update exchange/auditor manuals now that we have taler-auditor-sync

1 files changed, 32 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/taler-exchange-manual.rst b/taler-exchange-manual.rst
index 879f9ad2..c1354d39 100644
--- a/taler-exchange-manual.rst
+++ b/taler-exchange-manual.rst
@@ -902,10 +902,38 @@ of ``taler-exchange-offline``.
 Diagnostics
 ===========
 
-This chapter includes various (very unpolished) sections on specific
-topics that might be helpful to understand how the exchange operates,
-which files should be backed up. The information may also be helpful for
-diagnostics.
+This chapter includes various sections on specific topics that might be
+helpful to understand how the exchange operates. The information may also be
+helpful for diagnostics.
+
+.. _Internal-audit:
+
+Internal audits
+---------------
+
+While an exchange should use an external auditor to attest to regulators that
+it is operating correctly, an exchange operator can also use the auditor's
+logic to perform internal checks.  For this, an exchange opeator can generally
+follow the auditor guide.  However, instead of using ``taler-auditor-sync``,
+an internal audit can and likely should be performed either directly against
+the production exchange database or against a synchronous copy created using
+standard database replication techniques. After all, the exchange operator
+runs this for diagnostics and can generally trust its own database to maintain
+the database invariants.
+
+Running the auditor against a the original the production database (without
+using ``taler-auditor-sync``) enables the auditing logic to perform a few
+additional checks that can detect inconsistencies.  These checks are enabled
+by passing the **-i** option to the ``taler-auditor`` command.  As always,
+the resulting report should be read carefully to see if there are any problems
+with the setup.
+
+Reports are generally created incrementally, with ``taler-auditor`` reporting
+only incidents and balance changes that were not covered in previous reports.
+While it is possible to reset the auditor database and to restart the audit
+from the very beginning, this is generally not recommended as this may be too
+expensive.
+
 
 .. _Database-Scheme: