What's the difference between an event and a log (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between a log and an event? ›

Unlike logs, events describe a unit of work, meaning they contain all of the information about what it took for a service to perform a certain job. And, not every log is an event in its entirety. Logs are usually only portions of events. A group of logs can compose a single event.

Event logging just means recording the events that occur in a system. Event sourcing means recording extra information about those events, so that you can recreate the state of the system at any point in time by reconstructing the chain of events that occurred up until that point in time.

An event is a thing that happened anywhere at any time. It might be in Splunk and it might not. A log is the digital exhaust of that event; it is the plain-text vestige that indicates than an event happened. A result is each thing that is returned from a Splunk search.

Types of Event Logs

They are Information, Warning, Error, Success Audit (Security Log) and Failure Audit (Security Log). An event that describes the successful operation of a task, such as an application, driver, or service. For example, an Information event is logged when a network driver loads successfully.

The (Windows) Event Viewer shows the event of the system. The "Windows Logs" section contains (of note) the Application, Security and System logs - which have existed since Windows NT 3.1. Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) providers are displayed in the "Applications and Services Log" tree.

An event log is a chronologically ordered list of the recorded events. Note that “Event Log” is also a core component of Microsoft Windows, but this article covers the generic term used across all operating systems—including Windows.

These store information based on the Windows system's audit policies. Typical events logs stored include login attempts and resource access. For example the Windows security log stores a record when the computer attempts to verify account credentials when a user tries to log on to a machine.

Press the Windows key + R on your keyboard to open the run window. In the run dialog box, type in eventvwr and click OK. In the Event Viewer window, expand the Windows Logs menu. Under the Windows Logs menu, you'll notice different categories of event logs—application, security, setup, system, and forwarded events.

The purpose of logs is to present events related to changes in the state of a system. Basically, the logs present a history of certain instructions that each component of a system has executed. In contrast, traces record events of interaction between components of a system.

Event Log: a high-level log that records information about network traffic and usage, such as login attempts, failed password attempts, and application events. Server Log: a text document containing a record of activities related to a specific server in a specific period of time.

What are the main benefits of using event logs? ›

Event log monitoring is a process of tracking and analyzing the event logs generated by network devices. These logs basically are activities taking place within a network thereby event logs provide real-time insights of the network's performance.

Syslog is a protocol for formatting log messages, typically associated with Linux / Unix operating systems, Firewalls and Network Infrastructure. Windows event logs are a Microsoft-developed format that provides similar. A Windows event log uses the following format: Header: represented by ELF_LOGFILE_HEADER structure.

Common types of log data include application logs, system logs, network logs and security logs.

Viewing events logs in Event Viewer

The major log files that will likely be used for most Windows troubleshooting are application, security, and system.

Event correlation takes data from either application logs or host logs and then analyzes the data to identify relationships. Tools that utilize event correlation can then perform actions, such as sending alerts for hardware or application failures, based on user-defined rules.