Previous features and fixed issues

• SQL Compliance Manager 6.3 release delivers security permissions based on the least privilege principle (as opposed to permissions based on standard user roles such as sysadmin) to further enhance the data security per user within the product.

• Fixed an issue where DDL events were not captured for server-level privilege users configured through a domain group.
• Resolved the issue where the Regulatory Compliance Check report showed "No" at server-level for PCI DSS guidelines. 
  
• Fixed an issue where the IP Address Auditing checkbox was unchecked after importing an exported audit setting file.
  
• Addressed an issue with Audit Events not appearing on SQLCM console when CM repo was hosted on a Case Sensitive SQL instance.
  
• Solved the issue of multiple alerts being logged for a single event.
  • The number of Data and Event alerts is consistent with the number of audit events generated.
  • The email alerts have been improved with the appropriate event description.
• Fixed an issue with random disappearance of databases from the audited database list.

• SQL Compliance Manager 6.2 improved to determine if an Alert Rule has been configured as 'Email Notification' or 'Email Summary Notification', users no longer are required to edit the alert rule. The rule description has been enhanced to make it convenient to distinguish between the two without the need for alert rule modifications.
• SQL Compliance Manager 6.2 upgraded to provide a CLI command line for registering a server, grooming, archiving, and verifying audit data integrity - version 6.2 is now augmented with CLI for enabling and disabling auditing servers.
  
• SQL Compliance Manager 6.2 improved and added the number of rows at the end of the reports to ease access to the information contained in each report.
• SQL Compliance Manager 6.2 enhanced security by deploying a strong Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm to meet the latest high standards of our large enterprise customers. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is an algorithm that uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt protected data. Instead of a single round of encryption, data is put through several rounds of substitution, transposition, and mixing to make it harder to compromise.

• DDL, DML, and DROP events are correctly shown in the "Audit Events" tab after performing the DDL action on the "Sensitive Column" when using the "via Audit Logs" collection method.
• Audit events for "insert" are accurately being recorded for Sensitive columns with "select and DML activity" enabled.
  
• Resolved the issue where Trace events were not being correctly captured for "delete from <table>" audit events when sensitive columns with "select and DML activity" were configured.
  
• Fixed an issue where the number of Logout events captured was significantly more than the number of Login events.
  
• Resolved the issue where a warning message was displayed in the Event Viewer after execution of the trace file out to the collection Server for processing.
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Delete" DML events were shown twice after executing a single "Delete" query on the "Sensitive Columns" table when "Trace" or "Audit Logs" collection methods were used.
  
• Resolved the issue where the events table integrity check did not detect changes done on hash columns.
• The “SQL Statement” content is correctly displayed in the “Event Properties” after executing the DDL query if the “via SQL server Audit specification” is used.
  
• Resolved the issue where the "+" icon was missing for the DDL column-sensitive event in the "Audit Events" tab.
  
• Addressed an issue where the layout was broken for reports downloaded in PDF and TIF formats.
  
• Resolved an issue where Events were not captured as expected with Extended Events and SELECT auditing was enabled.
• Fixed the issue where the Bin file was not getting updated for the Privileged User set up through a domain group at the server level.
• Resolved an issue where "Unknown Publisher" was displayed in the "User Account Control" when installing SQLCM.
  
•  Addressed an issue where an error message would come up when trying to import audit settings.

• SQL Compliance Manager 6.1 adds a new feature “Auditing the IP address of the source of an event” which allows SQL Compliance Manager to capture and record the IP address of the source of an event along with other relevant information. It is configurable in the Audited Activities tab.
• SQL Compliance Manager 6.1 improved to detect all the manual changes made to the [Events] and [EventSQL] tables by an Integrity Check.
  
• SQL Compliance Manager 6.1 adds support for Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022 for installation and features. For more information on the operating system support, visit the Software Requirements page.

• When running reports in both the Windows Console and Reportings Services you can now select multiple instances in the <Server Instance> dropdown.
  
• Report Results rows now can be configured to use more than 10K Event Records.
• Added a Horizontal Line in the Reports allowing users to adjust the space that the filters or the report use at any given time. Also added a horizontal scrollbar allowing the user to navigate through the reports.
  
