Retrieve page-change audit logs in AEM 6.5 LTS
This article explains how to retrieve and review audit logs in AEM 6.5 LTS to track what changed on pages, who made the changes, and when they occurred. To fix this, enable and configure audit logging, review the entries under /var/audit/, use versioning to compare page changes, and add custom audit handling when the default details aren’t sufficient.
Description description
Environment
- Adobe Experience Manager 6.5 LTS
- Page authoring environment with audit logging and versioning enabled
- Self-managed or Adobe Managed Services deployment with approved administrator access
Issue/Symptoms
- Administrators need to determine what changes were made to a page, who made the changes, and when they occurred.
- The organization requires a comprehensive, auditable record of page modifications for compliance, troubleshooting, or content governance.
- The default audit logging and versioning information doesn’t provide all the required details.
Cause
AEM provides audit logging and versioning for page activity, but the default information doesn’t capture every detail required for all audit, compliance, troubleshooting, or content-governance requirements. Additional configuration or custom event handlers are required for more granular tracking.
Resolution resolution
Follow the steps below to resolve the issue:
- Verify that the AEM Audit Log service is enabled and properly configured in the environment.
- Check that the audit-log service hasn’t been disabled or overridden by custom configurations.
- Confirm that the user account has permission to access audit logs.
- In AEM 6.5 LTS, navigate to the audit-log location under
/var/audit/using CRX/DE Lite or another approved JCR repository browser. - Review audit-log entries related to page changes and identify the action performed, the user who performed it, and the timestamp.
- If the default audit logging doesn’t capture all required details, develop custom event handlers in AEM to log the additional information.
- Use the AEM versioning feature to compare different versions of a page and identify what content changed. Note: Versioning shows content differences but doesn’t always identify the user who made the change. Use audit-log entries for user and timestamp information.
- Use the AEM Repository API to create custom tools or scripts that retrieve and display audit data in a user-friendly format.
- Use the AEM Workflow Model to track changes and log user actions for additional traceability.
- Use the AEM Audit Log API correctly and verify that the user account has the required permissions to access audit-log data.
- Review the audit-log entries and confirm that they contain the required details: what changed, who made the change, and when it occurred.
Note: If the out-of-the-box features don’t meet the audit requirements, evaluate a third-party tool that provides additional auditing capabilities for AEM.