Logging overview system for logs from multiple applications

Question

I have a few independent webservices as well as a few clients that I am maintaining as part of our enterprise. Each webservice is logging to a separate log file and each client has a local log file on the user machine. The webservices are dispersed on several machines as well. I am using Log4Net and see appenders for communicating over msmq for instance. I am wondering if there exists some sort of enterprise logging system where I could redirect all my logging from both the services and the clients so that I could have one common place for all the logging and view them through some gui? Does there exist some sort of logging system like this?

Answer 1

To collect and store logging data in a central location, you usually need some kind of logging server or receiver application. You might want to give our logging tool SmartInspect a try, as it comes with a logging server that can receive logging data via TCP over a network or named pipes locally. SmartInspect also comes with a viewer application for analysing and filtering logging data.

Alternatively you could take a look at the UNIX Syslog damon/protocol and client APIs. Syslog transmits/receives data via UDP and there are probably some web front-ends / GUI tools for analyzing the resulting logs.

Answer 2

If you're dealing lots of logs from multiple applications, part of the challenge is getting the logs all to one place. The other part is making sense of all that data.

You might want to take a look at GIBRALTAR. It reveals patterns across thousands of logs as well as drilling down into the details of individual sessions. And with our Gibraltar Hub web service, it's very simple and easy to collect all those logs.