SharePoint® 2010 Administration: Instant Reference

Manage Auditing and Audit Reports

The ability to record and report the actions that users take in SharePoint is vital for establishing a strong monitoring plan for SharePoint. As an example of where this applies, consider that if the item is deleted and then purged by SharePoint after 30 days (which is the default) there would be no record of who had deleted the item once it is no longer in the recycle bin. Another example is monitoring who has viewed or opened a file but not modified it. In situations where it must be established whether a person had gained access to certain information, this record becomes invaluable. The SharePoint 2010 auditing feature allows administrators to capture user actions on sites, including the lists, libraries, ...