• Resolved the issue where running the SQL Server Reporting Services listed all users in a long string in the report output when all users are selected.
• Fixed an issue where an error occurred during the setup of the Collection Service account with a password longer than 32 characters during the installation.
• Resolved the issue where auditing via extended events and making changes to the temp-tables caused to "Audit all user tables" when "DML\SELECT Filters" was configured.
• Resolved an issue where the DataChanges table showed a number of eventId ` s with a value of NULL.
• Fixed an issue where the error prompted "An item with the same key has already been added" prompted while loading configuration for the SERVER and occurred when having two databases with the same id but different names.
  
• Resolved the issue where SSMS native activities were picked up when using Extended Events as the collection method.
• Resolved the issue where an error appeared when opening Excel export of "Regulatory Compliance Check" report in SSRS.
• Fixed the issue where the Audit Events View didn't keep custom columns after the console was restarted.
• Fixed an issue where making changes to the [EventSQL] table was not picked up by the Integrity Check.
• Resolved an issue where the Login Filter was recording the same login multiple times.
• Excel report export no longer rounds up event timestamps.
• Resolved an issue where Trusted User registration was case-sensitive for an auto-registered new database while it was case-insensitive for manually registered databases.
•  

• SQL Compliance Manager 6.0 extends the capabilities of the current SQL CM Agent to support remote auditing on SQL servers on EC2. Allowing users to add SQL Servers active on the share network location to write/read data and support DBaaS SQL Server Instances.  The Cloud Agent consists of the same behavior and functionality as the current SQL Agent, but the RDS agent is a separate agent deployed into the cloud with its own configuration auditing settings.
• SQL Compliance Manager 6.0 adds support for Amazon RDS to audit servers, databases, Sensitive Data, and Activities while alerting and reporting on them. Users can select Amazon RDS as their Server Type when adding a new server in the Specify SQL Server configuration window. According to the selection, SQL CM asks to Specify Connection Credentials for the authentication, and once registered, users can begin auditing the database activity on that server.
  
• SQL Compliance Manager 6.0 permits the creation of storage accounts to place its components within AWS. In Amazon RDS, users can audit Microsoft SQL Server databases using the built-in SQL Server auditing mechanism. For additional information on Support for SQL Server Audit, visit the SQL Server Audit User Guide.
• Upon upgrading to SQL CM 6.0 or preparing a new installation, SQL Compliance Manager Event Collection Method Capture Default Setting changes to "SQL Server Audit Specifications". All audit logs for 'DML and Select Activities' are captured and filtered properly both for the existing CM architecture and the cloud support platform. 

• Resolved the issue where users were mistakenly prompted for an agent upgrade. Now, if the Agent is on the latest version, the Upgrade Agent displays as a non-clickable out.

There are no new features in this release.

• Exporting Audit Settings now successfully includes an export of the Server Level Trusted Users configured . 
• Resolved the issue where the SQL Server Properties window displayed the version as Unknown for registered SQL Server 2019 instances. Now, the correct version is shown. 
• Resolved the issue where auditing stopped working when a user-configured Sensitive Column auditing without first selecting the DML or SELECT option caused the SQLcompliance Agent to have problems creating the sp_SQLcompliance_AuditXE  stored procedure.
• Resolved the issue where Events were not captured for sensitive columns when SELECT and DML are not enabled at database-level audited activities on fresh and upgraded setups.
• The DML Activity (Before-After) report shows accurate results regardless of the collection method being set to Extended Events or SQL Tracing.
• The DML\SELECT filters are now working correctly when auditing SQL Server 2019 and no longer prevent DML and SELECT activities from being audited accordingly.
• The following error is no longer observed when attempting to run DML changes on a table configured for Before-After auditing in the software. "The DELETE permission was denied on the object 'SQLcompliance_Changed_Data_Table'."
  
