Depending on your Google Workspace edition, you might have access to the security investigation tool, which has more advanced features. For example, super admins can identify, triage, and take action on security and privacy issues. Learn more
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.
-
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.
-
Go to Menu
Reporting > Audit and investigation > Data migration 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.
-
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.
-
Go to Menu
Security > Security center > Investigation tool.
Requires having the Security center administrator privilege.
- Click Data source and select Data migration 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 |
|---|---|
| Event | The logged event action. This can be an action taken by the administrator in the new data migration service—for example, creating a connection, starting a migration, or exiting a migration. It can also be an action performed by the migration tool while a migration is in progress—for example, creating a Gmail label or a Google Drive file. To learn more about data migration events, go to Check events for the new data migration service. |
| Description |
Description of the event. For example:
|
| Migration type | Type of migration—for example, Chat migration, Gmail migration, Exchange Online migration, or OneDrive migration. |
| Event type |
Type of event performed in the new data migration service. This can be:
|
| Event status | Status of the event—for example, Success, Skipped, Failed, or Succeeded with warnings. |
| Execution id | Identifier for the execution associated with the migration. Each time you run a migration, an execution ID is issued. You can use the ID to correlate log events with migrations and past reports. |
| Source type |
Available only for Migration events (see Event type above) Source type of the data being migrated—for example, Microsoft Teams message, Microsoft OneDrive file, or IMAP message. |
| Target type |
Available only for Migration events (see Event type above) Target type of the migrated data—for example, Gmail message, Google Chat Space, Drive file. |
| Source identifier |
Available only for Migration events (see Event type above) Identifier for the source object that’s being migrated—for example, an identifier for a channel, Space Message, or Gmail Message. For a complete list of source identifiers, go to Identifier descriptions. |
| Source uri |
Available only for Migration events (see Event type above) Metadata of the source object that’s being migrated—for example, LabelName, Rfc822Id, or File name. For a complete list, go to Identifier descriptions. |
| Target identifier |
Migration event—Identifier for the target object that the data is being migrated to. Migration Setup event—Identifier for the resource. For example, ConnectionId, MigrationMapId, SettingsId, or ExecutionId. For a complete list, go to Identifier descriptions. |
| Target uri |
Migration event—Metadata of the target object that’s being migrated. Migration Setup event—Metadata of the resource. For example, connection name, setting name, or migration map name. |
| HTTP status code | HTTP code for the status of the event. Learn more about http codes at HTTP status codes. |
| Error message | Error or warning message of the event in case of a failure or warning status. |
| Actor | Email address of the administrator who started the migration. |
| Date | Date and time of the event (displayed in your browser's default time zone). |
Manage log event data
You can control which data columns appear in your search results.
- At the top-right of the search results table, click Manage columns
.
- (Optional) To remove current columns, click Remove
.
- (Optional) To add columns, next to Add new column, click the Down arrow
and select the data column.
Repeat as needed. - (Optional) To change the order of the columns, drag the data column names.
- Click Save.
You can export search results to Sheets or to a CSV file.
- At the top of the search results table, click Export all.
- Enter a name
The export displays below the search results table under Export action results. - To view the data, click the name of your export.
The export opens in Sheets.
Export limits vary:
- The total results of the export are limited to 100,000 rows.
- If you have the security investigation tool, the total results of the export are limited to 30 million rows.
For more information, go to Export search results.
Take action based on search results
- You can set up alerts based on log event data using reporting rules. For instructions, see Create and manage reporting rules.
- Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition
To help prevent, detect, and remediate security issues efficiently, you can automate actions in the security investigation tool and set up alerts by creating activity rules. To set up a rule, set up conditions for the rule, and then specify what actions to perform when the conditions are met. For details and instructions, see Create and manage activity rules.
Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition
After you run a search in the security investigation tool, you can act on your search results. For example, you can run a search based on Gmail log events, and then use the tool to delete specific messages, send messages to quarantine, or send messages to users' inboxes. For more details, go to Take action based on search results.
Manage your investigations
Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition
View your list of investigationsTo 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: Directly above your list of investigations, under Quick access, you can view recently saved 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 instructions and 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.
