Log monitors are a type of
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
...
that monitor
log files.
Servers,
application,
network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics ...
and security devices generate log files.
Errors, problems, and more information is constantly logged and saved for later
log analysis
In computer log management and intelligence, log analysis (or ''system and network log analysis'') is an art and science seeking to make sense of computer-generated records (also called log or audit trail records). The process of creating such reco ...
.
In order to detect problems automatically,
system administrator
A system administrator, or sysadmin, or admin is a person who is responsible for the upkeep, configuration, and reliable operation of computer systems, especially multi-user computers, such as servers. The system administrator seeks to en ...
s and operations set up monitors on the generated
logs. The log monitors scan the log files and search for known text patterns and rules that indicate important events. Once an event is detected, the monitoring system will send an alert, either to a person or to another
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
...
/
hardware system. Monitoring logs help to identify security events that occurred or might occur.
System administration
Website monitoring software
{{software-stub