• The retention period of the Activity Log is now configurable. It is set to a default of 60 days which can be modified in the SQLcomplianceCollectionService.exe.config file in the MAX_ACTIVITY_LOGS_AGE flag.
• Console loading times are faster now at both console startup and when navigating to the Audit Events view of the audited server or database.
• Event details on INSERT and DELETE events, audited not as INSERT INTO or DELETE FROM executions, are no longer missing the Target Object Name information, showing the name of the database object affected by the audited DML change.
• Reports deployed to SQL Server Reporting Services now show corresponding logins in the Login dropdown filter when these are set to run against an archived database.
• Reports no longer show a syntax error when executed either from the console application or SQL Server Reporting Services.
• The permissions check for the SQL Server service account permissions on the Agent Trace Files folder no longer fails when the SQL Server is running under the NETWORK SERVICE service account.
• Data types have been updated in the tables saving Before-After data to prevent the tables from filling up with event data too soon. This would have prevented new events from processing otherwise, as a result.
• The console application logging is no longer showing a collation conflict error, as shown below:  "Cannot resolve the collation conflict between "SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS" and "Latin1_General_CI_AS" in the equal to operation."

There are no new features in this release.

• Resolved the issue where the audit configuration was not updated when new users were added to a Windows Domain group which were previously configured as Trusted Users. 
• Resolved the issue where public roles were granted unnecessary permissions, such as ALTER, EXECUTE, CONTROL, TAKE OWNERSHIP, and VIEW DEFINITION, on the audit stored procedures sp_SQLcompliance_Audit and sp_SQLCompliance_StartUp .
• Resolved the issue where the Collection Server installer raised an error message requesting the removal of the newly restored SQLcompliance and SQLcomplianceProcessing databases. Currently, the migration of the Collection Server preserves the repository databases and displays the events on the console as expected.
• Resolved the issue where users were unable to register instances that are unreachable or from an untrusted domain. Currently, users can register unreachable instances or instances from untrusted domains. Please note that while unreachable instances can be registered for auditing, it is required for the Agent service to be deployed manually on these server instances.

• The default settings for capturing DML and Select activities were changed to Extended Events on SQL Compliance Manager 5.8. This change provides a significant performance improvement for the collection service efficiency in event collection, as well as on the performance impact on monitored instances.
• SQL Compliance Manager 5.8 introduces a new highly optimized index format where the application upgrades indexes in the background from a none compression state to a page-level compression type. This operation is done as an Online operation for supported SQL Server editions. Currently, the SQL Compliance Manager repository does not utilize the optimized indexes format. Rebuilding the indexes into the new optimized format provides a significant performance enhancement to the Management Console when viewing audited events and provides a considerable database repository size reduction resulting in less space usage on disk. For more information see Indexes rebuild operation. 
• SQL Compliance Manager 5.8 modified the Collection Server and Agent to allow a mode where trace files are transferred by the Agent to the Collection Server without compression. Transferring files from the Agent to the Collection Server without compression provides a significant performance enhancement both on the server side in event collection efficiency, and it reduces the performance impact on the monitored instances. In the Agent Properties window, users with Agents in version 5.8 have the option to decide whether to compress or not compress the file transfer from the Agent directory to the Collection directory. For more information, see Agent Properties - Trace Options tab. 

There are no new features in this release.

There are no new features in this release.

General issues

• Resolved the issue where the SQL Compliance Manager did not recognize a GMSA account as a Trusted user when adding the account as part of a group.
• Resolved the issue which caused the cluster setup installation to perform a fresh installation instead of asking users to upgrade the agent service.
• Resolved the issue where SQL Compliance Manager could not establish a connection with the AG databases on the Secondary nodes where no read access is allowed. SQL Compliance Manager successfully populates the list of AG databases to be configured for auditing on the Secondary nodes.
• Resolved the issue where configuring Sensitive Column auditing caused the SQLcompliance Agent to have problems creating the sp_SQLcompliance_Audit  stored procedure.
• Resolved the issue with the Daily Audit Activity Statistics Report which displayed an error message due to a missing component. The Daily Audit Activity Statistics Report runs successfully.

General

Supports SQL Server 2019

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.7 now supports the installation of the Database Repository for the Collection Server, deployment of the SQL Compliance Manager Agent, and auditing events for SQL Server 2019. For more information, see Software requirements. 

Supports Windows Server 2019

The user can install IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.7 and deploy the SQL Compliance Manager Agent in Windows Server 2019. For more information, see Software requirements.  

