elvanja
Audit logging on stereoids?
We need to build an audit log solution that would keep all actions a user attempted to execute in the system, successfully or not. Hard requirement is that no audit log record should be lost (for compliance - a financial institution).
Related to logging mechanism, current idea is to just use Logger — Logger v1.17.3 and let the underlying infrastructure pick up audit logs and push them to Amazon Cloudwatch.
What I am worried about is that even though most specific log formatting and processing is done in caller process, we still have a small period of time when any audit log record would live as a message in the actual logger process which allows for logs to be lost, however small the chance for that. E.g. if application/container crashes for whatever reason, we may just loose those records that have not yet been submitted to the underlying system. If not mistaken, logger process is, well, a process, so all uncertainty of execution of specific message (log) applies.
What are your experiences with audit logs or even just reliability of Logger? Maybe this is a non issue and we should just proceed? Any suggestions / experience in how you solved such audit log issue in the past?
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LostKobrakai
Just to phrase what @tcoopman wrote a little differently: If that’s a hard requirements common logging facilities are unlikely what you want. Your auditing records would become business records like any other, which you want to store in a database, where you are in charge of knowing the constraints around data loss and working within them.
joddm
Probably wiser to use the db rather than Logging module
pgaudit/pgaudit: PostgreSQL Audit Extension
supabase/supa_audit: Generic Table Auditing
Postgres Auditing in 150 lines of SQL
dstockdale
If you’re auditing in the db it’s worth looking at GitHub - bitcrowd/carbonite: Audit trails for Elixir/PostgreSQL based on triggers as well.
As it uses triggers it will catch absolutely everything you do or try to do in the db. It does mean you’ll need to wrap everything in a transaction and it doesn’t solve capturing user actions that aren’t db based.
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