OMNIC Security Suite Distributed Option 1 Install for Two Different FT-IR spectrometers Sharing One Audit Database

Issue

A customer had two FT-IR instruments and wanted to have two separate secure data locations on their network server. They were using only one Audit Manager SQL Server database but had two separate Audit Log services communicating with the database. There were also two independent Security Administration programs running, one on each client PC controlling security for each spectrometer.

Intermittently the Audit Manager from one of the instruments would stop recording events and the error: “Cannot insert duplicate key in object ‘dbo.AuditEvent’. The duplicate key value is (4323).” would appear in the Windows Application event log.

Environment

Two different FT-IR spectrometers sharing one Audit Database

Resolution

The error message above is indicating that the Audit Log Service cannot record an event because it is trying to use an existing event ID number. Sharing one database with two separate clients (each running their own Security Administration) is causing a duplicate key ID to be used. One instrument’s audit events are getting written to the database, then when the other instrument tries sending events, it is behind on the record key ID and therefore cannot record the events because the ID already exists. Only after restarting the service does it catch up with the correct ID number, but as soon as the first computer records another event, it will be lost again. In the normal setup for a Distributed II or III installation, all client computers pass audit event information on to a single instance of the Thermo Scientific Audit Log Service, so only one service needs to keep track of the next key ID number. In the setup for this example, there are two instances of Audit Log Service trying to write to the same database, which is causing the conflict.

The solution for this type of setup is to use two separate SQL Server databases (one for each client computer). After creating a second database, configure one of the client computers to use the new database. This way each client is using their own database and there is no conflict with event ID numbers. The Audit Manager database can be configured by running the “C:\Program Files (x86)\Thermo Scientific\Audit Log Service\Configuration Utility.exe” program, and then adjusting the settings appropriately (may only need to chance the database name to reflect the new database that was created).