Cloudera Docs

Configuring Ranger audit log storage to a local file

How to configure a service to write Ranger audit log records to a local file, in addition to the default Solr and HDFS locations.

The Solr and HDFS audit destinations are intended to store short- and long-term audit records respectively, by default. You can configure whether a service also stores Ranger audit records in a local file destination. You may also further configure a service by appending additional, service-specific configuration properties. To do this, first modify ranger-<service_name>-audit.xml file, using Cloudera Manager. Then, add additional appenders to the configuration. This topic shows how to add appenders to the Hive service, for example.

Table 1. Ranger Audit Destination Configuration Parameters for services
Parameter Name Description Default Setting Units
xasecure.audit.destination.log4j

controls whether Ranger writes audit records to a service

 true T/F
xasecure.audit.destination.log4j.logger location at which you can access audit records written to HDFS rangerauditlogger string
  1. Configure Ranger Log4JAuditDestination.
    1. From Cloudera Manager choose <service_name> > Configuration.
    2. In Search, type ranger-<service_name>-audit, then press Return.
    3. In Hive Service Advanced Configuration Snippet (Safety Valve) for ranger-hive-audit.xml, click +.
    4. Add the following property/value:
      Name
      xasecure.audit.destination.log4j
      Value
      true
    5. Click Save Changes (CTRL+S).
    6. In Hive Service Advanced Configuration Snippet (Safety Valve) for ranger-hive-audit.xml, click +.
    7. Add the following property/value
      Name
      xasecure.audit.destination.log4j.logger
      Value
      rangerauditlogger
    8. Click Save Changes (CTRL+S).
  2. Configure HIVE log4 for ranger audit log appender.
    Add the following properties to the configuration: (?? HiveServer2 Logging Advanced Configuration Snippet (Safety Valve) ??)
    appenders=console, DRFA, redactorForRootLogger, RANGERAUDIT
appenders=console, DRFA, redactorForRootLogger, RANGERAUDIT
appender.RANGERAUDIT.type=RollingRandomAccessFile
appender.RANGERAUDIT.name=RANGERAUDIT
appender.RANGERAUDIT.fileName=${log.dir}/hive-ranger-audit.log
appender.RANGERAUDIT.filePattern=${log.dir}/hive-ranger-audit.log.%d{yyyy-MM-dd}-%i
appender.RANGERAUDIT.filePermissions=rwxr--r--
appender.RANGERAUDIT.layout.type=PatternLayout
appender.RANGERAUDIT.layout.pattern=%d{ISO8601} %q %5p [%t] %c{2} (%F:%M(%L)) - %m%n
appender.RANGERAUDIT.policies.type=Policies
appender.RANGERAUDIT.policies.size.type=SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.RANGERAUDIT.policies.size.size=250MB
appender.RANGERAUDIT.strategy.type=DefaultRolloverStrategy
appender.RANGERAUDIT.strategy.max=10
appender.RANGERAUDIT.strategy.action.type=DELETE
appender.RANGERAUDIT.strategy.action.basepath=${log.dir}
appender.RANGERAUDIT.strategy.action.maxdepth=1
appender.RANGERAUDIT.strategy.action.PathConditions.glob=hive-ranger-audit.*
appender.RANGERAUDIT.strategy.action.PathConditions.type=IfFileName
appender.RANGERAUDIT.strategy.action.PathConditions.nestedConditions.type=IfAccumulatedFileCount
appender.RANGERAUDIT.strategy.action.PathConditions.nestedConditions.exceeds=2GB
loggers=Ranger
logger.Ranger.name=rangerauditlogger
logger.Ranger.level=INFO
logger.Ranger.appenderRefs=RANGERAUDIT
logger.Ranger.appenderRef.RANGERAUDIT.ref=RANGERAUDIT
  3. Restart the service to refresh the configuration.
    The result will be hive-ranger-audit.log getting created in the configured folder. Ranger audit logs for hive operations will be appended.