Security bulletin: Improve manageability through event logs

An important part of the three traditions of computing security is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. When it comes to usability, I usually talk about threats that are easier to identify (for example, denial of service attacks), but it's far more than that to achieve availability. Applications that require high availability must be able to handle exceptional situations. If there is a problem, the administrator must be able to quickly select a set of solutions. Designed to take into account the manageability of applications often have higher availability, partly because administrators can always understand the health of the application. When a problem does occur, a manageable application tells the administrator how to solve the problem, rather than simply giving the stack trace that the developer needs to analyze.

You may have heard about the dynamic Systems Management Program (DSI) advocated by Microsoft (MICROSOFT.COM/DSI). This vision enables us to design applications using tools and languages such as System Definition Model (SDM) and Service Model language (SML) to build applications that are easier to deploy and manage. The Distributed System Designer provided by Visual Studio®team System (formerly code-named "Whitehorse" (msdn2.microsoft.com/ms181778.aspx) is a good example of the development direction of the vision. But this is only an early attempt. Currently, developers need some practical guidance to build manageable systems.

IT Pros are also users

I recently took the time to chat with David Aiken, a Microsoft developer and technology advocate who is passionate about building manageable software. What he said was really on the nail: "Developers should treat IT pros as users of their software." He pointed out that when we were designing the layout of Windows forms or Web pages, we made a great effort, and then we raised the question "Why can't we do the same with the design of error messages published in the event log?" ”。

David does have a sense. IT professionals are not only users of the software, but they are operated and managed throughout the lifecycle of the software. Further simplifying the work of IT professionals is important not only in terms of usability, but also as a fan of the system administrator is likely to help you sell the next version of your product. There are few applications currently designed to promote operability, and this is an area where competitive advantage can be gained.

Over the past few years, I have witnessed the tremendous strides Microsoft has made in building more secure software, including tools and blueprints for building a threat model. Now, with more stringent security controls, the company's focus seems to be shifting towards manageability. If you're lucky, you may hear about Microsoft's introduction of the Health modeling tool at the time this article is published.

At the same time, I'll introduce the most basic questions about management: event logging. I will focus on how to better use the event logs provided by the Microsoft®.net Framework in Windows server®2003.