Configuring the Audit Daemon

The basic setup of the audit daemon is done by editing /etc/audit/auditd.conf. You may also use YaST to configure the basic settings by calling YaST+Security and Users+Linux Audit Framework (LAF). Use the tabs Log File and Disk Space for configuration.

log_file = /var/log/audit/audit.log
log_format = RAW
log_group = root
priority_boost = 4
flush = INCREMENTAL
freq = 20
num_logs = 4
disp_qos = lossy
dispatcher = /sbin/audispd
name_format = NONE
#name = mydomain
max_log_file = 5
max_log_file_action = ROTATE
space_left = 75
space_left_action = SYSLOG
action_mail_acct = root
admin_space_left = 50
admin_space_left_action = SUSPEND
disk_full_action = SUSPEND
disk_error_action = SUSPEND
#tcp_listen_port =
tcp_listen_queue = 5
#tcp_client_ports = 1024-65535
tcp_client_max_idle = 0

The default settings work reasonably well for many setups. Some values, such as num_logs, max_log_file, space_left, and admin_space_left depend on the size of your deployment. If disk space is limited, you might want to reduce the number of log files to keep if they are rotated and you might want get an earlier warning if disk space is running out. For a CAPP-compliant setup, adjust the values for log_file, flush, max_log_file, max_log_file_action, space_left, space_left_action, admin_space_left, admin_space_left_action, disk_full_action, and disk_error_action, as described in Section 29.2, “Configuring the Audit Daemon”. An example CAPP-compliant configuration looks like this:

log_file = path_to_separate_partition/audit.log
log_format = RAW
priority_boost = 4
flush = SYNC                       ### or DATA
freq = 20
num_logs = 4
dispatcher = /sbin/audispd
disp_qos = lossy
max_log_file = 5
max_log_file_action = KEEP_LOGS
space_left = 75
space_left_action = EMAIL
action_mail_acct = root
admin_space_left = 50
admin_space_left_action = SINGLE   ### or HALT
disk_full_action = SUSPEND         ### or HALT
disk_error_action = SUSPEND        ### or HALT

The ### precedes comments where you can choose from several options. Do not add the comments to your actual configuration files.

[Tip]For More Information

Refer to Section 29.2, “Configuring the Audit Daemon” for detailed background information about the auditd.conf configuration parameters.