Do SET_AUDIT_TRAIL_LOCATION before INIT_CLEANUP

This is all old stuff, but I want to record a simple thing I found. I was following Oracle’s support document for setting up audit table cleanup using the DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT package. I used this document:

SCRIPT: Basic example to manage AUD$ table with dbms_audit_mgmt (Doc ID 1362997.1)

This is a very helpful document, but the example script runs DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.INIT_CLEANUP before it runs DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.SET_AUDIT_TRAIL_LOCATION and it moves the audit tables SYS.AUD$ first to the SYSAUX tablespace and then to a newly created AUDIT_DATA tablespace. My simple thought is to run SET_AUDIT_TRAIL_LOCATION first to move SYS.AUD$ to AUDIT_DATA and then run INIT_CLEANUP which leaves SYS.AUD$ in AUDIT_DATA. Nothing monumental, but it seems more efficient to move the audit table once.

I did a couple of quick tests on an 18c database to demonstrate that SYS.AUD$ only moves once with SET_AUDIT_TRAIL_LOCATION first.

Test1: Follow the order in the Oracle document:

Before starting:

SQL> select
  2  tablespace_name
  3  from dba_tables
  4  where
  5  owner='SYS' and
  6  table_name='AUD$';

TABLESPACE_NAME
------------------------------
SYSTEM

Create tablespace:

SQL> CREATE TABLESPACE AUDIT_DATA LOGGING
DATAFILE '/oracle/db01/DBA18C/dbf/audit_data_1.dbf'
SIZE 100M
AUTOEXTEND OFF;  2    3    4

Tablespace created.

Do INIT:

SQL> BEGIN
  2  IF NOT DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.IS_CLEANUP_INITIALIZED
  3  (DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.AUDIT_TRAIL_AUD_STD)
  4  THEN
  5  dbms_output.put_line('Calling DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.INIT_CLEANUP');
  6  DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.INIT_CLEANUP(
  7  audit_trail_type => dbms_audit_mgmt.AUDIT_TRAIL_AUD_STD,
  8  default_cleanup_interval => 24*7);
  9  else
 10  dbms_output.put_line('Cleanup for STD was already initialized');
 11  end if;
 12  end;
 13  /
Calling DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.INIT_CLEANUP

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Table in SYSAUX:

SQL> select
  2  tablespace_name
  3  from dba_tables
  4  where
  5  owner='SYS' and
  6  table_name='AUD$';

TABLESPACE_NAME
------------------------------
SYSAUX

Set the new table location:

SQL> begin
  2  DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.SET_AUDIT_TRAIL_LOCATION(
  3  audit_trail_type => dbms_audit_mgmt.AUDIT_TRAIL_AUD_STD,
  4  audit_trail_location_value => 'AUDIT_DATA') ;
  5  end;
  6  /

Table is in AUDIT_DATA (moved twice SYSTEM->SYSAUX->AUDIT_DATA):

SQL> select
  2  tablespace_name
  3  from dba_tables
  4  where
  5  owner='SYS' and
  6  table_name='AUD$';

TABLESPACE_NAME
------------------------------
AUDIT_DATA

Test2: Reverse the order in the Oracle document:

First, I restored my database to its original condition:

SQL> select
  2  tablespace_name
  3  from dba_tables
  4  where
  5  owner='SYS' and
  6  table_name='AUD$';

TABLESPACE_NAME
------------------------------
SYSTEM

After creating the tablespace again, I ran set the trail location and the table is now in AUDIT_DATA:

SQL> select
  2  tablespace_name
  3  from dba_tables
  4  where
  5  owner='SYS' and
  6  table_name='AUD$';

TABLESPACE_NAME
------------------------------
AUDIT_DATA

Next, I do the init and the table does not move:

SQL> select
  2  tablespace_name
  3  from dba_tables
  4  where
  5  owner='SYS' and
  6  table_name='AUD$';

TABLESPACE_NAME
------------------------------
AUDIT_DATA

So, I am not sure why Oracle’s document has you do INIT_CLEANUP before SET_AUDIT_TRAIL_LOCATION but it seems more efficient to do them in the reverse order and move SYS.AUD$ once, from SYSTEM to AUDIT_DATA.

Bobby