System Logging (Syslog) servers are helpful for monitoring and managing different network devices.
When it comes to monitoring your entire organization network, everyone seeks the best solution.
If one network is down, devices in the network will start showing some issues.
Thus, it is necessary to monitor your network devices from a single location to know the issues faster and resolve them better.
Although, it can be done manually by checking each device’s log messages, running them, and finding the root cause. But, this process is tiresome and time-consuming.
For this, Syslog servers work with Syslog protocols to facilitate efficient log management and tracking.
Let’s understand what a Syslog server is, its features, and the best one for your organization.
What Is Syslog?
A Syslog (System Logging) is a technology used to enable your enterprise devices within the network to send log messages about recent events to the server where the devices are logged. The log acts as a record room for all the events throughout the infrastructure. This will allow you to view the events on a large scale of devices through a single system.
A Syslog server collects the messages from devices, such as a virtual machine, software service, or bare metal server. This data is then compiled in a single place. An administrator uses that information to monitor the entire network’s performance.
Syslog servers consist of the following:
- A Syslog listener that receives the incoming data and interprets them
- A database to store all the information
- A filtering system to filter log messages
How Does a Syslog Server Work?
Syslog servers have a client-server architecture where the server receives log messages. It then forwards local messages to the remote analytics server via Syslog, commonly known as a standard industrial logging solution.
Syslog traffic uses UDP port 514 by default. But, some network devices send data via TCP 1468 to ensure the message is delivered to the right place.
Syslog defines three layers:
- Syslog content layer: It contains actual data in the event messages. It has some informational elements, including the severity levels and facility codes.
- Syslog application layer: It generates, routes, interprets, and stores messages.
- Syslog transport layer: It transmits messages over the network.
It sends messages in this format:
seq:timestamp: %facility-severity-MNEMONIC:description
The terms mean:
- Seq: Sequence number that indicates the order of the message.
- Timestamp: It indicates the time message was generated.
- Facility: It is a value that shows which process on your device generates the message.
- Severity: It is a number that defines the severity of the event.
- MNEMONIC: It is a short code used for messages, indicating what has happened.
- Description: It is detailed information about the event.
Important Syslog Server Features
Before choosing any Syslog server, ensure it has the following features:
- Collection and monitoring of Syslog messages
- Syslog and log viewer for Windows
- Log collection
- Log archiving
- Network troubleshooting
- Server log monitoring
- SNMP trap monitoring
- Syslog management
- Application auditing
- IT compliance management
- Threat and security analysis
- Cross-platform audit
Now, let’s check out some of the best Syslog servers for effective networking management.
SolarWinds’ Kiwi Syslog
Manage your Syslog messages, Windows event logs, and SNMP traps with SolarWinds’ Kiwi Syslog Server – an affordable on-premises application. It helps you manage the Syslog messages from the network devices, such as UNIX, Windows systems, and Linux, from a single console.
You will get real-time alerts on issues related to your server or device. This Syslog management console lets you inspect log messages easily from devices to troubleshoot the problem faster as compared to inspecting each device term by term.
Trigger email alerts, log files, forward messages, run scripts, and perform other actions to respond to incoming messages automatically from the Syslog server. In addition, you can schedule automated cleanup and log archival that help you comply with HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX, etc.
The Kiwi Syslog Server lets you schedule report creation through email, along with the statistics. You can view the data anywhere with its secure web access. Furthermore, it allows you to monitor and filter log messages on a Syslog viewer console with numerous custom views.
Filter advanced messages by host IP address, time of the day, priority, or hostname. Specify and send events automatically from workstations and Windows servers to forward by source, keywords, and type ID. Forward the events to your external systems so you can audit, store, and alert easily.
Download a free tool that logs collection on up to five devices, or go with the licensed edition to avail more benefits.
ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer
Monitor all the network devices with a centralized Syslog server to maintain better network security. EventLog Analyzer helps audit Syslogs and lets organizations monitor their network activities and get real-time alerts on suspicious events.
The Syslog Server collects Syslogs from your network devices and gives in-depth insights into your security posture. It visualizes and gains a complete overview of your network with Syslog monitoring, providing a better Syslog management system.
EventLog Analyzer processes Syslogs generated from the network infrastructure, including switches, intrusion prevention systems, devices, workstations, firewalls, servers, intrusion detection systems, and more.
You can use the critical data hidden in event logs to identify malicious or abnormal activities within your network. EventLog Analyzer helps you track security-related event IDs, such as 4719 (changed system audit policy), 4625 (failed account logins), and more.
Gain control over the management and security of the Linux systems by auditing Syslogs. This will help you track user activities, Linux processes, logoffs, mail server events, sudo command executions, and more. In addition, you will get 100+ templates for the Linux environments.
Furthermore, you will get in-depth auditing alerts and reports, automated incident management, simplified IT compliance, etc. You will find other features like application log analysis, active directory log monitoring, privileged user monitoring, log forensic analysis, event log monitoring, and more.
Get your free trial today.
PRTG Syslog Server
Get a single solution for all your Syslog event issues with PRTG Syslog Server. It will help you monitor your Syslog messages and the entire network. You will get real-time alerts on incidents and errors. In addition, it lets you monitor and optimize your network’s performance.
PRTG first receives Syslog messages and then allows PRTG Syslog Receiver to display all necessary data, including IP address, time stamp, and the message itself. As a Syslog Server, it analyzes these messages and checks for emergencies, if any, ranging from 0 to 7 (which means emergency to debug).
You can identify the message type immediately once PRTG reads the facility code and processes it. It makes it easy for you to view message data and get insights into software availability, resource errors, application performance, and other things.
