Event log monitoring with PRTG

Windows event logs and syslogs both record what's happening on your network, but they work differently and are suitable for different environments.

Event logs record what's happening on software and systems that run on Microsoft Windows, while syslogs are OS-agnostic (Linux, Unix, macOS). That is, they can record what's happening on any software, system, or device, regardless of the operating system it uses. Syslogs also have more flexible content, while Windows event logs typically follow a fairly rigid structure with predefined event IDs.

Event log monitoring is the automated monitoring of event logs. With PRTG, the log files of all the computers in your network are monitored around the clock. If a critical incident occurs, the admin is notified at once.

Event log management refers to all the tasks related to the management of log files. In other words, the collection, saving, consolidating, analysis, and archiving of log data, events, and incidents.

Two reasons: clarity and simplicity.

An event log-monitoring tool brings together data from all your Windows event and application logs and syslogs on one dashboard. That saves you having to retrieve event logs and syslogs manually from individual system components’ event viewers. PRTG's preconfigured sensors also alert you automatically if there's an issue, which saves you having to review and inspect hundreds or thousands of individual event logs and gives you the peace of mind that you'll never miss a potentially serious issue.

In PRTG, “sensors” are the basic monitoring elements. One sensor usually monitors one measured value in your network, for example the traffic of a switch port, the CPU load of a server, or the free space on a disk drive.

On average, you need about 5-10 sensors per device or one sensor per switch port.