Log management is the collective processes and policies used to administer and facilitate the generation, transmission, analysis, storage, archiving and ultimate disposal of the large volumes of log data created within an information system.
All activities in the UNIX system (and its variants such as Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, AIX, HPUX, and like) can be recorded. This recording is used for auditing requirements, namely check the system if needed. For example, if an error occurred (error) then administrators can more easily find the source of error because the information is recorded neatly. Similarly, in case of misuse of the facility, it is known who the who did it and what it would do. Recording the activities performed by writing data to a file note often referred to by the name "logfile" or the log file. The recording process itself often called the logging.
Logs provide us with necessary information on how our system is behaving. However, the content and format of the logs varies among different services or say, among different components of the same system. For example, a scanner may log error messages related to communication with other devices; on the other hand, a web server logs information on all incoming requests, outgoing responses, time taken for a response, and so on. Similarly, application logs for an e-commerce website will log business-specific logs.
As the logs vary by their content, so will their uses. For example, the logs from a scanner may be used for troubleshooting or for a simple status check or reporting while the web server log is used to analyze traffic patterns across multiple products. Analysis of logs from an e-commerce site can help figure out whether packages from a specific location are returned repeatedly and the probable reasons for the same.
The following are some common use cases where log analysis is helpful:
- Issue debugging
- Performance analysis
- Security analysis
- Predictive analysis
- Internet of things (IoT) and logging
