Object properties retention request

[Dan_Roddy]

I have noticed over my checkpoint years that every time a version upgrade is performed, important object data is lost/discarded.  What I am referring to are object properties: date created and created by.  It would be very beneficial to my organization if this data could be preserved in an easily accessible form.  Yes, I see the data field is there 'Last Modified' which contains the date we upgraded to R80.10 on almost every object with the exception of the field being blank (no data) AND 'Modifier' which I would expect to find the username of who created or modified the object but most say 'System'.  Thank you to any developers that could have input on this.

Dan Roddy

[PhoneBoy]

The object database was a flat file in R77.x and was changed to a proper database in R80.

Although we didn't expose the "last modified" information in the UI, it was tracked, both in the audit logs and in the object itself.

For example:

 : (Net_192.168.1.0
    :AdminInfo (
       :chkpf_uid ("{CD4CE7E8-801B-480D-BEFD-079527BC0024}")
       :ClassName (network)
       :table (network_objects)
       :Wiznum (-1)
       :LastModified (
          :Time ("Thu May 28 21:18:04 2015")
          :last_modified_utc (1432847884)
          :By (phoneboy)
          :From (bunsen)
       )
      :icon ("NetworkObjects/Network/Network")
    :name (Net_192.168.1.0)
    )

And, after I upgrade to R80.20, I can see that information is lost in the object:

So you are correct.

That said, from what I can tell, on a going forward basis from R80, this information should be preserved.

It's only in the migration from R77.x that the information gets lost. 

I'm not sure what the technical reason is for not preserving that.

[Tomer_Sole]

Thank you for this feedback. Indeed, should have been different. 

I want to suggest a different approach - do you think that tagging your objects with various properties, such as policy owner, security zone, hosted application, sensitivity level, etc. - could extend your intent of managing objects with reference to their meaning? https://community.checkpoint.com/thread/7857-did-you-know-smartconsole-tags 

[Dan_Roddy]

Yes, tags are useful and have value but anyone can forget to tag.