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Admin log events

Audit & investigation page: View administrator activity in the Admin console
The audit log page has been replaced with a new audit and investigation page. For information about this change, go to Improved audit and investigation experience: What's new in Google Workspace

You can use the audit and investigation page to run searches related to Admin log events. There you can view a record of actions performed in your Google Admin console, such as when an administrator added a user or turned on a Google Workspace service. 

For a full list of services and activities that you can investigate, such as Google Drive or user activity, read through the About the audit and investigation tool.

Forward log event data to Google Cloud

You can opt in to share the log event data with Google Cloud. If you turn on sharing, data is forwarded to Cloud Logging where you can query and view your logs and control how you route and store your logs.

Open the audit and investigation page

Access Admin log event data

  1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

    Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

  2. In the Admin console, go to Menu and then Reportingand thenAudit and investigationand thenAdmin log events.

Filter the data

  1. Access the Admin log event data as described above in Access Admin log event data.
  2. Click Add a filter, and then select an attribute.
  3. In the pop-up window, select an operatorand thenselect a valueand thenclick Apply.
  4. (Optional) To create multiple filters for your search:
    1. Click Add a filter and repeat step 3.
    2. (Optional) To add a search operator, above Add a filter, select AND or OR.
  5. Click Search.

Note: Using the Filter tab, you can include simple parameter and value pairs to filter the search results. You can also use the Condition builder tab, where the filters are represented as conditions with AND/OR operators.

Attribute descriptions

For this data source, you can use the following attributes when searching log event data:

Attribute Description
Action(s)* Action(s) taken by the admin using the security investigation tool, or using an activity rule. For details about the actions an admin can take, go to Take action based on search results
Actor

Email address of the user who performed the action. Instead of an email address, you might see: 

  • License manager—If an admin action triggers a change to a user’s license
  • Service account—If the action was performed by a service account admin
  • Anonymous—If the action was performed by a service account admin
Actor group name

Group name of the actor. For more information, go to Filtering results by Google Group.

To add a group to your filtering groups allowlist:

  1. Select Actor group name.
  2. Click Filtering groups.
    The Filtering groups page displays.
  3. Click Add Groups.
  4. Search for a group by entering the first few characters of its name or email address. When you see the group you want, select it.
  5. (Optional) To add another group, search for and select the group.
  6. When you finish selecting groups, click Add.
  7. (Optional) To remove a group, click Remove group .
  8. Click Save.
Actor organizational unit Organizational unit of the actor
Additional information Additional contextual information for the event
Begin date* Use Begin date and End date to filter events that include a specific begin and end date range, such as Chart Drilldown events. Note: To search for events within a date range, use the Date attribute.
Data source* The data source in investigation tool or alert source in alert center
Date Date and time of the event (displayed in your browser's default time zone)
Device ID* ID of the device affected by this audit event. For example, if an admin wipes out a company-owned device, then this field captures the device ID.
Device type Type of the device affected by this audit event. For example if an admin wipes out a company-owned device, then this field captures the device type
Domain name The domain where the action occurred
End date* Use Begin date and End date to filter events that include a specific begin and end date range, such as Chart Drilldown events. Note: To search for events within a date range, use the Date attribute.
Event

The logged event action, such as Investigation Query or Activity Rule Creation

Under Event value, the events are grouped by type, such as User Settings or Domain Settings. Most event values are self-explanatory. For example, Add Application, under Domain Settings, is a search value for an application that was added to your domain. You can search for events in the search box.

Tip: If you have event values that you use often, pin those events to the top of the drop-down menu. 

Google Workspace edition* Google Workspace edition for the admin (Actor) who performed the action

Group email

Email of the Google group affected by this activity
IP address Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the logged action. Usually reflects the user's physical location, but could be a proxy server or a virtual private network (VPN) address.
Justification* If justification text was required for the action, explanation provided by the admin
Message ID* Message ID of the email message that's affected by this audit event
New value* New value of the setting in case it’s updated
Old value* Old value of the setting in case it’s updated
Resource ID(s)* ID(s) of one or more resources affected by the audit event
Resource name* Name of the resource affected by the audit event
Resource type* Type of the resource affected by the audit event
Search query Query that is used to fetch or process data. For example, the query used in investigation tool search, when creating activity rules, or when creating email dump.
Setting name Name of the updated setting
Setting org unit name Settings in admin console can be scoped to an organizational unit. When a setting is updated and it’s scoped to an organizational unit, the organizational unit name is shown in this field.
Target* Target email address for the event. For example, the destination email address when creating an email monitor, or the verifier's email address when performing a bulk action in the investigation tool.
Total affected* Total number of entities that were affected by the audit event. For example, the number of users that were uploaded when bulk uploading users to a group, or the number of actions that were triggered as part of an activity rule trigger. This is a contextual field that depends on the event.
Total failed* Total number of failed operations. For example, the number of users that failed to upload when bulk uploading users to a group, or the number of actions that failed as part of an activity rule trigger. This is a contextual field that depends on the event.
User email Email of the user who performed the action
* You cannot create reporting rules with these filters. Learn more about reporting rules versus activity rules.

Note: If you gave a user a new name, you will not see query results with the user's old name. For example, if you rename OldName@example.com to NewName@example.com, you will not see results for events related to OldName@example.com.

Manage log event data

Manage search results column data

You can control which data columns appear in your search results.

  1. At the top-right of the search results table, click Manage columns .
  2. (Optional) To remove current columns, click Remove .
  3. (Optional) To add columns, next to Add new column, click the Down arrow  and select the data column.
    Repeat as needed.
  4. (Optional) To change the order of the columns, drag the data column names.
  5. Click Save.

Export search result data

  1. At the top of the search results table, click Export all.
  2. Enter a name and then click Export.
    The export displays below the search results table under Export action results.
  3. To view the data, click the name of your export.
    The export opens in Google Sheets.

Create reporting rules

Go to Create and manage reporting rules.

When and how long is data available?

Go to Data retention and lag times.

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