Change Tracking in TMG
Change Tracking is a feature which keeps a log of TMG configuration changes. It was first introduced in ISA2006 SP1, and now it's included in TMG as well. If you're not familiar with it, you can read about it in the ISA2006 SP1 document, or in the related blog entries.
Change Tracking is, of course, improved in TMG:
- Change Tracking is now on by default. Therefore, the common usage instructions become:
1. Go to Change Tracking tab and look at the log.
2. There is no step 2.
You can still disable Change Tracking, though we expect few people would do that.
- Change Description prompt is also on by default, with a "Don't show this prompt again" checkbox. If you check it, and later change your mind, you can re-enable prompts from the Change Tracking tab, under Configure Change Tracking.
- This prompt setting is saved in the user profile, so if you manage your TMG from multiple user accounts or consoles, you'll need to disable this prompt in each one separately.
- TMG now logs import operations. If you import a file and then apply, the resulting Change Tracking entry will say "Imported file: c:\myfile.xml", followed by the actual changes resulting from the imported file (and subsequent UI changes).
- Official API*.
- Includes ClearLog (which would still leave a note that you cleared the log - you can't cover your tracks so easily!).
- Includes WriteLogToFile, which is a handy way to save the file, and saves you a few lines of vbScript.
- You can now add custom descriptions to changes made in scripts.
The following blog posts are updated with samples using the new API - look for [TMG update] in them. Notice how the scripts become shorter once you don't need to mess around with VPSs!
Happy logging!
* The TMG Beta3 SDK still lacks documentation of this API - documentation will be added at a later release.
-Jonathan Barner, TMG Customer Satisfaction Team