Compliance monitoring#

Also available in legacy Mattermost Enterprise Edition E20

This feature enables compliance exports to be produced from the System Console, with all query and download actions logged in an audit history to enable oversight and prevent unauthorized queries.

Compliance exports can be filtered to date range, user account, and keyword list. Requests from queries can be downloaded from the user interface in .csv format, with a .json metafile documenting the query, as well as placed in a directory set by the system admin.

Daily compliance reports may also be generated, supporting integration with compliance solutions like Global Relay.

By default, all Mattermost deployments retain all messages, including edits and deletes, along with all files uploaded.

Enable compliance reporting#

To enable the option to generate daily compliance reports:

Go to System Console > Compliance > Compliance Monitoring and set the Enable Compliance Reporting value to true.
(Optional) In Compliance Report Directory specify the directory in which to place completed compliance reports. Defaults to ./data/ if left blank.
Select Save.

Turn on daily compliance reports#

After enabling compliance reporting:

Go to System Console > Compliance > Compliance Monitoring and set the Enable Daily Report value to true.
Select Save.

Your system will now export all new messages posted within a 24-hour period as a .csv file to the location specified in Compliance Report Directory. This feature can be used in conjunction with centralized compliance reporting systems that move.

Run compliance reports#

Compliance reports are exports of all messages in Mattermost that match the report criteria. To run a report:

Go to System Console > Compliance > Compliance Monitoring.
Fill in the following:
- Job Name: Name the compliance report you are about to run (e.g. “HR Audit 455”).
- From: Start date for search in YYYY-MM-DD format (e.g. “2016-03-11”).
- To: End date of search in YYYY-MM-DD format (e.g. “2016-05-11”).
- Emails: Comma-separated list of email addresses of users whose posted messages you want to search (e.g. bill@example.com, bob@example.com).
- Keywords: Indicate the words that would be contained in a message for it to be included in the compliance report results.
Select Run Compliance Report.

The report will be queued in the display below the fields described above. The properties of each compliance report run is explained as follows:

Timestamp: Time at which the report was requested.
Status: running indicates the report is being run; finished indicates the report is complete and ready for download.
Records: Shows the number of search results.
Type: adhoc indicates the report was requested by completing query fields; daily indicates the report is a daily export.
Description: Job Name indicated in request.
Requested by: Email of person requesting the report.
Params: Parameters of the compliance report request.

Each compliance report includes a Download link which downloads a compressed file named adhoc-[UNIQUE_ID].zip. Inside the file is meta.json, which includes the parameters of the search executed and posts.csv which includes the contents of messages found by the request.

Compliance query definition stored in `meta.json`#

The meta.json file contains the following information about the compliance query:

Field	Description	Example
id	Unique identifier for compliance query	ja8z8egap7nq9kqetz3rt98khe
create_at	Timestamp at which compliance query was executed	1463637842478
user_id	Mattermost User ID for person creating query	3bq1shta93yztg3i6aiu1tzi5h
status	Status of query: finished or failed	“finished”
count	Count of messages found matching keyword	36
desc	User entered description of compliance query	Example Compliance Report
type	Type of compliance query: adhoc or daily	“adhoc”
start_at	Timestamp at which query began to run	1451606400000
end_at	Timestamp at which query ended	1463529600000
keywords	Comma-separated, case insensitive keywords to match in query	“drinking”
emails	Comma-separated emails of users to search. Blank returns all	`frank.yu@ha.ca, mary.li@hi.co`

Compliance query results stored in `posts.csv` file#

posts.csv contains the following information about the compliance query results, one search result per row:

Field	Description	Example
TeamName	URL name of team	contosi
TeamDisplayName	Display name of team	Contosi Corporation
ChannelDisplayName	Display name of channel where keyword was found	Community Heartbeat
ChannelName	URL name of channel	community-heartbeat
UserUsername	Username of user posting the message containing keyword	frank.yu
UserEmail	Email of user posting the message containing keyword	“frank.yu@contosi.com”
UserNickname	Nickname of user posting the message containing keyword	fan du
UserType	Type of user posting the message (“user” or “bot”)	user
PostId	Unique ID of message post containing keyword	xt9anyx6x3fx9y84aehgakdpze
PostCreateAt	Timestamp at which post was created	2016-03-02T16:01:59Z
PostDeletedAt	Timestamp at which post was deleted (if applicable)	2016-03-02T16:01:59Z
PostUpdatedAt	Timestamp at which post was last edited (if applicable)	2016-03-02T16:01:59Z
PostParentId	Unique ID of parent post if post is a comment	xt9anyx6x3fx9y84aehgakdpze
PostOriginalId	Unique ID of post if deleted or edited	xt9anyx6x3fx9y84aehgakdpze
PostMessage	Message containing keyword	Drinking from the fire hose
PostFilenames	Comma separated list of filesnames attached to post	[“/f../ho.png”,”/f../hi.png”]

Global Relay support#

Mattermost daily compliance reports are compatible with Global Relay compliance solutions through the conversion of Mattermost .CSV exports into Global Relay EML files.

This conversion can be done by in-house developers who have previously written scripts to convert other communication systems into Global Relay format based on your organization’s specific needs.
You can also contact your Global Relay account manager about a services project to establish this conversion.

We recommend using the new Compliance Export feature for Global Relay exports.