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JL.
Asked: 2009-11-20 06:36:24 +0800 CST

What is SysLog, A product or a standard?

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I have a customer who is using syslog running under Linux. We don't have any Linux infrastructure or skills in our org, so I found a Windows product called WinSysLog.

I was wondering, is Syslog a standard, so all products based on syslog run on the same rules, or are each Syslog applications differant?

syslog

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Yes, syslog is a standardised protocol, in RFC5424. However, it's not a trademark, so there's no reason why someone couldn't come up with something completely unrelated to the syslog protocol and call it WinSysLog (aiee! The camels!). You'll need to investigate whether it is compliant with the standard protocol.

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  2. Syslog is a standard and generally the application or library on the operating systems I've used that implement it are called syslog as well. Confusing huh? :)

    See:

    http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3164.html

    http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3195.html

    http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc5424.html

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  3. I believe it is a standard, as there is an RFC

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  4. It has been both a adhoc protocol, and a standard over time. Syslog did not become a standard until August of 2001. Before that there were several variants of syslog all descending from Eric Alman's original implementation in the 1980's. Not all of these variants were necessarily compatible. In August of 2001 the IETF issued a document that standardized syslog in RFC 3164. The Syslog protocol was subsequently improved up in RFC 5424 which obsoleted RFC 3164.

    If you customer is on linux I would suggest you check out Syslog-NG and Rsyslog Both provide implimentations of Syslog that are compatible with WinSyslog.

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