You can set up PRTG Syslog Receiver by choosing from two server configuration options:
- A centralized Syslog Receiver sensor
- A device-specific Syslog Receiver sensor
Once done, you can keep an eye on your entire network from anywhere, anytime. Download Syslog Server for free and avail yourself of awesome features.
Nagios Log Server
Nagios Log Server offers centralized log monitoring and management, along with software analysis. It simplifies the searching process of your log data and sets up alerts. You can get all the log data in a single console with fail-over capability and high availability.
Correlate your log events easily in a few clicks and view log data. Nagios Log Server provides the ability to solve problems and analyze each data deeply. This will keep your infrastructure secure, safe, and running smoothly.
Furthermore, it can scale to meet your demands so that you can add additional instances of Syslog Server to your monitoring cluster. This adds more power, storage, reliability, and speed to your log analysis platform, apart from enhancing your company’s growth.
Nagios Log Server is designed for network auditing and security, creating alerts from interface-based queries. It notifies users via email, script, SNMP traps, etc., to ensure faster problem resolution. In addition, it enables you to dive into the problem to get a quicker solution.
The powerful dashboards provide design, preferences on a user basis, customization of layout, and more, giving your team members and customers the flexibility they want. With Nagios Log Server, you can dig deeper into logs, network events, and security events.
Fastvue Syslog
Get a simplified yet powerful and unlimited Syslog Server for Windows with Fastvue Syslog. It will help collect, identify, analyze, and log Syslog information. It provides a simple way of logging your Syslog data in a single console without paying a cent.
Easily detect incoming data and log the messages automatically to organize the text files. You can also forward the Syslog messages to other servers and view the size of your archived logs overall and per device via log statistics.
Integrate with its API to programmatically retrieve logs and statistics and make changes to the settings using the Rest API. Fastvue Syslog zips older logs automatically and moves them to other archive folders, minimizing disk space requirements.
Fastvue Syslog’s intuitive web interface lets you access archives and logs, configures Syslog Server, and much more. Make changes to the interface by cloning with its open-source GitHub repo. The setup process is quite easy; you just need to:
- Set listening ports, archive, and log paths
- Discover Syslog sources automatically
Now, log and manage all Syslog data on your Windows for free. Download it today and experience effective networking, resulting in better performance.
SolarWinds Papertrail
Cloud Syslog Server and Manager by SolarWinds Papertrail helps you manage all your Syslog data on the cloud. This offers:
- Easier management and storage
- Access to Syslog messages from a unified interface to monitor, search, and view log data in real-time
- Setting access controls, archiving behaviors, and retainment policies in just a couple of clicks
The Cloud Syslog Server gets events from the servers, routers, printers, workstations, and other devices and creates an endpoint to start sending log events immediately. It transmits logs over TCP or UDP with TLS encryption for better security.
The solution supports both RFC 3164 and RFC 5424 for compatibility with various Syslog implementations, frameworks, and libraries. You can view all your log messages and filter logs based on sender, message content, facility, date, or priority.
Furthermore, you can set alerts to detect application errors and notify hardware failures and other priority events. Manage all your policies from a single location to avoid the manual configuration of logging components. Automate backup and archive generation, set up policies, define user access permissions, and more with Cloud Syslog Server.
Start your free trial today and manage, organize, and aggregate your logs easily from one place.
WinSyslog
Get a Syslog server for your Windows from WinSyslog that offers a wide range of features. It comes with Microsoft Windows 11 and the latest version and can be accessed remotely using a browser that has an included web application.
WinSyslog supports every industry standard, including TCP Syslog, UDP Syslog, and RELP. It is highly reliable and offers high performance. In addition, the interface is powerful and easy to use so that a regular user can easily access it.
Whether you need it for individual use, a home environment, or a large enterprise, WinSyslog is highly scalable for everyone and every business. You can download the current version and receive messages from routers, switches, foreign system sendings, and more.
Download the product by clicking the link and choose a maintenance plan starting from 1 year to 5 years.
RSYSLOG
Experience a rocket-fast system for your log processing with RSYSLOG. You will get great security, high performance, and an easy-to-understand design. It can receive inputs from multiple sources, transform them, and send them to diverse destinations.
RSYSLOG is also capable of delivering millions of messages every second to the local destinations while processing is applied as per the limit. When it comes to more elaborate processing and remote destinations, the performance is also stunning.
Features of RSYSLOG:
- Multiple threading
- Supports protocols like SSL, RELP, TLS, and TCP
- Option for databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, and more
- Filter out each part of Syslog messages
- Fully configurable, and the output format is understandable
- It is suitable for relay chains.
You can download the current version and start receiving alerts from different network devices to enhance your networking, which also results in a higher growth rate.
Syslog Watcher
Get a high-performance Syslog Server for your central log management from your place. Syslog Watcher collects log messages from numerous software and devices and stores them in a separate server. It helps improve security and compliance.
Syslog Watcher reduces the time in identifying trends and patterns, resulting in troubleshooting issues easily. You can monitor security events easily and take necessary action immediately. You can set up alerts to receive notifications when specific security event log messages are created.
Furthermore, you can meet regulatory standards, such as PCI DSS, and get a central location to store and examine log messages. Syslog Watcher supports modern transports from UDP and TCP to secure log transmission over TLS-encrypted channels.
You will find a central repository for all your event records. This will simplify the Syslog analysis and speed up the troubleshooting process. Syslog Watcher analyzes system logs to track problems with the help of a flexible filtering system.
Download the latest version of Syslog Watcher today.
Conclusion
Syslog is a powerful technology that can make administrators’ work easier by managing complex networks. The volume of data is the biggest challenge with Syslog. Syslog servers are used to simplify log management and allow admins to filter messages and focus on events. Thus, choose any of the above Syslog servers based on your needs.
You may also be interested in reading about these Log Management tools.