Enables and disables auditing in the database.

Allowed values

On, Off

Default

Off

Scope

Can be set for the PUBLIC group only. Takes effect immediately. DBA authority required.

Remarks

This option turns auditing on and off.

Auditing is the recording of details about many events in the database in the transaction log. Auditing provides some security features, at the cost of some performance. When you turn on auditing for a database, you cannot stop using the transaction log. You must turn auditing off before you turn off the transaction log. Databases with auditing on cannot be started in read-only mode.

For the auditing option to work, you must set the auditing option to On, and also specify which types of information you want to audit using the sa_enable_auditing_type system procedure. Auditing will not take place if either of the following are true:

• The auditing option is set to Off
• Auditing options have been disabled

If you set the auditing option to On, and do not specify auditing options, all types of auditing information are recorded. Alternatively, you can choose to record any combination of the following: permission checks, connection attempts, DDL statements, public options, and triggers using the sa_enable_auditing_type system procedure.

See also

• Auditing database activity
• sa_enable_auditing_type system procedure
• sa_disable_auditing_type system procedure

Example

Turn on auditing

SET OPTION PUBLIC.auditing = 'On';