Event Log Monitoring for Windows

To perform Windows event log monitoring, admins may choose to take manual steps, although an automated Windows event log analyzer can make the process more efficient. 

A few basic steps are required to effectively collect and monitor Windows event logs for troubleshooting insights:

1. Aggregate and centralize logs: The only way to monitor the full scope of your Windows event logs is either by going through the tens of thousands of logs produced each day manually or by using a Windows event log collector tool. Typically, the easiest way to aggregate logs is to manage your various devices and services through an automated tool and view your system logs through a single interface. 
2. Scan logs: The process of monitoring Windows event logs also involves going through the collected logs to find suspicious behavior, like patterns of increased log activity indicative of an attack or logs showing a problem within the system, often indicated by an error log. Once you find a suspicious log, you can use the record to help determine the cause of whatever problem your system is facing and resolve it.While scanning Windows event logs can be incredibly useful, it can also be quite overwhelming. This is because the systems on your network produce tens of thousands of logs every day, which can make manually monitoring logs extremely difficult. Additionally, the most critical logs for maintaining the security and functionality of your network may not always be flagged as such. For example, it’s possible that not all the logs related to the security of your system are stored as “security” logs, making it more difficult to promptly notice a threat. Security threats may not even appear within specific error logs but show up as unusual patterns of log entries, such as an increased volume of a certain type of log in a short amount of time to indicate an attack on the system. These patterns can be very difficult to spot when manually sorting through logs.
3. Gain log insights: The more devices and systems you have on your network, the more time-consuming the task of manually sorting through logs for insights becomes. You may even miss important warning signs that could prevent your network and business from being seriously threatened.

To effectively and efficiently monitor Windows event log data and make sure you’re not missing critical information, using a tool to automatically collect and monitor your logs and provide alerts whenever a threat is detected can enable you to act quickly to find and address the danger before your network is compromised. Automated event log tools can also provide additional capabilities, like event log tagging, search features, and alerting.