asked on 1/28/2009

Linux Syslog Daemon and Crystal Reports

My company is exploring change/config management options and so far the only solution we have found to be good is Tripwire. Of course this software costs an arm and a leg. I've been asked to explore the option of using syslog in linux, grepping to a txt or db file, and then using Crystal Reports to extract data. Things we will be logging are permissions changes, ad account creations, folder access, etc. Can this be done?

Linux Crystal Reports

Last Comment

mhmservices

1/28/2009

amnonnes

1/28/2009

Can be done easily with a small script. Just write something the parses the crontab daily and extract the information you need to a database or a CSV file. This can be done using perl.
You can also use a commercial solution like splunk:
http://www.splunk.com/
Splunk monitors the syslog and creates customized reports according to your needs.
Regarding configuration management, you can use the highly customizable "puppet":
http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet/wiki/DocumentationStart
However this requires quite a stiff learning curve.

Maciej S

1/28/2009

Consider using AIDE (http://www.cs.tut.fi/~rammer/aide.html) which is free replacement for Tripwire.

mhmservices

1/28/2009

ASKER

The caveat is neither me or my SA partner are scripters or programmers. I know enough about linux to make it work but that's about it. We need to generate reports that upper level management will be able to understand easily.

I checked out splunk but to centralize your logs you need to buy an enterprise license and the lowest cost is 12,000. Not only that but a significant amount of man hours will be required building custom reports and indexes. I'll check out this aide software.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

amnonnes

1/28/2009