Monitoring and Reporting Change Logs, Workflows, and Jobs

CDO effectively monitors configuration change logs, bulk device operations, and the process that runs when communicating with devices. This helps you understand how your network's existing policies influence its security posture.

Manage Change Logs in CDO

A Change Log captures the configuration changes made in CDO, providing a single view that includes changes in all the supported devices and services. These are some of the features of the change log:

  • Provides a side-by-side comparison of changes made to device configuration.

  • Provides labels for all change log entries.

  • Records onboarding and removal of devices.

  • Detects policy change conflicts occurring outside CDO.

  • Provides answers about who, what, and when during an incident investigation or troubleshooting.

  • Enables downloading of the complete change log, or only a portion of it, as a CSV file.

Manage Change Log Capacity

CDO retains the change log information for one year and deletes data older than a year.

There is a difference between the change log information stored in CDO's database and what you see in an exported change log. See Export the Change Log for more information.

Change Log Entries

A change log entry reflects the changes to a single device configuration, an action performed on a device, or the change made to a device outside CDO:

  • For change log entries that contain configuration changes, you can view details about the change by clicking anywhere in the corresponding row.

  • For out-of-band changes made outside CDO and are detected as conflicts, the System User is reported as the Last User.

  • CDO closes a change log entry after a device's configuration on CDO is synced with the configuration on the device, or when a device is removed from CDO. Configurations are considered to be in sync after they read the configuration from the device to CDO or after deploying the configuration from CDO to the device.

  • CDO creates a new change log entry immediately after completing an existing entry, irrespective of whether the change was a success or failure. Additional configuration changes are added to the new change log entry that opens.

  • Events are displayed for read, deploy, and delete actions for a device. These actions close a device's change log.

  • A change log is closed after CDO is in sync with the configuration on the device (either by reading or deploying), or when CDO no longer manages the device.

  • If a change is made to the device outside of CDO, a Conflict detected entry is included in the change log.

Pending and Completed Change Log Entries

Change logs have a status of either Pending or Completed. As you make changes to a device's configuration using CDO, these changes are recorded in a Pending change log entry. The following activities complete a Pending change log, and after this a new change log is created for recording future changes.

  • Reading a configuration from a device to CDO

  • Deploying changes from CDO to a device

  • Deleting a device from CDO

  • Running a CLI command that updates the running configuration file

Search and Filter Change Log Entries

You can search and filter change log entries. Use the search field to find events. Use the filter () to find the entries that meet the criteria you specify. You can also combine the two tasks by filtering the change log and adding a keyword to the search field to find an entry within the filtered results.

View Change Log Differences

Click Diff in the change log to open up a side-by-side comparison of the changes in the running configuration file of the device.

In the following figure, the Original Configuration column is the running configuration file before a change was written to the ASA. The Modified Configuration column shows the running configuration file after the change was written. In this case, the Original Configuration column highlights a row in the running configuration file; this row doesn't change, but gives you a point of reference in the Modified Configuration column.

Follow the lines across from the left to the right column to see the addition of the HR_network object and the access rule preventing addresses in the engineering network to reach addresses in the HR_network network. Click Previous and Next to move through the changes in the file.

Related Topics

Export the Change Log

You can export all or a subset of the CDO change log to a comma-separated value (.csv) file so that you can filter and sort the information, as required.

To export the change log to a .csv file, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Change Log.

Step 2

Find the changes you want to export by doing one of the following tasks:

  • Use the filter () and the search field to find what you want to export. For example, filter by device to see only the changes for your selected device or devices.

  • Clear all the filters and search criteria in the change log. This allows you to export the entire change log.

Note

 

CDO retains 1 year of change log data. It is recommended to filter the change log contents and download the results ot a .csv file rather than downloading the entire change log history for a year.

Step 3

Click the export icon at the top right corner of the page.

Step 4

Save the .csv file to your local file system, with a descriptive name.

Differences Between Change Log Capacity in CDO and Size of an Exported Change Log

The information that you export from CDO's Change Log page is different from the change log information that CDO stores in its database.

For every change log, CDO stores two copies of the device's configuration–the starting configuration and either the ending configuration in the case of a closed change log or the current configuration in the case of an open change log. This allows CDO to display configuration differences side by side. In addition, CDO tracks and stores every step (change event) with the username that made the change, the time the change was made, and other details.

However, when you export the change log, the export does not include the two complete copies of the configuration. It only includes the change events, which makes the export file much smaller than the change log that CDO stores.

CDO stores change log information for a year. This includes two copies of the configuration.

Change Request Management

Change Request Management enables the linking of a Change Request and its business justification to a Change Log event. The Change Request is opened in a third-party ticketing system.

Use Change Request Management to create a Change Request in CDO and associate it with change log events. You can search for this change request by Name within the change log.


Note

In CDO, Change Request Tracking and Change Request Management refer to the same functionality.

Enable Change Request Management

Enabling change request tracking affects all users of your tenant.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Settings > General Settings.

Step 2

Enable the Change Request Tracking toggle button.

When enabled, the Change Request menu appears at the bottom-left corner and the Change Request drop-down list is available in the Change Log page.

Create a Change Request

Procedure

Step 1

In CDO, click the Create Change Request (+) icon in the Change Request menu at the bottom-left corner.

Step 2

Enter a Name and Description.

Ensure that the Name corresponds to a Change Request name that your organization intends to use, and that the Description describes the purpose of the change.

Note

 

You cannot modify the name of a Change Request after you create it.

Step 3

Click Save.

