Open Source Log Aggregators?

Question

I have sixteen servers using Log4J logs, accessible by ssh. I want to see the output of all logs on my desktop machine.

Apache Chainsaw can presumably do this, but the documentation isn't getting me there. "Put all the jars into your ~/.chainsaw directory", got that. "Chainsaw will automatically use the functionality in those JARs"? Nope. Chainsaw isn't picking up log4j-chainsaw-vfs.jar, by the look of it, so sftp is out.

Any suggestions other than Chainsaw?

Answer 1

Splunk offers log aggregration as well as searching/indexing and so on. My IT SysAdmin friend says it's 'tits'. I've never used it myself.

AFAIK There is a free version which allows up to 300 mb of log data, and a commercial version which allows unlimited log data.