Sending windows logs to the Nagios log server is an easy process. We do it by adding a log source, installing and configuring NXLog CE, and then starting it. Finally, we verify the incoming logs.

Here at Bobcares, we have seen several such Nagios-related queries as part of our Server Management Services for web hosts and online service providers.

Today we’ll take a look at how to send Windows logs to the Nagios log server.

Sending windows logs to Nagios log server

Now let’s see how our Support Engineers configure Windows to send logs to Nagios Log Server.

We make use of a third-party program called NXLog Community Edition (CE) to receive logs from Windows. Here are the steps that we follow to install and configure NXLog CE.

Add A Log Source

After logging into Nagios Log Server we will be presented with the Home page. In the bottom left of the page, there are buttons to start sending logs to Nagios Log Server. Here we click on the + Windows button.

Alternatively, we can click the + Add Log Source button on the navigation bar. This will take you to the Add Log Source page where you can click on the Windows button.

Install NXLog CE

At the top of the Windows source page, there is a Getting Started section. Also, there is a link provided to download and install NXLog CE. The installer is downloaded from your Nagios Log Server instance.

Here are the installation steps.

1. First, we click on “I accept the terms in the License Agreement”
2. Next, we click the Install button.
3. The installation process is quick. Once finished, the Completed screen is presented.
4. Finally, we click the Finish button to complete the install.

Configure NXLog CE

After installing the NXLog CE on the Windows machine, now we configure it.

On the Nagios Log Server Windows source page, there is a Configuration Setup section with a configuration code block that needs to be saved on your Windows machine.

For that, we use the Select All icon in the top right of the code block to highlight all the code. Once completed, we right-click the mouse on the highlighted text and select Copy, this will copy the config into the clipboard.

Open Notepad on the Windows machine.

Now we open the C:\Program Files(x86)\nxlog\conf\nxlog.conf file.

Here we use the drop-down list in the bottom right and select All Files (*.*).

The nxlog.conf file will open with a default configuration that is not required. Now we press CTRL + A on the keyboard to select it all and then press DEL on the keyboard to delete the existing contents.

We right-click the mouse on the empty nxlog.conf file in Notepad and select Paste. The config file will now have the configuration required for Nagios Log Server.

Click File > Save in Notepad to save these changes.

Finally, we now close the Notepad.

Start NXLog CE Service

The final step is to start the NXLog service on the Windows machine. For that, we open a command prompt as an administrator and execute the following command:

net start nxlog

NXLog CE will now start sending Windows logs to the Nagios Log Server. The installer also configured the service to start automatically when Windows boots.

Verify Incoming Logs

In order to confirm that Nagios Log Server is receiving data from the Windows server navigate to the Dashboards page. Perform a Query on the host field using the IP Address of your Windows host:

host:<Windows Host Address>

[Need any further assistance with Nagios queries? – We are here to help you]

Conclusion

Today, we saw how the steps provided by our Support Engineers to send Windows logs to the Nagios log server.