Log Admin activity - SolidWorks PDM

[Austin Schukar]

Hey all,

Does SolidWorks PDM (Professional) track changes, made by any PDM administrator, to vault settings/permissions via an auditable log?

Austin

[Austin Schukar]

Okay - so I am just seeing the "System History," vault command and it does seem adequate, though it isn't as detailed as I'd like it to be.

[jcapriotti]

Yeah, just says what module was edited but not what actually changed. You'll need a change process, which you could manage with PDM or a number of other tools.

[Austin Schukar]

Yeah, just says what module was edited but not what actually changed. You'll need a change process, which you could manage with PDM or a number of other tools.

In our case, we are worried about "malicious" PDM administrators granting permissions that they shouldn't be, and want to be able to track the changes made, when it was made, etc. For context, this is particularly about granting access to folders that are meant to be hidden (confidential/classified).

The rogue admin could just delete the history and everyone would be clueless. In my mind, if you have a rogue admin, you have other problems as well, and this type of activity would have to be pretty dang malicious, but you can't rule it out, I suppose. Thoughts on this?

Currently, the only solution that I can think of is, like you said, a change process, to have the super-admin go into the system to update permissions, and restrict general PDM admins (3 of us).

[jcapriotti]

Not a lot of options here. You could create a "Lite Admin" group but just giving them "Administrate Users" allows them to give themselves any other ability, such as purging history. And managing users is a basic task.

Just make sure you have frequent backups.