What does Windows® Logs tell you?
A Windows domain controller generates almost 100,000 event logs per hour, which means that the collective output from a rack full of Windows servers on an average day would more or less fill up the phone book of Austin. These event logs contain vital information such as logon failures, failed attempts to access secure files, and more. If your environment includes Windows servers and workstations, you need to make sure that you monitor Windows event logs across its multiple versions.
Why monitor Windows Event Logs?
It is important to determine the reliability issues in your network, to keep a tab on the various events that lead to security problems and downtime. Monitoring Windows event logs gives you critical information, for example:
1. Application logs contain events logged by applications.
2. Security logs contain records of valid and invalid logon attempts and events related to resources use, such as creating, opening, or deleting files or other objects.
3. System logs comprise system component events like driver failures and hardware issues.
4. DNS servers also store DNS events in their logs.
Windows event logs, typically gathers log data published by installed applications, services and system processes and places them into event log channels.
Why is Windows Event Viewer Not Enough?
Windows operating systems allow you to view the event logs on a local or a remote machine with the help of Windows Event Viewer, a built-in tool available within the OS. The issue with the Event Viewer is that it doesn't help you analyze the event in depth to the level of understanding the root cause. Also that the Event Viewer differs with the version of the Windows OS that you are using as it logs events with according to the version of OS.
It is very critical to analyze the event and understand the root cause. You need a log management solution that can efficiently monitor your Windows Event logs and alert you in real-time as your workstations encounter security threats and policy violations. Secondly, monitoring workstation logs in addition to server logs makes event analysis and user activity awareness even more comprehensive and actionable. To make log analysis more efficient, you need to collect and consolidate log data across the IT environment, and correlate events from multiple devices in real-time.
SolarWinds Log & Event Manager (LEM) completely monitors Windows Event logs across various versions of Windows servers and workstations. It acts as a central collection point for Windows system log data, automatically aggregating and then normalizing this data into a consistent format. LEM also performs multiple event correlation, including the distinct ability to set independent activity thresholds per event or per group to understand relationships between dramatically different activities. It lets you effectively identify and respond to threats in real time, rather than being reactive.