Reports

New Reports

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.7 includes the Server Activity Report, which allows users to view the SQL Server activity at the enterprise and at the individual instance levels. With this report, users can quickly check activity in each event category audited and view statistics of the SQL Server activity. For more information, see Server Activity Report Card.

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.7 includes the Privileged/Trusted Users Report for users to list the trusted and privileged user roles set per a specific Server or Database. Users can run this report on Privileged and Trusted users to know what these were set to during a snapshot in time. For more information, see Privileged and Trusted Users Report.

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.7 includes the Sensitive Column/BAD Users Report which lists Sensitive Columns and Before-After data audit settings applied to the servers and databases in your environment. Users can run this report on Sensitive Columns and BAD auditing to know what these were set to during a snapshot in time. For more information, see Sensitive Columns and BAD Report.

Limit Report Access to specific users 

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.7 introduces the ability to restrict user access to certain SQL CM reports. As an administrator, you can grant users permission to specific reports. This way, you can tightly control permissions settings for report access for every user in your environment. For more information, see Login properties - Report Access. 

Report Filter improvements

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.7 brings updates and improvements to reports by making reports more consistent and adding new filter options, such as the ability to filter reports based on a specific schema, event type, login, or multiple logins at a time. Users can also use the time range filters to report on the exact high activity time-frames or to filter out low activity time-frames.

General issues

• The Object Activity Report no longer renders all data on a single page, and when run, the report displays the collected data correctly. 

General

Sensitive Column Search

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6.1 introduces the Sensitive Column Search functionality, allowing you to search all of the tables and columns on a targeted database to discover the sensitive data location that needs to be audited. For more information, see  Sensitive Column Search window.  

Installation and Configuration issues

• Resolved the issue where the Stored Procedure did not get disabled for the secondary node, which caused an accumulation of trace files on the secondary node.
• Resolved the issue which caused DML/SELECT filter settings to import incorrectly.
• Resolved the issue where an error message appeared in the SQL Server Logs about an invalid call to stored procedure master.dbo.sp_SQLcompliance_AuditXE .

General

Capture Logout Events

Currently, SQL Compliance Manager captures Logins and Failed Logins; with SQL CM version 5.6, users have the ability to capture Logouts as a separate tracking option for their registered servers and for their configured Server Level Privileged Users.

Default Audit Configuration Settings

SQL Compliance Manager provides users with the capability to set up a single Server default setting and a single Database default setting. Allowing users to set up newly added Servers and Databases with their exact desired settings. Users also have the ability to apply those default settings to already registered Servers and Databases. By default, SQL CM provides users with the Idera Default Settings, which are a set of basic settings to help users start auditing from the moment a Server is registered. For more information about this feature, see Default Audit Settings

Add Databases Automatically

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 provides users with the ability to enable their Server Instances to automatically add any new database that is created on an audited server. For more information about this feature, see Registered SQL Server Properties - Advanced tab.

Configurations Clarifications

Compliance Manager version 5.6 improved the configurations setting to help users have a clear understanding of what is being audited at the Server level and what is being audited at the Database level. Implementing a new logic that shows items checked and unavailable for deselection at the Database level since those items are already selected at the Server level.

Server-Level Trusted Users

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 allows users to configure Trusted Users at the Server level. Trusted Users designated at the Server level will apply across all databases in the selected server, giving users a greater control over who is monitored at what level. For more information, see Trusted Users at Server level.

Sensitive Columns Auditing

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 updated the Sensitive Column functionality in order to alert users if PII data is selected or altered. To know if such data has been accessed, users can choose to collect information for Select Only, Selects, and DML or for All Activity. 

Web Console Updates

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 removed all the configuration settings from the Web Console to help users have a greater control over who can change audit data while still allowing granted users to view the information being audited. Centralizing the setting configurations to the Desktop Console only, makes the Web Console a place where Auditors and Executives can easily use Reports and Alerts to see the information that they need to see.  

Log File

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 includes a new Log file that keeps track of the product ́s versions and upgrades. The new Log file, found in the SQL CM installation folder, help users track the timelines for upgrade versions.

