SQL Server 2008 R2 standard missing “Audits” folder in SSMS?

Question

I will pre-cursor this with the fact that I am NOT a DBA!

I am trying to set up auditing on an SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard edition, but the Audits folder is missing from the Security section.

Is this a version issue associated with the "fine-grained auditing" that is only in the Enterprise and DataCenter editions?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

According to Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server 2008 R2 auditing is only available in 2008 / 2008 R2 Enterprise / Datacenter.

According to Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server 2012 auditing has been split up in SQL Server 2012, so that basic auditing is now offered in Standard Edition.

So what you're seeing is expected: prior to SQL Server 2012, auditing was an Enterprise-only feature (outside of C2/CCC, which is just sp_configure stuff that is not exposed in Object Explorer).