What is a good Application for sorting through log information?

[yavapai]

I support the libraries in our county. We have 14 BSC-600s deployed. We use them mainly for patron verification to access the internet. We authenicate via a SIP connection.

What I need to be able to do is sort throught the User Tracking logs. The info I need typically is How many users and how long did they use the computer. Not much but time consuming.

I have a main server that could act as a Syslog server. I just need a program that would help me sift through everything.

Any and all suggestions are welcomed.

Regards,

Jim

[Anonymous]

The most simple, lowest cost solution would be to syslog the data to a syslog server. You could setup syslogging under General>Logging in the BSCs. You could then build your reports with this data using something such as Microsoft Excel. There is also a management platform called the BVMS that you could purchase which provides enhanced reporting capabilities amongst also being able to manage and monitor multiple BSCs. Finally, you could consider the vWLAN solution. With this solution, you could likely have all of your locations on 1 vWLAN Appliance (Hardware) or Virtual Appliance (VMware) instead of 14 BSC's and take advantage of the enhanced reporting capabilities that are built in.   

[Anonymous]

Try Splunk.

Download Splunk for free on your operating system

[yavapai]

Thanks Brian. I've downloaded Splunk.

[yavapai]

Thanks for responding Kenneth. Our libraries are scatter across the county. Our ISPs are a mixed of venders and connection speed. Thats why we went with individual units. Could the BVMS still tie all the units together? Perhaps if I used something like Hamachi. I get it for free via Logmein.

I have another semi related question. Is there any documentation on logging and reports other that the User guide? It seems that you should be able to do more with all the data that is gather. Other that trial and error on creating reports it would be nice to have something that explains what is in each category.

Thanks for your time. We may be interested in purchasing the BVMS if it would simplify things.

[Anonymous]

The BVMS must be able to access the BSC's on port 443 (API). The BVMS should also be able poll the BSC's via SNMP. In addition the BSC's must be able to send SNMP traps and syslog back to the BVMS. The BVMS uses the API on port 443, syslogs, and snmp to manage, monitor and and report on the BSCs.

I am sorry but there are not any other documents specific to logging apart from the user guide available at this time. 

[bsc_user]

I am in an almost identical situation as yourself. We have about 70 libraries with BSC's all using SIP. Here is what I did:

I created a single mailbox in my company and then configured each BSC to email a "User Defined" (User tracking -> Successful Logouts) report to this mailbox nightly. I then wrote a small Perl script to connect to the mailbox. extract the attachment, parse it and import it into a small MySQL database. I then created a small web front and gave each site a login that is tied to their Site Name (which is the from address in the BSC email report). This way each library can connect to the site and run reports for themselves and I can run some SQL to get a picture of all the locations as a whole. It seems to work pretty well and I've had no problems thus far. I even have a small cronjob that lets me know if any emails didn't arrive.

Let me know if this interests you and I can share the script, if you like.

[yavapai]

Thanks for replying. I just got a e-mail telling me someone had posted.

We are going to change over to the Adtran vWlan in the next couple of months and removing all the BSC-600s. I'm not sure how the reporting will change. Not by much from what I have seen. It's virtually the same (pun intended). Have you looked into it?

If you could share your script that would be great. I'm sure I will be able to use it with the new system.

Regards

[Anonymous]

I went ahead and flagged this post as “Assumed Answered.” If any of the responses on this thread assisted you, please mark them as either Correct or Helpful answers with the applicable buttons. This will make them visible and help other members of the community find solutions more easily as well as award points to the users that helped you. If you still need assistance, I would be more than happy to continue working with you on this - just let me know in a reply.