From the Sys Admin Toolbox: Logwatch

Last week we provided an introduction to the Linux system logs. (See Logs: Your Linux System’s Lovable Worker Bees.) Now, what will you, as a system administrator, use to watch logs? Logwatch, of course. As so many others have succinctly put it, messing with log files is a royal pain in the backside. Logwatch makes the experience of keeping track of system activity almost painless for you. Logwatch is a log file parser program (Perl script) that provides a report to you on any “interesting” activity on your system. It is not, I repeat not, a pre-emptive tool or a tool that’s used to catch anyone “in the act” of breaking into your system. It is an after-the-fact tool that provides you with a daily report of service activity. It reports on yesterday’s log information. We’ll explore active monitoring tools in the coming weeks to catch a would-be system…

1. The State of Open Source System Automation
2. Are You Expecting? Your Boss Should Know
3. The Persistence of Time
4. NTP: Timing is Everything
5. Disk Space: The Final Frontier