C2 audit mode data is saved in a file in the default data directory of the instance. If the audit log file reaches its size limit of 200 megabytes (MB), SQL Server will create a new file, close the old file, and write all new audit records to the new file. This process will continue until the audit data directory fills up or auditing is turned off. To determine the status of a C2 trace, query the sys.traces catalog view.

Important:
C2 audit mode saves a large amount of event information to the log file, which can grow quickly. If the data directory in which logs are being saved runs out of space, SQL Server will shut itself down. If auditing is set to start automatically, you must either restart the instance with the -f flag (which bypasses auditing), or free up additional disk space for the audit log.

Requires membership in the sysadmin fixed server role.

The following example turns on C2 audit mode.

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1 ;
GO
RECONFIGURE ;
GO

sp_configure 'c2 audit mode', 1 ;
GO
RECONFIGURE ;
GO

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