Non-sysadmin

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 provides users with the ability to register a non-sysadmin role with permission to run the Compliance Manager Agent and permission to access the trace files.  

Increase the number of threads processed

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 added the option to adjust the number of threads that can be used to process trace files at a time. 

Regulatory Guidelines

GDPR Regulation

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 added the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guideline to the selectable list of regulatory guidelines, providing users with the option to select GDPR guideline and comply with their auditing needs. For more information about this feature, see Comply with Specific Regulations. 

Reports

Configuration Check Report

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 implemented the Configuration Check Report, which allows users to compare the settings configured on the registered servers and databases with the previously defined default settings. This report allows users to quickly identify where settings may vary from what is defined as the default settings as well as to identify the differences in the configurations across your registered servers and databases. For more information about this feature, see Available Reports.

Regulation Compliance Check Report

SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 implemented the Regulation Compliance Check Report, which allows users to review the configurations set for all registered servers and databases and determine if settings comply with the selected Regulatory Guideline. This report compares the server and database configured settings to the predefined settings for any IDERA supported Regulation Guideline. For more information about this feature, see Available Reports.

Installation and Configuration issues

• SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 resolved the issue where the Compliance Manager Windows Console rebooted after installing or upgrading the SQL Server 2012 Native client version. 
• Resolved an issue where SQL Compliance Manager recorded Create/Drop index events as “Alter User Table” events.
• SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 implemented updates in the Sensitive Column functionality which resolved the issue where Sensitive Column events were not displayed if accessed from a view.
• Resolved an issue where SQL Compliance Manager was not capturing BAD auditing information when two objects with the same name exist in the same schema.
• SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 resolved the issue where SQL Statements for DDL activities was not getting captured.
•  SQL Compliance Manager version 5.6 resolved the issue which did not allow users to remove a database from the Administration pane. 
• Resolved an issue where users were able to register active audited databases to archived SQL Servers.
• Resolved an issue where the Capture SQL statements for DDL activities and Security Changes option could not be selected unless the Database Definition (DDL) option was saved first. 
• Resolved the issue where no events got captured for traces performed by non-privileged users.
• Resolved the issue where using encrypted credentials to deploy SQL Compliance Manager performing a silent installation returned an authentication error message. 

• Resolved the issue where SQL Compliance Manager was not able to process alerts when a Group of users is set as a Privileged User.

There are no new features in this release

Administration issues

• IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5.1 process version 4.5 traces files. After upgrading the Collection Server to version 5.5.1, the agent must be upgraded to the same version. Once both the Agent and the Collection Server upgrades are complete, SQL Compliance Manager will process trace files. For more information, see Upgrade to this build.

• Resolved an issue in which the SQL Compliance Manager Collection Server was not processing trace files, or was processing them slowly, causing backlog files to get accumulated in the Collection Trace Directory in large transactional databases.

• IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5.1 installation no longer fails if TLS 1.0 is disabled and if SQL Server 2012 Native Client is not available.

• IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5.1 no longer shows the "Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint" error nor terminates the statement when performing an archive of a highly transactional database. 

• Integrity check runs for archived databases performed through stored procedures. 

• IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5.1 installation no longer fails due to an error setting up permissions if the username used special characters (e.g. ",", space characters, etc.).

• IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5.1 supports user names longer than 20 characters as well as special characters for the user's password, such as £.

Includes updated and new regulation guidelines

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5 includes updates on PCI DSS and HIPAA regulation guidelines templates. It also includes new sets of regulation guidelines, allowing users to perform data audits according the corresponding security rules.

The new regulation guidelines are the following:

• Defense Information Security Agency (DISA STIG)
• North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)
• Center for Internet Security (CIS)
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

For more information about this feature, see Comply with specific Regulations.

Auditing available via SQL Server Audit Logs

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5 includes the ability to track your alerts via SQL Server Audit Logs for Agents running on SQL Server 2017 or above. Users can now decide if they want to track events via Trace Files, Extended Events (SQL Server 2015 and above) or Audit Logs (SQL Server 2017 and above). This new feature is supported in both the Web console and the Windows Management Console.

For more information about this feature, see Using SQL Server Audit Logs.

