Top 6 registry management tools for Linux in 2020

What is records management?

Before we can talk about records management, let's define what a recording is. Simply defined, a record is automatically produced and time-stamped documentation of an event relevant to a particular system. In other words, every time an event occurs in a system, a log is generated. Systems and devices generate logs for different types of events, and many systems give administrators some control over which event generates a log and which does not.

In terms of records management, it simply refers to the processes and policies used to manage and facilitate the generation, transmission, analysis, storage, archiving and eventual deletion of large volumes of recording data. Although not clearly stated, records management involves a centralized system where records are collected from multiple sources. However, records management is not just a collection of records. This is the most important part of management. And records management systems often have multiple features, with record collection being just one of them.

After the records management system receives the records, it is necessary to standardize them into a common format, as different systems format records differently and include different data. Some start a recording with the date and time, others start it with an event number. Some include only an event ID, while others include a full-text description of the event. One of the goals of records management systems is to ensure that all record entries collected are stored in a uniform format. This will make event correlation and eventual research much easier in the future.

Even correlation and search are two important additional functions of various document management systems. The best include a powerful search engine that lets admins focus on exactly what they need. Correlation functions will automatically group related events, even if they come from different sources. How and with what success different document management systems achieve this is an important differentiator.

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Recording technologies

Managing records would be much more difficult, if not impossible, without the recording protocols. Some of them exist. They define what data will be included in records, how it should be formatted, and sometimes how it will be transmitted between systems.

Syslog is probably the most widely used logging protocol , especially in the Linux world. The technology was invented in the early 1980s and has become the de facto standard for all Unix-like systems. One of the greatest strengths of syslog technology is the way it facilitates the separation between the system or software that generates the logs, the system that stores them, and the software that reports and analyzes them. The use of Syslog technology facilitates log management. And Syslog is not unique to Unix. Many non-Unix devices, such as switches, routers, and all kinds of equipment from many vendors, use some variation of the syslog protocol.

There are other logging technologies. Microsoft Windows, for example, uses a different registry system. This may be because Windows operating systems and applications have logs that typically contain more detailed information than syslog technology allows. Fortunately, the Windows event collector functions provide a means of managing logs that various systems can use to receive events from Windows hosts. This article is about managing the Linux registry, so let's not waste too much time on Windows.

Regardless of the logging technology used, an important part of managing logs is configuring devices to send their logs to the management system. Other types of tools, such as network monitoring systems, can get data from the systems they monitor, but with log management, each device must be "told" where to send its logs. However, this is a relatively simple task that is often accomplished by issuing a simple command.

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Log servers or records management?

Since it has been available on all Unix-like systems, including Linux, for some time, Syslog has often been used as a log server with one computer receiving syslog data from several others. While this centralized log storage has obvious advantages, it is not enough to call it records management.

To earn the name of a Log Management System, a product must include at least some of the more advanced features. According to Wikipedia, "Records management includes the following functions: collecting records, centralized aggregation of records, long-term record storage and retention, record rotation, record analysis, record search and reporting. ". Woohoo! That's a lot of features. Log servers, on the other hand, often only offer log collection and storage and rarely more than that.

A word (or two) on SIEM

Another popular technology associated with logs and often confused with log management systems is security information and event management, or SIEM. This is different from records management, but it is closely related. The line between them is so thin that some products advertised as records management systems are in fact SIEM systems, while some core SIEM systems are nothing more than advanced records management systems.

The confusion arises from the fact that records management, or at least the analysis of records, is an important part of SIEM systems. What sets SIEM systems apart is that they perform log analysis with the ultimate goal of identifying security issues. For example, they will look for signs of a failed connection that could be a telltale sign of a unauthorized intrusion attempt . These systems constantly scan registry entries for anything out of the ordinary .While some SIEM systems include extensive log management functionality, some use an external log management system and it is not uncommon to see the two systems running side by side.

