Syslog

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Syslog is a standard for forwarding log messages in an Internet Protocol (IP) computer network.

Syslog is a client/server protocol:^[1] a logging application transmit a small (less than 1KB) text message to the syslog receiver. The receiver is commonly called syslogd, syslog daemon or syslog server. Syslog messages may be sent via the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) or the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).^[2] The data is sent in cleartext; although not part of the syslog protocol itself, an SSL wrapper may be used to provide for a layer of encryption through SSL/TLS. Syslog uses the port number 514.

Syslog is typically used for computer system management and security auditing. While it has a number of shortcomings, syslog is supported by a wide variety of devices and receivers across multiple platforms. Because of this, syslog can be used to integrate log data from many different types of systems into a central repository.

Syslog is now standardized within the Syslog working group of the IETF.