Includes a Row Count feature

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5 includes the row count feature which captures and reports on the frequency that users access Event types and SQL Statements, alerting database administrators about suspicious behavior.

For more information about this feature, see Control data access - Row count.

Enable SQL Extended Events Auditing from the Windows Management Console

SQL Extended Events auditing can now be enabled from both the Web Console and the Windows Management Console.

For more information about this feature, see Using SQL Server Extended Events. 

Supports SQL Server 2017

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5 now supports the installation of the Database Repository for Collection Server, deployment of the SQL Compliance Manager Agent, and auditing events for SQL Server 2017.

For more information, see Software requirements. 

Supports Windows Server 2016

The user can install IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5 and deploy the SQL Compliance Manager Agent in Windows Server 2016. 

For more information, see Software requirements.  

Allows users to create Sensitive Column data sets

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5 allows users to create Sensitive Column data sets that can be monitored as a group of sensitive information. Users can also add Sensitive Column data sets to any regulation guideline applied in servers or databases. 

For more information, see Sensitive Column window. 

BAD Alerts

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5 allows users to add Host Name, Login, and Before-After data values to the alert message templates.

Agent Deployment method

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5 allows users to see the agent deployment method in the Registered SQL Servers window of the Administration view.

Allows users to install or upgrade on a non-default drive

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.5 allows users to install and/or upgrade in a non-default drive path. 

Administration issues

• Audit thresholds appear enabled in the ReportCard even after removing and/or archiving an instance.     
• SQL Compliance Manager 5.5 no longer fails to reach the Collection service on the active node after a successful failover in a clustered environment. 
• Resolved the issue preventing SQL Scripts files with Supplementary Characters to work on the Collation SQL Server.  
• Resolved the issue causing unexpected behavior during the manual upgrade of the SQL Compliance Manager Agent on a remote machine.
• Resolved an issue causing overwritten permissions on the Agent Trace folder after deploying the SQL Compliance Manager Agent. 

Auditing issues

• SQL Compliance Manager Agent no longer recreates stored procedures every second.
• Resolved an issue in which SQL Compliance Manager was not showing Before-After data when enabling capture DML events using Extended Events. 
• Resolved an issue causing DDL Events to display twice for the same event. 
• Resolved an issue in which SQL Compliance Manager was not saving changes made in privileged users when applying regulation guidelines.
• Resolved the issue preventing the user to capture SQL Statements for DDL and Security changes.
• Resolved the issue preventing the capture of Before-After Data when using Extended Events auditing to capture DML events.

Reporting issues

• Email notifications for Event Alerts now display the date and time in the Collection Server time zone. 

• SQL Compliance Manager alerts users about the limit of SQL Statements when exporting reports. 

• Resolved an issue preventing users to view and report on audit data or see events. 

Supports TLS 1.2 with SQL CM 5.4.2

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.4.2 includes support for Transport Layer Security (TLS) version 1.2. The TLS protocol provides encryption, authentication, and data privacy and integrity when transferring information over a network, including VPN, VOIP, and instant messaging.

Administration issues

• Resolved an issue causing both Primary and Secondary nodes to list the AlwaysOn database as Secondary.
• Resolved an issue preventing email from working for certain servers and types of events.

Auditing issues

• Resolved an issue preventing audit of the Availabiity Group listener if a non-default port is used.
• Database-level Privileged User Auditing settings are no longer overwritten by instance-level Privileged User Auditing settings.
• Resolved the following integrity check issues:
  • users received an integrity check issue message although the scheduled integrity checks all passed
  • SQL Server startup events caused an integrity check failure
  • Integrity checks didn't match the Audit events in the SQLCM Repository
• Resolved an issue causing the database name to return blank for Login Events in some places.
• SELECT statements no longer appear as UPDATE statements.
• Resolved an error that occurred when the eventId reached the max limit of Integer. The error was, "Cannot insert duplicate key row in object 'dbo.Events' with unique index 'IX_Events_eventId'.
• No longer generates the Column Value Changed Data alert twice for Before-After auditing events.
• Resolved an issue causing an error when updating a table that contains an image and the table name contains a hyphen.
• The default Events view now displays data for a single day rather than 30 days.
• Resolved an issue preventing the proper function of the Exporting/Importing Database DML Filter audit settings.