Note

 

When a Change Request is saved, CDO associates all the new changes with the corresponding Change Request name. This association continues until you either disable change requests or clear the change request details from the menu.

Associate a Change Request with a Change Log Event

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Change Log.

Step 2

Expand the change log to view the events you want to associate with a Change Request.

Step 3

Click the drop-down list adjacent to the corresponding change log entry.

Note

 

The latest change requests are displayed at the top of the change request list.

Step 4

Select a change request and click Select.

Search for Change Log Events with Change Requests

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Change Log.

Step 2

In the change log search field, enter the name of a change request to find the associated change log events.

CDO highlights the change log events that are exact matches.

Search for a Change Request

Procedure

Step 1

In CDO, click the Create Change Request (+) icon in the Change Request menu at the bottom-left corner.

Step 2

Enter the name of the Change Request or a relevant keyword in the search field. As you enter a value, the results that partially match your input, appear in both the Name and Description fields.

Filter Change Requests

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Change Log.

Step 2

Click the filter icon to view all the options.

Step 3

In the search field, enter the name of a Change Request.

As you enter a value, the results that partially match your entry appear.

Step 4

Select a change request by checking the corresponding check box.

The matches appear in the Change Log table. CDO highlights the change log events that are exact matches.

Clear the Change Request Toolbar

To avoid automatic association of change log events with an existing change request, clear the information in the change request toolbar.

Procedure

Step 1

In CDO, click the Create Change Request (+) icon in the Change Request menu at the bottom-left corner.

Step 2

Click Clear.

The Change Request menu now displays None.

Clear a Change Request Associated with a Change Log Event

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Change Log.

Step 2

Expand the Change Log to view the events that you want to disassociate from Change Requests.

Step 3

Click the drop-down list adjacent to the corresponding change log entry.

Step 4

Click Clear.

Delete a Change Request

Deleting a Change Request removes it from the change request list, but not from the Change Log.

Procedure

Step 1

Click the Create Change Request (+) icon in the Change Request menu at the bottom-left corner.

Step 2

Select the change request and click the bin icon to delete it.

Step 3

Click the check mark to confirm.

Disable Change Request Management

Disabling Change Request Management or Change Request Tracking affects all users of your account.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Settings > General Settings.

Step 2

Disable the Change Request Tracking toggle button.

Change Request Management Use Cases

These use cases assume that you have enabled Change Request Management.

Track Changes Made to the Firewall Device to Resolve a Ticket Maintained in an External System

This use case describes a scenario where you want to make changes to a firewall device to resolve a ticket maintained in an external system and want to associate the change log events resulting from these firewall changes to a change request. Follow this procedure to create a change request and associate change log events to it:

  1. Create a Change Request.

  2. Use the ticket name or number from the external system as the name of the change request and add the justification for the change and other relevant information in the Description field.

  3. Ensure that the new change request is visible in the change request toolbar.

  4. Make the changes to the firewall device.

  5. In the navigation pane, click Change Log and find the change log events that are associated with your new change request.

  6. Clear the Change Request Toolbar to avoid automatic association of change log events with an existing change request.

Manually Update Individual Change Log Events After Changes are Made to the Firewall Device

This use case describes a scenario where you have made changes to a firewall device to resolve a ticket that is maintained in an external system, but forgot to use the Change Request Management feature to associate change requests with the change log events. You want to update the change log events with the ticket number. Follow this procedure to associate change requests with change log events:

  1. Create a Change Request. Use the ticket name or number from the external system as the name of the change request. Use the Description field to add the justification for the change and other relevant information.

  2. In the navigation pane, click Change Log and search for the change log events that are associated with the changes.

  3. Associate a Change Request with a Change Log Event.

  4. Clear the Change Request Toolbar to avoid automatic association of change log events with an existing change request.

Search for Change Log Events Associated with a Change Request

This use case describes a scenario where, you want to find out what change log events were recorded in the change log because of the work done to resolve a ticket maintained in an external system. Follow this procedure to search for change log events that are associated with a change request:

  1. In the navigation pane, click Change Log.

  2. Search for change log events that are associated with change requests using one of the following methods below:

    • In the Change Log search field, enter the exact name of the change request to find change log events associated with that change request. CDO highlights change log events that are exact matches.

    • Filter Change Requests to find the change log events.

  3. View each change log to find the highlighted change log events showing the associated change request.

Monitor Workflows in CDO

The Workflows page allows you to monitor every process that CDO runs when communicating with devices, Secure Device Connector (SDC), or Secure Event Connector (SEC), and when applying ruleset changes to devices. CDO creates an entry in the workflow table for every step and displays its outcome on this page. The entry contains information pertaining only to the action performed by CDO and not the device it is interacting with.

CDO reports an error when it fails to perform a task on a device. Navigate to the Workflows page to see the step where the error occurred, for more details.

This page also helps you determine and troubleshoot errors or share information with TAC, when required.

To navigate to the Workflows page, on the Inventory page, click the Devices tab. Click the appropriate device type tab to locate the device and select the device you want. Under the Devices and Actions in the right pane, click Workflows. This figure shows the Workflows page with entries in the Workflow table.

Export Device Workflows

You can download the complete workflow information to a JSON file and provide it when the TAC team asks for further analysis. To export the workflow information, select the corresponding device and, navigate to its Workflows page and click the export () icon appearing at the top-right corner.

Copy Stack Trace

If you have an error you cannot resolve and you approach TAC, they may ask you for a copy of the stack trace. To collect the stack trace for the error, click the Stack Trace link and click Copy Stacktrace to copy the stacks appearing on the screen, to a clipboard.