Online Help

Remote Audit with email delivery

The Remote Audit is a method of WAN audit, based on the deployment of standalone audit agents to a remote network. With this method, you can regularly audit offsite computers and remote networks that have no direct connection to the local network. Depending on the way how audit snapshots are delivered to Alloy Discovery, the Remote Audit method comes in two modes: FTP delivery and email delivery. This article is about email delivery.

The Remote Audit method offers two deployment scenarios for audit agents:

  • Audit agent installer

    Install the audit agent to every remote computer.

  • Audit package

    Deploy the Inventory Analyzer package to a centralized location in the remote network and automate the audit agent using domain logon scripts or scheduled tasks.

When using this audit method, there is no direct link between the Inventory Server and deployed audit agents; this is why any configuration changes or updated versions of the audit agents have to be manually re-deployed.

Before configuring the audit, make sure you have configured a proper audit profile.

To set up the audit, take the following steps:

  1. Make sure the Internet connectivity is available for transferring data for sending email.

  2. Create an E-mail Audit Source as described in Configuring E-mail Audit Sources.

    NOTE: Before creating the E-mail Audit Source, make sure that you know the settings of the SMTP mail server on the remote network and have a valid user name and password if the SMTP server requires users to authenticate.

  3. On the remote site, create a folder on the dedicated file server. This network folder will serve as an intermediary repository, and it must have both the Modify permission and the Change Permissions special permission assigned for your account. Share the folder and grant the Full Control share permission to the Everyone group for that network share.

  4. Set the minimally necessary permissions for that shared folder. These minimally necessary permissions are used for the audit method to create the most secure environment for the network share and audit snapshot files stored there.

  5. Choose how to deliver the audit agent to the computers you want audited. You can use any or both of these options:

  6. The remote audit runs on a schedule. If needed, you can check the audit source for new snapshots on demand. For instructions, see Checking E-mail Audit Sources for New Snapshots.