Run a search for log events
Your ability to run a search depends on your Google edition, your administrative privileges, and the data source. You can run a search on all users, regardless of their Google Workspace edition.
Audit and investigation tool
To run a search for log events, first choose a data source. Then choose one or more filters for your search.
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Sign in with an administrator account to the Google Admin console.
If you aren’t using an administrator account, you can’t access the Admin console.
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Go to Menu
Reporting > Audit and investigation > Policy compliance log events.
Requires having the Reports administrator privilege.
- Click Add a filter
select an attribute.
- In the pop-up window, select an operator
- (Optional) To create multiple filters for your search, repeat this step.
- (Optional) To add a search operator, above Add a filter, select AND or OR.
- Click Search.
Note: Using the Filter tab, you can include simple parameter and value pairs to filter the search results. You can also use the Condition builder tab, where the filters are represented as conditions with AND/OR operators.
Security investigation tool
To run a search in the security investigation tool, first choose a data source. Then, choose one or more conditions for your search. For each condition, choose an attribute, an operator, and a value.
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Sign in with an administrator account to the Google Admin console.
If you aren’t using an administrator account, you can’t access the Admin console.
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Go to Menu
Security > Security center > Investigation tool.
Requires having the Security center administrator privilege.
- Click Data source and select Policy compliance log events.
- Click Add Condition.
Tip: You can include one or more conditions in your search or customize your search with nested queries. For details, go to Customize your search with nested queries. - Click Attribute
For a complete list of attributes, go to the Attribute descriptions section. - Select an operator.
- Enter a value or select a value from the list.
- (Optional) To add more search conditions, repeat steps 4–7.
- Click Search.
You can review the search results from the investigation tool in a table at the bottom of the page. - (Optional) To save your investigation, click Save
Notes
- In the Condition builder tab, filters are represented as conditions with AND/OR operators. You can also use the Filter tab to include simple parameter and value pairs to filter the search results.
- If you give a user a new name, you will not see query results with the user's old name. For example, if you rename [email protected] to [email protected], you will not see results for events related to [email protected].
Attribute descriptions
For this data source, you can use the following attributes when searching log event data:
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| Resource name | Name of the user |
| Resource ID | Email address of the user |
| Resource type | Organizational unit of the actor |
| Application ID | The kind of entity this refers to, such as User |
| Event |
Specifies whether this record refers to applying a region policy or if it’s about an advanced setting for non-regionalized processes.
|
| Data regions policy type | The region assigned to a user and whether it applies to storage or storage and processing, such as Data regions: region. |
| Data regions policy | The region assigned to a user and whether it applies to storage or storage and processing. If the user doesn't have an Assured Controls or Assured Controls Plus license, you see Requires Assured Controls. Otherwise this attribute can be:
|
| Non-regionalized processes policy type |
Specifies the advanced setting this record refers to. If the user doesn't have an Assured Controls or Assured Controls Plus license, you see Requires Assured Controls. Otherwise this attribute can be:
|
| Non-regionalized processes policy |
Value associated with the policy type. Can be either:
|
| Data regions version | Version of data regions that the user has. Can be:
|
Take action based on search results
Manage your investigations
To view a list of the investigations that you own and that were shared with you, click View investigations . The investigation list includes the names, descriptions, and owners of the investigations, and the date last modified.
From this list, you can take action on any investigations that you own, for example, to delete an investigation. Check the box for an investigation and then click Actions.
Note: You can view your saved investigations under Quick access, directly above your list of investigations.
As a super administrator, click Settings to:
- Change the time zone for your investigations. The time zone applies to search conditions and results.
- Turn on or off Require reviewer. For more details, go to Require reviewers for bulk actions.
- Turn on or off View content. This setting allows admins with the appropriate privileges to view content.
- Turn on or off Enable action justification.
For more details, go to Configure settings for your investigations.
To save your search criteria or share it with others, you can create and save an investigation, and then share, duplicate, or delete it.
For details, go to Save, share, delete, and duplicate investigations.
