How to Set up Syslog Server on Windows

As a Solutions Architect, I work with Cloud Service Providers to get some devices certified by them, During certification process sometimes devices don't work at all hahaha or, some features aren't working properly, so i need to go deep down and take a look inside of the devices to know what the issues are.

To be able to know what the issue is, I always take a look at the logs. Logs are like the blood, if you do some blood tests, and doctor go over it, you will know how good your health is, right? logs works as blood for IT systems. 

 

 For instance, during one certification process, all devices couldn't even get provisioned to one Cloud, imagine that? If this happened to a customer, they definitely would not buy this system haha that's why certification is key for selling purposes. Anyway, getting back to the main  topic, during that process, i took a look at logs and i knew what the issue was, just an issue related to SSL, I fixed it and we were able to start after that 🙊.

All devices have a memory, the quality and capacity depend on OEM, and that might be public information for computers, and other systems. However, that information is not available for certain systems, so we don't know how much logs they can store, for instance, an IP Phone. We all know ip phones have a built-in memory, but we don't know the capacity, so we don't know how much logs they can store, that's why we need one syslog server so we can save all logs without losing any detail. 

In this blog post, i will show you how to  install Visual syslog server, how to set it up, how to point one device to our server and how to collect logs.

Installing Visual Syslog Server

Open this link, it will download "Visual Syslog Server for windows" from Github, and please extract the files.

 

 Open the main folder, and then open "Output" folder.

 

 Now double left-click on Visualsyslog_setup exe file.

 

Easiest steps' turn!! Just click on "Next", "Next" and then "next" again 😌😋

 

 

You can change the folder path, if needed. i won't, so i will just click on Next.

 

 NEXT NEXT NEXT...

 

 

 

And finally, click on "INSTALL" and "FINISH".

 

 

Running Syslog Server & Pointing device to server 

If you just installed, and "launch visual syslog server" box was checked, then the app will be open automatically. If you didn't check it, then just open the app.

 

 

Now, get your computer's ip address by running CMD (command Prompt) and paste the following command:

ipconfig

Just copy your IPv4 address

Note: The computer running Syslog server app must be on the same network/VLAN as the device is connected to. If not, syslog server will not collect logs.

 

Now open your device's settings.

Note: Keep in mind that the following  steps might vary, and it depends on your device's interface. However, parameters should be the same ones in order to point your device to a syslog server.

 

Note: If your using a poly phone, go to Phone web interface -> Settings ->Syslog 

Fill out fields and set the following parameters:

• Server address: Your computer's IP address (for instance, mine is 192.168.1.9)
•  Server type: set to UDP, it depends on your environment, and you might need to set it to TLS or TCP
• Render level:  Set to Debug, it varies on logging levels and how much information you would like to see.

After setting those parameters, save your configurations.

Aaaaaaaand now it's working, after completing the steps, your server is now collecting the logs,

 

Where are my logs?

Probably you're asking this question, "where are my logs?", right? to know the answer, please click on Setup.

 

After that, select "files".

And now, you will finally see the location path where your logs are getting saved.

Open file explorer, and paste your location path, and there you go!! You can finally check logs by opening Syslog file.

 

That's all for today! Thanks for reading this blog post. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. Remember to subscribe to this blog, my YT channel, and follow me on my social media. 👍

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