Notification and logging overview

The recipients and delivery method for certificate expiration notifications are defined in Notification and Channel objects. You must configure the Channel and Notification objects to send notifications for certificate expiration events.

Event logging and notifications are managed using Notification and Channel objects. Based on criteria you define in the Notification object, Trust Protection Platform selects specific types of events and sends those events to one or more designated channels.

Channel objects define the event output target. For example, the SMTP channel provides the information Trust Protection Platform needs to output an event to an email message; the SNMP channel defines the parameters required to output an event as an SNMP trap; and the File and MS SQL channels provide the information required to write events to a log store.

In addition to the Notification and Channel objects, you must configure your Venafi Log server and Log Store (Default SQL Channel object) to enable certificate expiration notifications and logging.

The Venafi Log server manages the flow of information to the Default SQL Channel object, interprets Notification Rules, and uses Channels to deliver events based on those rules. It receives incoming events, then logs all events to the Default SQL Channel to ensure there is a complete audit trail of all system operations and events. Once an event is logged to the Default SQL Channel, the Log server determines if the event matches the criteria of any notification rule. If there is a match, the Log server forwards the event to the appropriate channels.

The Default SQL Channel object is the central repository where the Venafi Log server writes all logging events. The Default SQL Channel is created during installation as a table in the Trust Protection Platform database; however, if you choose, you can use a database other than the Trust Protection Platform database as the Default SQL Channel.

The Venafi Log server, Notification and Channel objects, including the Default SQL Channel, are created and managed in the Logging tree. The Logging tree provides a comprehensive view of the Trust Protection Platform notification system and is the control center for all system logging and notification activities.