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Database

EventSentry can send event log records to any supported database server using ODBC. Connection strings are the recommended way to point the action to a database.

Connection Strings

Applications can either use a connection string or a system DSN (data source name) to connect to a database. The former is easier to deploy since you don't have to create (and maintain) a DSN on every host.

To create the connection string, either refer to your:

The Connection String Helper will setup a connection string for supported databases automatically, you will only need to specify the required parameters. If your connection string needs additional information or does not work then please edit the generated string in the main ODBC dialog manually.

Note: The password will appear in plain text in the connection string of the main ODBC dialog after you click OK.

DSN Name

As an alternative to connection strings you can also use System DSN names to connect to a database. Enter the name of a System DSN, please see Best Practices for more information on DSN names. The DSN name specified here needs to exist on every host using this action (see also: Troubleshooting).

You cannot specify both a DSN and a connection string.

Username / Password

If your data source requires a login then specify username and password. For more information on username and passwords please also read Best Practices.

Manage ODBC

Clicking this button will bring up the Data Source Administrator, a built-in application that ships with Windows and allows you to configure System and User DSNs. Note that this button is only active when you are connected to the local machine.

Initialize or Update Database

Launches the Configuration Assistant, which either creates a new database or updates an existing database to the latest schema (according to schema.xml). Launching the configuration assistant is only necessary when creating a new EventSentry action, or when the configuration assistant failed to update one more more database during an upgrade.

Ignore Binary Data

Some events, usually from either the Application or System event log, have binary data associated with them. If you are not interested in consolidating binary data in the database, then you can check this check box.

Always Append Binary Data - REGISTRY & ADVANCED USERS ONLY

In some cases, especially when handling large amounts of large, unique and non-repetitive binary data, the EventSentry agents can pose a significant stress on the database server when the size of the ESEventlogData table gets too big. All binary data is stored in this lookup table, and the agent attempts to reuse existing rows in this table if it is encountering duplicate binary data, as is generally the case.

If you expect large amounts of unique binary data, then you can avoid this problem by preventing the EventSentry agent from re-using binary entries and instead appending binary data to the ESEventlogData table. This will impose less work on the database server, since the ESEventlogData table does not have to be queried as often anymore (it still has to be queried once for every binary entry).

To activate this option, close the management console, start regedit.exe and navigate to the registry for the action you would like to activate this for:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\netikus.net\EventSentry\Targets\MYDATABASE

where MYDATABASE is the name of your database action. There, add a new DWORD value with the name of ODBC_AlwaysAppendBinaryData and set the value to 1.