks. Both the report and the other
2 log access methods listed above produce the raw data records like this which require
additional processing before they are ready for human consumption and/or log management.
Next: