CA Client Automation - 14.0

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Customizing Audit Messages

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Data Transport Service administrators can customize messages for common events, such as the failure of a DTS agent or Transfer Object Server or a transfer job aborting. Any message that you customize replaces the corresponding default message that Data Transport Service issues under the same conditions.
For example, before customization, if the Network Object Server fails during normal operation, Data Transport Service sends the event to the Common Application Framework (CAF), which forwards a default "Network Object Server failure" message to the Network Object Server log file and the console. However, if you customize the NOS_FAILURE policy with an
audit token
in the Audit policy group in the DSM Explorer, then Data Transport Service sends your customized message instead of the default message to the console.
Thus, customized messages provide administrators with increased flexibility for handling errors. For example, if the Network Object Server resides on a machine at your site that is known to occasionally freeze and needs to be restarted, you might add that fact to the text of your customized message.
The messages you can customize are restricted to the audit tokens available in the DSM Explorer. The audit tokens apply to transfers, transfer jobs, and the servers and agents.
Audit messages and macros are supplied with Data Transport Service r2 and r3. Also, you
cannot
 customize other messages issued by Data Transport Service, including those regarding the protocols, filters, encryption, or operating system used in the transfer.
Audit Log Files
In
CA Client Automation
, both the managers and the agents use the common event component. This means that there is no dtaaudit.log, as in previous releases. All auditing messages are directed to the Windows application log or to a specified file, but this behavior is controlled by the
CA Client Automation
 event component.
Audit Tokens
Each audit token defines a message to write to the
CA Client Automation
 event component, which directs it to the application log and the agent auditing log file when a specific event occurs, such as the start or completion of a transfer job. You can customize the message (called the audit value) for each token to contain free text and macros that are expanded when the token is issued, that is, when the message is issued by the Data Transport Server or Data Transport Agent.
For example, the following audit tokens represent the events for which you can customize the messages the DTS agent. The audit value is the macro plus free text, if any, that you specify for each of these events. 
DTA_ABORT=${DT} ${TT} Transfer from ${XF} to ${XT} aborted.
DTA_COMPLETE=${DT} ${TT} Transfer from ${XF} to ${XT} completed.
DTA_FAIL=${DT} ${TT} Transfer from ${XF} to ${XT} failed; error message=${XX}.
DTA_START=${DT} ${TT} Transfer from ${XF} to ${XT} started.
DTA_SUSPEND=${DT} ${TT} Transfer from ${XF} to ${XT} suspended.
DTA_RESUME=${DT} ${TT} Transfer from ${XF} to ${XT} resumed.
AUDIT_START=${DT} ${TT} Audit file started.
AUDIT_END=${DT} ${TT} Audit file stopped.
The first group of audit tokens (DTA_ABORT ... DTA_RESUME) are issued when a transfer that specifies this agent as the initiator or responder aborts, completes, fails, starts, is suspended, or is resumed after a suspension.
These messages supply transfer-specific information to the initiating DTS agent. They can be very useful, because transfer-related messages from the TOS are not displayed on the agent machine unless the TOS and agent reside on the same machine.
The last two audit tokens (AUDIT_START and AUDIT_END) are issued when auditing is turned on or off.
The ${DT} and ${TT} macros used in each audit message are the short forms of ${DateStandard} and ${TimeStandard}, respectively. These macros display the date and time in the standard C library format for this DTS agent computer.
Customize Audit Tokens
You can customize audit tokens in
CA Client Automation
.
To customize the value of any of the audit tokens
  1. Navigate to the Data Transport Service (DTS) subnode under the Control Panel, Configuration, Configuration Policy, Default Computer Policy, DSM node in the DSM Explorer.
  2. Click the Audit policy group subnode.
    All of the DTS auditing policies appear on the Audit pane (right pane).
  3. Double-click the appropriate policy, for example, DTA_ABORT.
    The Setting Properties dialog appears.
  4. Edit the default text for the audit token associated with the selected policy.
  5. Click OK.
    The selected audit token is customized.
The predefined audit value for the transfer-related audit tokens (DTA_ABORT ... DTA_RESUME) includes the following:
  • Brief free text ("Transfer from...to...event") that describes what happens to the transfer, for example, it starts, aborts, or fails.
  • The {XF} macro, the short form for {TransferFrom}, identifies the sending machine in the transfer.
  • The {XT} macro, the short form for {TransferTo}, identifies the receiving machine in the transfer.
The DTA_FAIL message includes the following additional phrase:
...error message=${XX}.
The {XX} macro, the short form for {TransferExit}, specifies the reason the transfer failed. This macro displays the default message number and text for the error.
The predefined audit value for the AUDIT_START and AUDIT_END audit tokens includes the following:
  • Brief free text that describes the event ("Audit file started [or stopped]...at...").
  • The ${DT} and ${TT} macros, explained above.
When you customize these messages, we recommend that you retain the predefined text and macros. (The exception is the format you choose for the date and time.) By doing so, you retain important information and can easily locate the message in the DTS section of the
DSM Messages Help
, which contains possible reasons and corrective actions (if applicable) for the event. When you retain these tokens, your customization adds site-specific or company-specific value to the message, but does not remove any value.
For more information, see the Configuration Policy section of the
DSM Explorer Help
.
Macros
For Data Transport Service, a macro is a set of characters that represents one or more variables or actions. You can use some macros in the audit value for any Data Transport Service server or Data Transport Agent, while other macros apply only to the servers, only to a specific server (such as the Transfer Object Server), or only to an agent.
Expansion macros
 are a special class of macros that you define yourself. (The macros you can customize are restricted to those available in the DSM Explorer.)
Using macros significantly extends Data Transport Service and other CA solutions that work with it, such as Advantage Data Transport. You can specify macros for any field that can be processed as an argument or can become part of a data transfer.
Typically, you use macros for two major purposes:
  • To customize the messages that are displayed on the console and written to audit log files when certain events occur involving a Data Transport Service server or Data Transport Agent.
  • To help systematically alter the names of input files (when they are sent) and output files (when they are received) in data transfers.
For detailed information, see the
DTSCLI Command Reference Guide
.
Customize Macros
When customizing audit values for messages, you can specify free text and one or more macros. Some macros apply to all DTS components, while other macros apply only to the servers, only to a specific server (such as the TOS), or only to the DTS agent.
To customize a macro, for example, the month and day values for the global macro modifier
  1. Navigate to the Control Panel, Configuration, Configuration Policy, Default Computer Policy, DSM, Data Transport Service (DTS) node.
  2. Click the Macro policy group subnode.
    All of the policies for customizing expansion macros appear on the Macro pane.
  3. Double-click the appropriate macro.
    The Setting Properties dialog appears.
  4. Edit the default value for the expansion macro.
  5. Click OK.
    The selected macro is customized.
For more information, see the Configuration Policy section of the
DSM Explorer Help
.