Last updated on September 9th, 2024 at 05:05 am
Log management tools enable you to monitor and analyze the data generated by various devices in your tech infrastructure such as servers, network devices, databases, routers, switches, firewalls, etc. so that you can easily identify and fix issues. They support log aggregation and analysis. They also allow you to monitor different types of structured and unstructured data from one place. Here are the top 10 log management tools for monitoring & analysis.
What Are Log Management Tools
Log management tools analyze the log data generated by various applications and devices to point out trends and issues upfront. Most of them need you to point the log management tool to log file location of an application/device that you want to monitor. Some of them even allow you to collect data from an application/device. Some even give smart insights about their usage. Almost all log management tools allow you to quickly search for texts and patterns within log files. They also provide out of the reports and graphs for easy analysis. Some even integrate with other IT systems so as to let you view their data within those systems. All in all, log management systems are a handy tool for every IT administator.
Top 10 Log Management Tools for Monitoring & Analysis
Here are the top 5 log management tools for monitoring & analysis.
1. SolarWinds Log Analyzer
SolarWinds Log Analyzer is one of the most popular log management tools that allow you to aggregate, filter, tag logs and setup automated alerts in case of issues.
It even features event logging, search & filter, real-time monitoring, third-party integration, event data collection and analysis.
You can use SolarWinds Log Analyzer to do root cause analysis, search logs using multiple criteria and even monitor logs in real-time stream.
It allows you to rapidly identify performance & availability issues.
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2. Sematext Logs
Sematext is one of the best log management tools for monitoring and analysis. It is available as cloud-based as well as on-premise versions. Sematext allows you to collect, store, index, monitor and search logs in real-time.
Sematext even allows you to set up automated alerts based on thresholds. It is capable of handling large volumes of data and integrate with third-party tools like Kibana & ElasticSearch.
Sematext offers 14-day free trial, with paid plans starting from $50/month.
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3. Datadog
Datadog is a powerful log monitoring tool that allows you to collect metrics, events and logs from more than 400 services, and get a bird’s eye view of your entire infrastructure.
It allows you to visualize and explore collected data using a graphical interface without any coding or querying. You can use it to discover log patterns and errors using machine-learning.
Datadog also allows you to create real-time analytics dashboards using a drag & drop interface. It supports data collection & monitoring from popular services such as AWS Cloudwatch, NGINX, Elasticsearch and more.
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4. Splunk
Splunk is another popular log monitoring and analysis tool that allows you to analyze and explore machine data to get meaningful insights. It features machine data indexing, drill-down analysis, real-time monitoring, automated alerts, reporting and dashboard.
You can collect, search, store, index, correlate, visualize, analyze machine-generated data. Splunk has the ability to collect & index data from various platforms. It has real-time search, analysis, and visualization.
Splunk provides a free trial, with paid plans starting from $150/GB of data collected. Splunk is suitable for medium-large enterprises.
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5. ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer
ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer provides end-to-end log management. It is suitable for Application Monitoring, Network monitoring, IT audit and compliance.
It allows you to monitor network devices, security logs, application logs and event logs. It features Syslog management, Server log management, and Event log management.
It is suitable for medium-large enterprises and useful for log aggregation, analysis, searching, filtering, and correlation of application data.
6. Sumo Logic
Sumo Logic is a robust, mature log management tool that can be deployed on cloud, on premise or as a hybrid setup. It provides many useful features such as issue & error detection, and predictive analysis.
It easily integrates with AWS, Azure and other cloud providers. It also integrates with more than 150 applications, out of the box.
Sumo Logic provides a centralized visualization store to help you keep an eye on all your applications and devices from one place. It provides two dashboards – live and historical data. The live dashboard gives you real-time view of all your key metrics about your platforms and applications. On the other hand, the historical dashboard helps you investigate issues using historical data. Since there can be huge amount historical data to sift from, this dashboard is more interactive with ability to filter data quickly.
It is suitable for medium to large enterprises.
7. DynaTrace
DynaTrace is another well-established, feature-rich log management platform that allows you to setup custom log data analysis.
It allows you to track and analyze events across different applications and devices over a period of time, for easy troubleshooting. DynaTrace even uses AI to correlate logs and identify complex issues early on.
It allows you to setup rules to track metrics and alert you in case they pass a threshold value. DynaTrace offers full-stack monitoring, with more than 500 integrations.
It is important to note that DynaTrace offers two kinds of log monitoring, called v1 and v2. V2 is more recent than V1 and is a more generic data analysis and monitoring solution but it lacks some of the features available in V1. So make sure to evaluate both before you make up your mind.
8. LogDNA
LogDNA allows you to monitor logs of numerous applications and devices on your system. It provides many templates to help you easily setup log parsing rules.
It allows you to parse logs from apps, networks, and any device and search through them using keywords and patterns. You can easily create alerts and reports, save them and view them in other applications.
Since it is built on ElasticSearch, it provides a scalable environment to easily index and filter log files, including advanced full-text search. You can even filter or group logs together, using a web-based interface.
It provides a free plan for one user with unlimited log retention and save views.
9. Logic Monitor
Logic Monitor provides highly automated log monitoring system that can be deployed on cloud or on-premise. It allows you to easily collect, centralize and analyze log data from various devices and applications.
It supports more than 2000 integrations with pre-built templates and modules to help you get started quickly. It also features many data querying options for simple to complex use cases.
Logic Monitor also provides access to 12 months of historical data that you can filter and analyze. It also uses machine learning to correlate & contextualize data and detect issues.
Only downside is that it is still uses the old-fashioned way of requesting sales team for quote. There is no option for self-service billing.
10. Logstash
Logstash is an open source and free log management tool that plugs into various application and device log files.
It allows you to easily collect, transfer and transform data of various formats and derive key information from them.
Logstash easily integrates with more than 200 services using its plugins. It even provides an API to get required information anywhere in your application or service.
How to Choose a Log Management Tool
Here are some of the important things to consider while choosing a log management tool
- Supported Data sources – If your log management tool does not support the application or device of your requirement, then it is of not much use no matter how feature-rich or scalable it is.
- Data Transport and transformation – In most cases, it will be difficult to consume and analyze log data from their present location and in their current format. If your log management tool can easily transport and transform data, it will be huge benefit.
- Data limits – Once you setup your log management tool, it will keep consuming data regularly. You do not want to hit data limits and start looking for options. So beforehand, check the data limits of your log management tool. You need to check this not only from scalability point of view but also with regards to its pricing.
- Data Changes – The applications and devices we use will change over time. Also, over time, new data sources are added and old ones are removed. Our log management tool needs to be able to handle these changes.
- Ease of Use – Log management tools are often used by teams and not individuals so they need to have collaboration features. Also, log management tools need to have decent dashboards and reporting out of the box, without requiring end users to configure them. This will improve productivity.
Conclusion
In this article, we have learnt about some of the top log management tools available in the market. Most of them provide a set of common features such as data monitoring and reporting. On the other hand, each one also provides some niche features required for specific use cases. Evaluate each tool according to your requirements and budget before you pick one. If you are a big organization with really complex use cases, you may need to use more than one tool. Hopefully, the above log monitoring and analysis tools will help you monitor your tech infrastructure, identify issues, do root cause analysis and act quickly. They are also important to harder your web server.
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Sreeram Sreenivasan is the Founder of Ubiq. He has helped many Fortune 500 companies in the areas of BI & software development.