Archiving issues

• During archiving, users no longer receive a "Violation of PRIMARY KEY" error during archiving.

Reporting issues

• Resolved an issue that prevented users from running the DML Activity (Before-After) report.

Improves archiving through the availability of SQL Server Extended Events

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.4 includes support for event handling with SQL Server Extended Events. This optional feature is available for use in auditing instead of using SQL Trace. Running Extended Events offers a performance improvement over the default SQL Trace audit event gathering system and is available for instances running SQL Server 2012 and later. For more information about using the Extended Events option, see Using SQL Server Extended Events.

Includes new Sensitive Column Search

Included in this release is integration with a free tool from IDERA called SQL Column Search. Available from the IDERA SQL Compliance Manager Instance Details view, this feature allows you to search tables and columns on a targeted database to discover the location of sensitive data needing to be audited. For more information about using the Sensitive Column Search, see Sensitive Column Search window.

Offers SQL Compliance Manager Windows Console functionality in the Web Console

The following features, previously available only through the IDERA SQL Compliance Manager Windows Console now are available in the Web Console as well:

• Importing sensitive columns
• Importing audit settings including instance and database templates
• Exporting audit settings including instance and database templates

Includes updated regulatory guideline templates

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager includes a number of regulatory guideline templates for customer use. IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.4 includes updates for these templates. For more information about this feature, see Comply with specific regulations.

Installation and upgrade issues

• Enabled Capture Transaction Status for DML Activity no longer replaces SQL statement values with variables.
• This release resolves an issue that prevented auditing when two tables has the same name but different schema
• An error no longer occurs while updating the audit configuration file due to duplicate database IDs.
• Improves Collection Server performance while processing trace files.
• Corrects an issue preventing the Collection Trace directory from being created when the user chooses a non-default installation path.
• IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.3 now supports SQL Compliance Manager Agent silent installation.
• Resolves an issue causing heartbeat alerts for instances after they are archived.
• Resolves an error that appeared when a user added privileged users while applying a custom Audit Collection Level.
• Fixed an error causing the collection of non-audited database data when Capture SQL statements for DML and SELECT activity is enabled.
• Before-After data now works during an update when auditing selected columns.
• Non-AlwaysOn Availability Group databases can no longer be added to an AG server for auditing.
• Resolves an issue causing an invalid object name error with 'sys.dm_os_window_info' for SQL Server 2005 agents.

Supports SQL Server 2016

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.3.1 and later support audited and collection servers using Microsoft SQL Server 2016. For more information about supported platforms, see Software requirements.

There are no fixed issues in this release.

Expanded the SQL Compliance Manager Web console to provide a richer set of capabilities online

IDERA SQL Compliance Manager 5.3 continues to build on the work developed by prior versions to bring a richer set of capabilities to the web console. New web capabilities include:

• an ability to set up notifications for auditing thresholds; allowing a user to set up a threshold and select the delivery method such as email, Windows event log, or SNMP traps.
• additional views such as the Enhanced Audited Database, Enhanced Alert, and New Logs views.
• the ability to export views to PDF, CSV, and XML formats.
• additional new widgets that show different activities and audited SQL Server instances.

Integration with IDERA Dashboard 2.2

IDERA Dashboard integration began with SQL Compliance Manager 5.0, which centralizes the common administration, tasks, and views across all IDERA SQL products. This release of SQL Compliance Manager expands this integration by supporting IDERA Dashboard 2.2, which includes the following widgets specific to SQL Compliance Manager:

• SQL Compliance Manager Audited Instances Widget. Displays a list of audited SQL Server instances.
• SQL Compliance Manager Enterprise Activity Report Card. Displays your SQL Compliance Manager enterprise activity in a line graph.

For more information about using SQL Compliance Manager widgets within the IDERA Dashboard, see Overview tab.

Limited Support for SQL Server 2016

IDERA supports installation of SQL Compliance Manager 5.3 on Microsoft SQL Server 2016 with limited technical support. Full technical support is available a short period after SQL Server 2016 is generally available.

