WinSyslog 3.3 Preview Released

Erftstadt, Germany, 2001-03-14.

Adiscon GmbH today announced the preview release of WinSyslog 3.3. The new version offers many important new features:

• Flexible Rule Engine - the big, big plus! Messages received are now run through rules. Each rule is associated with actions (like sending mail or writing to ODBC databases) that are carried out when the rule matches. There is an unlimited number of rules and actions.
• EMail Support - received syslog messages can now be forwarded to email recipients. 
• Syslog Forwarding Support - allows to cascade syslog servers. Messages received by WinSyslog can be forwarded by syslog protocol to syslog servers on other systems.
• Remote Administration - the client can now connect to remote systems and configure them.
• Clients supports integrated Version checking via Adiscon's online eSupport site.
• Unicode based - results in faster execution under Windows NT/2000/XP and also eases internationalization.
• Web interface to syslog database - currently available as a separate free download, it will be included in the final release. The web interface enables you to view syslog messages from any web browser in real time.

The new Rule Engine is the top new feature of that release. We even thought of changing the major version number. Technically, this would have been appropriate, because there is so many new and enhanced in the product. However, we have decided to stick with the 3.x major release number so that existing 3.x customers will receive a free update.

The rule engine is extremely flexible: each message received is run checked against all rules specified by the user. I a rule matches the criterias (e.g. syslog facility, syslog priority or sub string match inside the message), the actions defined for this rule are executed. The default action behavior can also be modified by the rule. So with ODBC the database can be specified on a per rule basis or with email the recipient. Each message is run through all rules - so multiple matches are supported. Of course, the further processing of rules can be blocked by a rule if desired. In short: the possibilities are endless!

A real world example: suppose you monitor your servers and would like to save all events except some that are really not interesting to you. Also, you would like your support people be notified by a pager if some very critical messages occur. With WinSyslog, that can easily be done. First, define a rule that blocks all messages you deem to be not interesting. Then, define a rule that logs all other messages to a database. And how about the pagers? Well, as long as you have an email interface to page the person, it's also easy: simply define one rule for each of this emergency events. Then, define an email-to action to activate that person's pager if the event occurs. The email recipient is set on a per-action basis, so you can activate different pagers with different rules - and even more than one pager for very serious events inside a single rule.  

Sounds impressive? In fact it is. Just think and you will see hundreds of new applications for the rule engine!

WinSyslog 3.3 is a free download found at Adiscon's web site. Interested users should download and try out the version. Be sure to select the "WinSyslog 3.3 Preview (Full Install)" from the "Install Set" list box - otherwise you will get the 3.2 final!

Important: The preview does not yet come with updated documentation. This will be available soon.