Important Note:
Before we begin, it's important to note that not everything in your database should be tracked. In fact, you should limit what is being tracked to as little as possible and you should avoid tracking tables that either have a large number of records (50,000+) or that are updated often (100+ times a day). This is to avoid adding unnecessary overhead to your database and to keep your reporting as clean as possible.
Populating the TrackingTables.xlsx file
1.) First, it's necessary to note that the TrackingTables.xlsx consists of 2 sheets:
Sheet1 - this is the sheet that you will need to populate, and it includes the header columns.
Descriptions - this sheet defines what each header column represents, what the valid values are (if applicable) and whether they are required.
2.) We recommend that you go through your application and as you see things you want to have captured, fill in the Area, Application Path and Description in the TrackingTables.xlsx file. Then, if you are not familiar with your database, send the excel file to your software provider and have them assist you in filling in the other columns (TableSchema, TableName, CommaDelimitedColumnsToTrack etc.). Refer to the Description sheet in the TrackingTables.xlsx file on how each column should be populated and whether the column requires a value.​
Area
This describes the area in the application that correlates to the values that you want to track. (IE:Global settings, user settings, Sales, Marketing etc.)
Application Path
This represents how to get to the specific value you want to track in your application (IE: Administration-->User Settings-->Password Settings, or Sales-->Orders-->Tracking etc.).
Description
This represents a description of the values you want to track. (IE: Password length, New Sales Orders, Change in Costs etc).
The MergeCDC.DataAudit table
The MergeCDC.DataAudit table is the central table that will permanently house the database changes that came from various tables being tracked. It will incorporate all of the data elements you added to the TrackingTables.xlsx file as well as the change capture event data (Schema, Table, UpdatedColumn, UpdatedColumnDataType, Operation, UpdateFrom, UpdatedTo, UpdatedOn) in an easy-to-understand format. Here is a sample set from the Adventureworks database (please note not all columns are visible):
