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Access Reviews

Netwrix Auditor supports integration with Netwrix Auditor Access Reviews, which enables business owners to conduct resource and group reviews and recommend changes. The integration is available for the following data sources:

  • Active Directory
  • Dell Data Storage (only Unity family)
  • NetApp
  • Nutanix Files
  • Qumulo
  • SharePoint Online
  • Synology
  • Windows File Servers

Getting Started​

This workflow assumes you already have Netwrix Auditor installed with configured monitoring plans for a supported data source.

NOTE: Access Reviews is a separately licensed product and isn't included with Netwrix Auditor. ensure that you have the Access Reviews license enabled in Auditor.

See the Licenses topic for additional information.

Remember, there is one single Access Review license for all data sources that can send data to the application.

To use Netwrix Auditor Access Reviews with Auditor, complete the following steps.

Step 1 – Install Access Reviews on the same computer where Netwrix Auditor is installed. See the Installation Overview topic for prerequisites and additional information.

Step 2 – Configure Access Reviews. The Configuration interface is only available to users with the Administrator role. See the Administrator Overview topic for configuration settings and enabling user access.

Step 3 – Use the Access reviews configuration tool to set up the data flow from the Auditor database to the Access Reviews database. See the Select Data Sources topic for additional information.

NOTE: Data upload speed depends on the amount of collected data and Auditor collectors configuration.

Step 4 – Configure resource ownership through the Access Reviews Console. The Resource Owners interface is available to users with either the Security Team or Administrator role. Managing ownership is core component for the Access Reviews workflow. See the Resource Owners Overview topic for additional information.

NOTE: The Owners & Access Reviews topic and subtopics are written for the assigned owners. You can distribute the URL to this topic or download a PDF to be distributed to your assigned resource owners.

Step 5 – Configure and run reviews. The Entitlement Reviews interface is available to users with either the Security Team or Administrator role. See the Reviews Overview topic for additional information.

Netwrix Auditor Access Reviews is now configured and ready to use.

Considerations & Limitations​

Review the following considerations:

  1. Enabling State-in-Time data collection for your monitoring plans option isn't required for the integration works properly.

  2. Auditor updates the collected data at least once a day.

  3. If you delete a monitoring plan or a data source with enabled integration, Auditor removes all collected data from the Access Reviews database.

  4. If errors occur during the upload of data to the Access Reviews database, Auditor logs these errors in the Netwrix Auditor Health Log and text log files; these errors don't affect the status of items and data sources in Auditor.

  5. Permissions-related considerations:

    • For Windows File Servers, permission data for all items in this data source is sent to the Access Reviews application;
    • Only effective top-level permissions are sent (share+NTFS);
    • Permission data is sent per file server (entirely for each server);
    • Transfer of permission data to the Access Reviews application starts when you enable the integration for a data source.

  6. For File Server Auditing (FSA) data sources, the default permission upload limit is 200,000 per data collection cycle, with a configurable maximum of 800,000. Exceeding these limits causes upload failures. Before enabling the integration for FSA plans, verify your permission count using the AIC Resource Estimation Tool and ensure sufficient system resources. For details on FSA-specific limits, memory requirements, and the estimation tool usage, see Managing Access Reviews Integration Limits for File Servers.

    Initial Configuration​

    Next, configure the Access Reviews for your environment:

    • Console Users — Grant users access to the application starting with an Administrator account. There are two levels of access: Administrator and Security Team. See the Console Access Page topic for information.

    • Notification — Configure the Notification settings required in order for the application to send email. See the Notifications Page topic for information.

    Enable Console Users​

    Notify Access Reviews Console users granted one of the available roles.

    RECOMMENDED: The notification should include:

    • Why your organization is using Netwrix Auditor Access Reviews.
    • What they will be doing in the Access Reviews Console.
    • How to log into the Access Reviews Console, specifically what URL and credentials to use.

    You should also provide links to the appropriate topics based on the user's role:

    • Security Team — Need topics that align to the work the will be doing in the Access Reviews Console:

    • Administrator — Send the URL link for the Administrator Overview topic.

    Resource Ownership Configuration​

    You must assign ownership of resources to use the Access Reviews workflow:

    • Resource Ownership — Assign ownership for resources to be managed through the application. See the Resource Owners Interface topic for additional information.
    • Enable Owners — Send a notification to your owners about resource ownership with the application. See the Notification to Owners topic for additional information.

    Access Reviews Workflow​

    The Access Reviews application runs attestations on resources and groups with the assigned owners. The workflow consists of:

    • Reviews — Configure reviews for resource Access or group Membership .
    • Owner Performs Review — Owners process the review, potentially recommending changes
    • Review Administrator Approval — Review and process owner recommended changes

    RECOMMENDED: Set expectations for response time from owners.

    Reviews can be run multiple times, maintaining a historical record for each instance. See the Reviews Overview topic for additional information.