General

• Resolved an issue that did not properly update group permissions after modification and honored group settings over the individual user account in some situations.
• Improved Permissions Check functionality to prevent false or inconsistent results.

Installation

• Renamed the SQL Compliance Processing database from SQLCompliance.Processing to SQLComplianceProcessing.
• Corrected an issue preventing the ... button from properly working in the Add SQL Compliance Manager Agent Service window on Windows 2012/2012 R2 installations.

Licensing

• Resolved an issue causing users with AlwaysOn Availability Groups to receive a message that the maximum number of servers is reached while they actually had less than that limit.

Services

• Improved the Collection Service performance to be able to process a substantially large number of trace files.

Auditing

• SQL Compliance Manager now can log events that are accessed through a view.
• Sensitive column traces no longer include events from databases not configured for sensitive column auditing.
• Resolved an issue that prevented SQL Compliance Manager from discovering and auditing new users added to the list of Trusted Users / Privileged Users within a domain group without manually updating the audit settings.
• Exported audit settings now include database level privileged users.

Fully supports the SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups feature 

SQL Compliance Manager 5.0 now allows DBAs to monitor their availability groups, availability replicas, and availability databases through AlwaysOn Availability in SQL Server 2012 and newer. AlwaysOn automatically switches auditing from the primary to the secondary replica in the event of failure as well as failback to primary when it comes back online. This advantage prevents a loss of audit data trail in the event of failure.

Support for this feature also comes with:

• An Availability Group Statistics report that allows you view the historical health of your availability groups, availability replicas, and availability databases.
• An Availability Group Topology report that allows you to view the current topology of your availability groups configuration.
• Monitoring of key metrics specific to the AlwaysOn Availability Groups feature.
• Queue Size and Transfer Rates charts.

For additional information on SQL Compliance Manager and the AlwaysOn Availability Groups feature, see Enable automatic failover using AlwaysOn Availability Groups.

Offers a technology preview of a new web-based SQL Compliance Manager Dashboard

Along with the integration of the IDERA Dashboard, SQL Compliance Manager 5.0 includes a preview of a newly-designed web console that offers quick views of key audit trail activities on your SQL Servers from any web browser. Identify key compliance issues quickly and provide an easy access point to non-DBAs without giving them access to the entire Management Console.

Added integration with the IDERA Dashboard

SQL Compliance Manager 5.0 now integrates with the IDERA Dashboard, a common technology framework designed to support the IDERA product suite. Users are able to obtain an overview of the status of their SQL Servers and hosted databases all in a consolidated view and navigate to individual product dashboards for details. The IDERA Dashboard provides a central set of services for managing users, product registry, instance registry, aggregated alerts across IDERA applications, a central web server, and tags for grouping instances. For more information about the IDERA Dashboard, see Navigate the IDERA Dashboard Web Console.

Moved to the Windows .NET 4.0 framework

SQL Compliance Manager 5.0 supports Microsoft Windows operating systems using .NET 4.0. Note that .NET 4.0 or later must be installed on the audited server. For more information about requirements, see Software requirements.

• Active Trace is now properly cleared when necessary.
• A change to the SQL Compliance Manager login filter settings from minutes to seconds fixes an issue that allowed new user events such as failed login attempts to be missed in reports.
• You can now view Reports in .CSV format.
• SQL Compliance Manager 5.0 includes an update that clarifies alert email triggers when users to have two alert rules for Sensitive Columns.
• SQL Compliance Manager no longer displays conflicting data by including a fix that forces the collection of object names while processing trace file records.
• Regular user accounts are no longer able to capture SQL text used in admin activities without enabling additional options.
• When you have multiple columns selected for a particular table in Before-After Data (BAD), SQL Compliance Manager no longer labels events that update other columns as BAD events.
• SQL Compliance Manager now includes descriptions for ALTER ANY SCHEMA and ALTER ANY USER in the tracejob.cs file.
• The permissions check process is updated in SQL Compliance Manager 5.0 to avoid any issues when performing a check.
• Event types 158 and 258 now include expanded details that display when these types of events occur.
• SQL Compliance Manager Integrity Check now properly tracks and reports on deleted rows.