Insight into Architecture and Workflow

To get started faster, gain some insights into how Cygna Auditor works and what you'd better have in hand before you install and start using the product.

Workflow

If you take a closer look at your journey with Cygna Auditor, you will discover that it consists of the following simple stages:

  1. Checking prerequisites. Make sure you have enough resources before you proceed with installation. For more information, see Planning Deployment.
  2. Installation. For more information, see Installation. If you want to leverage CA&SS (former PowerBroker Management Suite), install it as well.
  3. Complete the initial configuration wizard. See Configuration Wizard.
  4. Setting up audit. Once the product is up and running, start collecting audit data for the systems are you are interested in (e.g., Active Directory). Note that for most sources, you have to adjust some settings to enable Cygna Auditor to collect audit events. For more information, see Auditing Settings.
  5. Administration. Dive deep into the product administration. Delegate access to your authorized personnel, manage licenses, etc. For more information, see Administration.
  6. Basic auditing. Every so often, review out-of-the-box reports to validate compliance with various standards or use auditing search to investigate potential threats and address risks immediately. For more information, see Auditing & Tools.
  7. Advanced auditing. As you get to know Cygna Auditor better, configure alerts to be notified if something goes wrong in your environment, start creating reports tailored to your organization's specific needs. For more information, see Auditing & Tools.

Architecture

Cygna Auditor is designed as a client-server application that supports distributed deployment. Basically, Cygna Auditor consists of the following components:

  • Cygna Auditor platform—a server part responsible for data collection and processing.
  • Cygna Auditor web-console—a web-based client interface for managing the Cygna Auditor platform and viewing collected audit data. The client website is hosted on the same server where Cygna Auditor platform is installed but all users in your company can access it through a browser. Depending on the role in the product, users are granted permissions to access certain product functionality.
  • Database—SQL Server-based storage of audit data. For better performance, Cygna Labs recommends deploying a SQL Server instance on a separate server.
  • Cygna Auditing & Security Suite (former PowerBroker Management Suite)—stand-alone management console products that integrate smoothly with Cygna Auditor and provide extended auditing functionality.

Additional Components

Cygna Auditor relies on the following additional components. While some components are vitally important for the product operability, it is up to you to decide on some others.

COMPONENT

DESCRIPTION

MANDATORY

Active Directory

Ensures that users in your organization—within your corporate domain—can access Cygna Auditor web-console through their browsers.

Note: To ensure data security, users must be delegated appropriate access rights in the product. For more information, see Delegation.

Yes

SQL Server

Stores audit data collected by Cygna Auditor.

Yes

IIS web server

Hosts Cygna Auditor web-console.

Yes

SMTP server

Enables email notifications within the product. As an SMTP server, you can your on-premises mail server or any public SMTP server (e.g., Gmail, etc.).

No

Cygna Labs recommends you to set up all required components before you install Cygna Auditor. Refer to System Requirements for more information about the additional components and their system requirements.

Note: For more information about Cygna Auditing & Security Suite (former PowerBroker Management Suite), including system requirements, installation procedures, and configuration steps, please refer to CA&SS documentation.