4 min
IT Ops
3 Common Problems Solved With JSON
One of the most common questions we get asked by customers is:
“What’s the best way to log my data?”
My answer is always:
“log using JSON format wherever possible.”
The next question we often get asked – (but not as much)…
Yeah JSON, …Hmmm, what is JSON again?
So JSON is:JavaScriptObjectNotation.
But put simply, this is a way that data can be stored in a structured format,
where each piece of data will usually have an identifier (known as a key) and a
value (which can be in multiple forma
4 min
IT Ops
7 Benefits of Cloud Computing for Non-Technical Techies
Much has been written about the cloud. What it is
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing], where it is
[http://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2456/2171], how it works
[http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-computing.htm], etc.
This isn’t going to be a rehash of those questions.
This is a cloud computing guide for the non-developer or non-operations guy.
The goal of this post is to lay the groundwork for a further discussion: of
cloud vs. on-premise, an
5 min
IT Ops
How to Avoid the Big Data Black Hole
It takes a lot of will power, in our data obsessed world to say “too much!”
However, there are many ways where too much information is destroying
productivity, and actually causing bad decision making, not good. But it is hard
to avoid the world of opportunities that has been opened in data collection and
analysis. So how do you balance the two? The first step is to understand there
is a big difference between data collection, and it’s utilization. While it
seems subtle, the difference is key, a
3 min
IT Ops
Scaling with RESTful Microservice Architecture
As described in a previous post [/2014/06/smart-integration-testing/] on this
blog, we have been using the Dropwizard
[https://dropwizard.github.io/dropwizard/] framework to quickly develop high
quality, easily testable
[/2014/07/smart-continuous-delivery-using-automated-testing/], RESTful
microservices to expand the functionality of our product. These complement the
existing multi-instance services running in our cluster and contribute to the
continued scaling of the Logentries service. Both i
4 min
IT Ops
Monitoring & Analyzing AWS CloudTrail Data From Multiple AWS Regions
We recently released AWS CloudTrail integration with Logentries
[https://logentries.com/doc/aws-cloudtrail/] – and not surprisingly we’ve seen a
significant uptick in adoption as one of our most popular integrations. My job
as director of customer success is to make things as simple for our customers as
possible. One question that consistently pops up, is how to collect AWS
CloudTrail logs from multiple AWS regions.
We follow Amazon’s best practices
[http://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/lat
3 min
IT Ops
How to Integrate Go / GoLang with Logentries
Would you like to send logs from your Go program code into your Logentries
account?Thanks to the help of Gal Ben-Haim’s, bsphere Golang library for log
entries [https://github.com/bsphere/le_go], Go coders can be sending their logs
to Logentries in no time at all. Benefits of using this Go Lang library and
implementing with your Logentries account include:
* Remote viewing and analysis of your Go program log events
* All your logs are sent to one location, and viewed through an easy to use
3 min
IT Ops
Real-time Alerting on Anomaly and Inactivity Made Simple.
“a·nom·a·ly”
1. Deviation or departure from the normal or common order, form, or rule.
When someone is looking to be alerted when something unexpected happens within
their environment they are usually referring to anomaly detection. But the
problem is that it’s hard to turn a complex problem (i.e. looking for something
when you are not sure what it is) into an easy to use solution.
The thing about anomaly detection is that you don’t know how the issue will
present itself so predicting the patte
6 min
IT Ops
An APM Solution Divided Cannot Stand
This post originally appeared onthe Smart Bear blog
[http://blog.smartbear.com/apm/an-apm-solution-divided-cannot-stand/]. To read
more content like this, subscribe to the Software Quality Matters Blog
[http://blog.smartbear.com/subscribe/].
[/content/images/le-img/2014/08/seperated-toolbox-600x415.jpg]
Frustrations with lack of tool unification might just lead to revolution in the
APM space…
Application Performance Management (APM) is a broad concept, and many
technologies fall under its umb
3 min
IT Ops
Evolve, Don't Revolve
[/content/images/le-img/2014/08/e_volve.jpg]
Logs have been around for a while, not quite as long as the wheel, but not far
off. Here at Logentries, we have the mantra of evolve don’t revolve (as in don’t
sit around spinning your wheels getting nowhere). We are taking this concept
and looking to evolve the way you work with and think about your log data.
Gone are the old days, where you only used logs to find exceptions. A new day
has dawned, and the future is here, the future is Logentries (
4 min
IT Ops
JSON logging in Apache and Nginx with Logentries
I’m often asked on calls with our customers what is the preferred format for log
data being sent to Logentries
[https://logentries.com/centralize-log-data-automatically/?le_trial=json_logging_in_apache_and_nginx-logentries_blog-post_cta-create_trial&utm_campaign=json_logging_in_apache_and_nginx&utm_source=logentries_blog&utm_medium=post_cta&utm_content=create_trial]
. While we pride ourselves on being the Log Management
[https://logentries.com/doc/log-management/] tool that is easiest to setup a
4 min
IT Ops
How D3 can help you build effective data visualizations
Data Visualization is the method of consolidating data into one collective,
illustrative graphic. Traditionally, data visualization has been used for
quantitative work, but ways to represent qualitative work have been shown to be
equally powerful. The main goal of data visualization, is to communicate
information clearly and effectively through graphical means. That doesn’t mean
that it needs to look boring to be functional or extremely sophisticated to look
beautiful. In order to achieve a bala
5 min
IT Ops
Smart Continuous Delivery Using Automated Testing
This post is building on a recent post highlighting recommendations on how to
simplify your unit testing by using the right set of tools (Smart Integration
Testing with Dropwizard, Flyway and Retrofit
[/2014/06/smart-integration-testing/]).
As a company like Logentries [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logentries]rapidly
grows, and the number of product features increases, an important question
arises around maintaining the highest level quality and user experience. That
level is usually where the
2 min
IT Ops
4 Ways to Use Centralized Log Management for Improved Production Monitoring
Is your team focused on preventing outages and minimizing downtime in
production?
Time to resolution is one of the most important operational KPIs for Ops teams,
becauseany time that your application is down, is too long for your users.
Whether it’s minutes, hours, or (in a worst case-scenario) days, any time that
your systems are down, your business is losing money; and more importantly,
customer trust and satisfaction. This creates additional pressure on your team
and hurts employee morale. By
3 min
IT Ops
Digging Deeper on AWS: Real-time Alerting for Windows Security Events
After many conversations with our AWS customers and the AWS CloudTrail team, we
recently released our AWS CloudTrail integration
[https://logentries.com/logentries-and-aws-log-data-analysis/] to automatically
support the most important log events our customers wanted to be monitoring
across their AWS environments. We found that some of the most common need for
notifications included:
* Starting, stopping, terminating, rebooting instances
* Creating or deletingsecuritygroups
* Creating and d
2 min
IT Ops
Revisiting the Past with Logentries and Syslog
When I was younger I was always amazed by my grandfather. He would revel me
in stories about how, when growing up, not only did he not have a car or
television, but he had to walk up hill “both ways” to get to school – without
shoes! And here I am today more or less saying the same thing about the late
70’s and early 80’s when client-server changeover that occurred during that time
and we all had servers sitting in our closets. Setting up syslog
[https://logentries.com/doc/about-syslog/] back in