All OSes record informational, cautionary, and error-alarm events in system log files. Windows has a robust log system. The Windows Event Viewer utility provides a tool to view, manage, archive, and customize the content and display of each of the log files. The following screenshot shows a screen capture of the Windows Event Viewer:
The Windows Event Viewer displays the contents of the system's log files
On a Linux system, the log files are in the /var/log directory. The following screenshot shows a display of the log entries in the sysinfo.log file, which contains entries for the general activities of the system:
The contents of a Linux sysinfo.log file
In addition to the onboard log file utilities, several third-party systems are available for log file monitoring, analysis, and reporting. The following screenshot shows an event log analysis tool...