Whatsup Gold Syslog Server Configuration

[Lane Stefano]

Baseballfans know about the various in-game statistics and actions requiring someone to keep them as records. From a player's overall performance at-bat to a game's final score at the bottom of the ninth, dozens (possibly hundreds) of different statistics are happening throughout a season. In Major League Baseball, these records are essential for the team owner, front office workers and coaches to figure out strategies on the diamond or how to distribute fair pay. And like anything else involving numbers, these statistics need to be logged into a type of database.

Switching gears to the (very different) topic of IT, network administrators and IT professionals must keep records of what activities and actions occur within their company's systems. These actions are called system logging or syslogging.

Like baseball, syslogs can encompass multiple actions and events requiring documentation or recording. Recording syslogs is crucial for any IT professional as it helps them understand the status of an active server.

There is a lot more to this topic than that. Syslog monitoring can be one of the most essential parts of an IT professional's daily tasks. Especially if they have an extensive, complex infrastructure with hundreds, if not thousands, of daily logs. What can you learn from syslog monitoring practices? Read on below.

Syslogs are a network protocol that allows network devices to communicate with a logging server. Those devices configured to communicate with the server will send a message in a standardized format. Applications and infrastructure components generate syslogs, which usually contain information regarding errors, warnings, system activities and any events that may occur. Syslogs can use one of many transport protocols, such as UDP or TCP, to be stored in a database or simple plain text files.

Syslog monitoring is the internal process in which software obtains and records system log messages from devices connected to the network. In turn, these messages can be used to analyze what is happening with specific devices.

If you are an IT professional, consider your organization's infrastructure size. More specifically, think about how many network devices are connected simultaneously on a regular workday. Those devices are constantly sending messages to their servers. And if minor errors are occurring, these messages will be sure to have some details on what is happening. But, through syslog monitoring, IT and network professionals can access these messages and understand what is going on and what is causing these errors.

The above hypothetical but familiar situation illustrates why syslog monitoring is crucial. It provides visibility into how systems are operating and their overall performance. In turn, whenever errors arrive, syslog monitoring enables users to find when and where they happen.

One of the challenges involving syslog monitoring is the need for particular security protocols, such as an authentication one. Other security risks include how UDP transport can't be reliable to keep the syslogs in a server.

Challenges with syslog monitoring are inevitable. Especially if you are utilizing it for the first time. But, with that said, deploying syslog monitoring can wield numerous advantages for your IT department and your business.

Any process that gives IT teams visibility to their infrastructure is always a plus. Syslog monitoring will collect log messages from any device connected to a network, as well as details like where specific spikes in traffic or data are located on said network. This, in turn, enables users to see precisely where the patterns in suspicious activity are occurring.

Identifying network irregularities is helpful, no doubt, but having the ability to solve them is another. With syslog monitoring, a user can locate and find out the causes of network errors and then quickly mitigate them. If a system receives more than a few suspicious-looking log messages, then deploying syslog monitoring allows the user to see several unscrupulous devices looking to get into the company's network.

Double-check to see if those devices mentioned above are configured to send log messages to a centralized location, whether it's a specific server or a tool such as Progress WhatsUp Gold Log Management.

Next is more configuration, but it is with the syslog server, which needs configuration to receive log messages from the network-connected devices. But users can take a step further and set up which specific devices can send log messages and set up rules for how to filter them.

Lastly, begin setting up alerts and notifications by configuring the syslog server to send the necessary emails or text messages if your syslog monitor has this feature. Additionally, IT teams can utilize a separate tool to monitor the syslog server itself.

Progress collects the Personal Information set out in our Privacy Policy and the Supplemental Privacy notice for residents of California and other US States and uses it for the purposes stated in that policy.

By submitting this form, you understand and agree that your personal data will be processed by Progress Software or its Partners as described in our Privacy Policy. You may opt out from marketing communication at any time here or through the opt out option placed in the e-mail communication sent by us or our Partners.

Colin Barry has spent most of his career in the tech sector of Boston as a journalist and content marketer, writing about early-stage startups, consumer electronics and technology. Colin lives in Massachusetts and is a self-described film geek, rock music nerd and video game enthusiast.

System Logging Protocol (Syslog) is a way network devices can use a standard message format to communicate with a logging server. It was designed specifically to make it easy to monitor network devices. Devices can use a Syslog agent to send out notificationmessages under a wide range of specific conditions.

These log messages include a timestamp, a severity rating, a device ID (including IP address), and information specific to the event. Though it does have shortcomings, the Syslog protocol is widely applied because it is simple to implement, and is fairlyopen-ended, allowing for a lot of different proprietary implementations, and thus the ability to monitor almost any connected device.

A big advantage of syslog is that the log server can monitor a vast number of syslog events via log files. Routers, switches, firewalls, and servers can generate log messages, as well as many printers and other devices.

The syslog server receives, categorizes, and stores log messages for analysis, maintaining a comprehensive view of what is going on everywhere on the network. Without this view, devices can malfunction unexpectedly, and outages can be hard to trace.

It also needs management and filtering software that enables the server to automatically generate alerts, alarms, and notifications. Filtering allows a sysadmin to easily call up files from a certain source, such as a firewall, for a specifiedtime period.

On-screen popups or remote text messages can keep a sysadmin aware of any divergence from normal functioning. If there is some concern about a particular device, thresholds can be set lower, to more closely monitor messages of lower severity.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) software provides a way to track, integrate, and analyze the vast amount of log data Syslog collects. Originally focused on compliance reporting, SIEM is now more widely used and can be a useful adjunctto Syslog.

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is another protocol for network device monitoring. SNMP works differently, getting most of its information by polling devices. Syslog servers can often accept SNMP data, particularly SNMP traps,that is, SNMP-enabled devices send without being polled.

Syslog-ng was begun in 1988 and adds some new filtering and encryption functions. Its syntax is not directly derived from syslog and so a syslog-ng server and syslog-ng configuration are somewhat different. You can learn more about howto install syslog-ng here.

Rsyslog dates from 2004, and is derived directly from Syslog, so it can be easily used as a replacement for it, since a syslog.conf file can be used in place of rsyslog.conf . Much like syslog-ng it also has improved ability to parseunstructured data and ship it to various destinations.

SolarWinds's own Justin Finley just recorded a video tutorial that shows how to split logs into multiple files by IP address and date in Kiwi Syslog Server. Specifically, this syslog server tutorial shows how to store logs in separate folders for each source IP address, and then shows how to keep separate log files for each day within those folders. (e.g., "D:\logs\192.168.000.001\Log2012-07-13.txt")

I'm having a problem with the Kiwi Syslog Server. I want to establish a connection over Secure (TLS) Sylog over TCP between a Cisco ASA 5550 and the Syslog Server 9.3.2 running on a Windows Server 2008 R2. But I can't recieve any messages. It works only with UDP.

I have recently taken over a sys admin position, and am required to move the location of the Kiwi Syslog Server logs to another file location. I have never used it prior. However, I can't seem to move the file.

If I test the configuration, I can see the test messages in the location noted about. However, after I apply the settings, the older location (a CIFS share) continues to receive the actual syslogs of the devices we monitor.

3a8082e126