Audit Logs
Glean's Admin Audit Logs provide comprehensive visibility into administrative actions performed within your Glean instance. These logs serve as a critical tool for troubleshooting configuration issues, maintaining security compliance, and tracking changes made by both internal admins and Glean support staff.
Troubleshoot Configuration Issues
Admin audit logs are essential for diagnosing and resolving configuration problems in your Glean deployment:
Change History Tracking
Review chronological changes to identify when and what modifications were made to your configuration
Root Cause Analysis
Quickly identify the source of issues by correlating problems with recent configuration changes
Compliance Reporting
Generate reports for security audits, compliance reviews, and regulatory requirements
External Analysis
Import data into business intelligence tools or custom analytics platforms
Audit Log Features
Coverage
Admin audit logs track administrative and configuration actions. They do not include end-user activity, connector crawl telemetry, API rate-limit metrics, or usage analytics. For usage analytics, see Insights.
Advanced Search and Filtering
Efficiently locate specific audit entries using powerful search capabilities:
- Time Range Filtering: Narrow down logs to specific dates or time periods
- User-Based Filtering: View tools by specific admins
- Tool Type Filtering: Focus on particular types of changes (e.g., connector changes, global configuration changes)
- Keyword Search: Find logs containing specific configuration names or values
Use a combination of filters to quickly identify patterns or investigate specific incidents. For example, filter by "Past week" + "Admin" + "Failures" to review recent failures to setup triggered by an admin.
Export and Reporting
The Admin console provides on-demand CSV export of audit log data for external analysis, compliance reporting, and long-term record keeping.
Access Export Feature
In the Admin Console, go to Users & permissions → Audit logs
Apply Filters
Use the filtering options to select the specific logs you want to export
Export to CSV
Click the "Export to CSV" button to download your filtered audit log data
CSV exports include all available log fields including timestamps, user identities, tool descriptions, affected resources, and change details.
CSV export is the built-in, self-serve way to pull audit log data from the Admin console. It captures administrative and configuration changes, and is separate from Glean Customer Event logs, which record end-user usage events such as searches, clicks, and chats.
For Glean-hosted deployments, Glean can also configure ongoing delivery of your logs to a destination you manage. This is available for both audit logs and Customer Event logs, though it isn't enabled by default and isn't self-serve. Customer Event logs are typically delivered to object storage (Google Cloud Storage or Amazon S3) or loaded into a data warehouse such as BigQuery or Athena. The right destination for audit logs depends on your environment. To set it up, contact your Glean account team.
Audit Log Retention
Default Retention Period
Glean maintains audit logs for a standard retention period to balance storage efficiency with administrative needs. The default retention period of 30 days ensures you have sufficient historical data for typical troubleshooting and compliance requirements.
Custom Retention Periods
If your organization requires a longer audit log retention period for compliance, security, or operational reasons, contact your Glean representative to discuss custom retention options.
When to Consider Extended Retention
- Compliance Requirements: Regulatory or industry standards requiring longer data retention
- Security Investigations: Need for extended historical analysis capabilities
- Organizational Policies: Internal governance requiring longer audit trails
- Change Management: Extended rollback and analysis capabilities
How to Request Retention Changes
Assess Requirements
Determine your specific retention needs based on compliance, security, and operational requirements
Contact Glean
Reach out to your Glean Account Manager or file a ticket with Glean Support
Provide Details
Share your retention requirements, justification, and any compliance standards that apply
Implementation
Glean will work with you to implement the appropriate retention period for your needs
Security Considerations
- Restrict audit log access to appropriate admins only
- Regularly export logs for backup and compliance purposes
- Monitor for suspicious administrative activity patterns
- Maintain separate secure storage for exported audit data
Accessing Audit Logs
In the Admin Console, go to Users & permissions → Audit logs to view, search, and export your audit log data.
Access to audit logs requires appropriate administrative privileges. Contact your Glean admin if you need access to review audit log data.
For questions about audit log retention, custom compliance requirements, or advanced audit capabilities, contact your Glean Account Manager or file a ticket with Glean Support.