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The best registry management for Linux

Hopefully we now have a common understanding of what records management is and isn't. So, let's take a look at what's available for Linux. But first, let's clarify something. When we talk about Linux registry management, we mean registry management systems that can accommodate Linux registries and run on the Linux platform or in the cloud. Some of our selections, especially cloud-based systems, will also work with registries from other platforms.

1. SolarWinds Papertrail (FREE PLAN AVAILABLE)

Solarwinds has become a household name among network administrators. It has been building some of the best tools for almost 20 years, giving us great bandwidth monitoring tools and one of the best NetFlow analyzers and harvesters. The company is also known for releasing several free tools that meet some specific needs of network administrators, such as a subnet calculator or a syslog server.

>> FREE PLAN: SolarWinds Papertrail

Not so long ago, SolarWinds has acquired Papertrail , a popular document management system. Add log files from a wide variety of popular products such as Apache or MySQL, as well as Ruby on Rails applications, various cloud hosting services, and other standard text and syslog based log files. The users of Papertrail can use the command-line or web-based search interface to find these files and help diagnose multiple issues. Papertrail also integrates with other SolarWinds products such as Librato and Geckoboard to graph the results.

Papertrail is a cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) offering from SolarWinds. Being cloud-based means it will perform well in a fully Linux environment. The platform is easy to set up, use and understand, and will give you instant visibility of all systems within minutes. In addition, the product has a very efficient search engine that can search both stored logs and streaming logs. And it's super-fast.

Papertrail is available in multiple plans, including a free plan . However, it is somewhat limited and only allows 100MB of logs per month. However, it will allow 16 GB of registrations in the first month, which is equivalent to offer you a free 30-day trial . Paid plans start at $ 7 / month for 1GB / month of records, 1 year of deposit, and 1 week of index. Noise filtering allows the tool to preserve data by not saving unnecessary recordings.

2. Loggly

Loggly is another cloud-based online service. Primarily a log consolidator, it also offers log analysis functionality. Due to being cloud-based, this system requires no installation and is ready to use as soon as you sign up. Of course, your systems and devices will need to be configured to periodically upload their standard log files to the online server.

>> FREE TRY: Loggly plans

Then, Loggly converts the received recording data into a standard format, which allows the analyzer to process recordings from a variety of sources and enables monitoring and correlation of events between systems, regardless of operating system or recording technology. The sources of log data are not limited to your local servers. The system, of course, can process logs generated by online servers, like Amazon's AWS, and can include messages created by specific applications like Docker and Logstash, to name a few.

Le service Loggly is available in three different plans, with ever increasing data processing limits and retention times. You need to choose the correct one to have enough space for your registration data. The entry-level plan is called Loggly Lite. It's free to use. With this plan, you can download 200MB of log data per day and the system will keep each log for seven days. Next up is the Standard plan, which gives you a download allowance of 1GB per day and keeps logs for 30 days. Paid plans also allow you to use multiple user accounts. With the Standard package, you can have three user accounts.The upper level is called Loggly Enterprise . There is no limit to the number of user accounts you can set up and prices vary depending on the download capacity and retention period you require. Payment for all paid plans can be monthly or yearly and a 14-day free trial is available on the Standard plan .

3. Splunk

Splunk is a comprehensive registry management system well known within the systems management community for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows. More than just a basic records management system, it is considered by some to be a comprehensive intrusion prevention system. The product is available in three versions. At the top is Splunk Enterprise, which is more of a network management system than a simple log management tool. The price starts at $ 173 per month and you get a lot of features.

> Also> Splunk which is basically the same tool without some of its more advanced features. Essentially, it is limited to analyzing log files. You can feed any of your standard log files or send them live data via a file to the analyzer. The free version has some limitations. For example, you can only have one user account and your data rate is limited to 500MB of records per day. Data filtering and classification functionality is built into Splunk, making your troubleshooting efforts easier. You can use these functions to divide recordings by date and write each group to new files.In fact, this feature is very flexible.