News and blog
NXLog main page
  • Products
    NXLog Platform
    Log collection
    Log management and analytics
    Log storage
    NXLog Community Edition
    Integrations
    Professional Services
  • Solutions
    Use cases
    Specific OS support
    SCADA/ICS
    Windows event log
    DNS logging
    MacOS logging
    Solutions by industry
    Financial Services
    Government & Education
    Entertainment & Gambling
    Telecommunications
    Medical & Healthcare
    Military & Defense
    Law Firms & Legal Counsel
    Industrial & Manufacturing
  • Plans
  • Partners
    Find a Reseller
    Partner Program
  • Resources
    Documentation
    Blog
    White papers
    Videos
    Webinars
    Case Studies
    Community Program
    Community Forum
  • About
    Company
    Careers
  • Support
    Support portals
    Contact us

NXLog Platform
Log collection
Log management and analytics
Log storage
NXLog Community Edition
Integrations
Professional Services

Use Cases
Specific OS support
SCADA/ICS
Windows event log
DNS logging
MacOS logging
Solutions by industry
Financial Services
Government & Education
Entertainment & Gambling
Telecommunications
Medical & Healthcare
Military & Defense
Law Firms & Legal Counsel
Industrial & Manufacturing


Find a Reseller
Partner Program

Documentation
Blog
White papers
Videos
Webinars
Case Studies
Community Program
Community Forum

Company
Careers

Support portals
Contact us
Let's Talk Start free
NXLog search
  • Loading...
Let's Talk Start free
November 27, 2024 windowsstrategycomparison

Centralized Windows log collection - NXLog Platform vs. WEF

By Arielle Bonnici

Share
ALL SIEM STRATEGY SECURITY ANNOUNCEMENT DEPLOYMENT COMPLIANCE COMPARISON RSS

One of the challenges that security-conscious Windows administrators face is collecting and centralizing Windows event logs. One of the obvious solutions that come to mind is the native Windows Event Forwarding (WEF) feature available on all modern Windows operating systems.

WEF offers the convenience of forwarding Windows events to a central event collector without installing and managing agents. To objectively portray the role this valuable technology plays in the larger scope of enterprise log collection, we have written several articles that discuss it:

  • Making the Most of Windows Event Forwarding for Centralized Log Collection

  • Set up a Windows Event Collector (WEC) on Linux

  • Agent-based versus agentless log collection - which option is best?

There is no doubt that WEF can be advantageous, especially in small or mixed environments where you only need to collect events from a handful of Windows machines. However, when it comes to centralizing logs from hundreds or thousands of sources, WEF can be a challenge to work with, and in the long term, you are likely to run into problems. This blog post looks at some of the drawbacks and presents how you can implement a more robust centralized log collection strategy with NXLog Platform and agent-based log collection.

Resource Utilization & Performance

WEF has several limitations when it comes to performance. In fact, there is an entire section, WEC server’s limitations, in Microsoft’s Windows security documentation dedicated to known "factors that limit the scalability of WEC servers", namely:

  • Received events are saved to local EVTX files, so you must ensure ample disk space is available. The disk writing speed will also limit the speed of logging.

  • Remote log collection increases the network load. WEF doesn’t use compression, so you can expect the impact on your network to be pretty high. Additionally, the number of WEF clients that can connect to the server simultaneously is limited by the open ports available on the server.

  • As the number of WEF sources increases, you risk the registry and Event Viewer becoming unusable, leaving you to manage your subscriptions with a command-line tool.

Microsoft’s recommendation for a stable WEC server on commodity hardware is an average of 3,000 events per second. This relatively low EPS rate will be easily exceeded in medium to large environments.

NXLog Platform and agent-based log collection reduce these challenges considerably. NXLog Agent, NXLog Platform’s agent software, is lightweight and runs in the background. It can process log volumes above 100,000 events per second, and there is no need to save events to a file if you don’t wish to. Whether you choose a centralized deployment method, where agents send events to a central NXLog Agent relay, or agents send events directly to NXLog Platform, you can use compression to reduce the network load. Several compression methods are available:

  • SSL compression when using TLS/SSL

  • HTTP compression when using HTTP(s)

  • A proprietary compression protocol when using NXLog Transport

Stability & Reliability

In agent-less (remote) log collection, monitoring the health of your log sources is more complex, and WEF does not provide monitoring tools. You are also introducing a single point of failure. If a WEC server becomes overwhelmed, some events will be lost, which will negatively impact the entire logging infrastructure. How can you monitor your collector to ensure it doesn’t reach its maximum logging rate, and thus prevent it from dropping events? Or, even worse, how do you determine if it already has reached its maximum logging capacity?

NXLog Agent implements default delivery guarantees and flow control systems that ensure logs reach their destination. Further mechanisms are available for reliable log delivery, including memory and disk-based caching, to help you avoid data loss. In addition, there are several ways you can monitor the health of NXLog Agent instances. Since it runs as a service, you can easily monitor it using monitoring tools you may already have deployed in your environment. NXLog Platform is available for more advanced monitoring, but more on that below.

Deployment & Management

Once your WEC servers are up and running, you can easily configure WEF settings on your log sources via Group Policy. However, WEF’s most significant weaknesses are management, health monitoring, and capacity planning. Unfortunately, not only does Event Viewer fail to offer any viable management options, its performance also takes a noticeable hit when you’re dealing with multiple WEC servers, causing it to slow down and become unresponsive. Third-party options to manage a WEF setup are also minimal. What about large environments with several collector servers? How do you distribute the load from WEF clients, you may be asking? Well, that is something you’ll have to figure out yourself because WEF does not support load balancing of any kind, not even third-party load balancers.

With NXLog Platform, you can implement a complete log collection solution that is easy to deploy, monitor, and manage. Besides deploying agents via Group Policy, there are other options you can choose from. NXLog Platform is an all-in-one log collection, management, and analytics platform offering a web-based agent management system that facilitates deployment and configuration. It also supports agent enrollment rules and configuration templates.

Configuration & Functionality

It is common knowledge that WEF has a steep learning curve, and deploying it is not easy. Multiple server and client operating system components need to be preconfigured for WEF to work successfully, making it a daunting task to undertake. In fact, when browsing online support platforms, you often come across advice cautioning you to think twice about using the technology. Troubleshooting WEF is also not straightforward. When things are not working as expected, you are limited to a few Windows events with bogus error codes and messages.

Suppose you plan on forwarding logs from your WEC servers to a SIEM or a log analytics solution, a standard practice for businesses that take security seriously; you will find that WEC servers have no capabilities to forward logs. In this case, you have no other option than to use another tool to collect the forwarded logs from WEC servers. Unfortunately, such a setup introduces a delay in getting your logs to their destination, which is undesirable for threat analysis and management.

In contrast, configuring log collection through NXLog Platform is much easier. The NXLog Platform documentation is well-maintained and covers the entire gamut: from getting you up and running to complete configuration examples. In addition, NXLog Agent’s rich feature set allows you to achieve everything you need for a centralized log collection solution with ample benefits over WEF.

Feature Comparison

The following table compares WEF and how it stacks up against NXLog Agent. It looks at functional capabilities, supported operating systems, as well as some deployment and management options that one might expect from a log collection solution.

Table 1. Windows Event Forwarding vs. NXLog Agent
Feature WEF NXLog Agent

Operating System Support

Microsoft Windows

heavy check mark 2714

heavy check mark 2714

Debian

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Ubuntu

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

RHEL

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

SLES

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

FreeBSD

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

macOS

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

IBM AIX

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Oracle Solaris

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Amazon Linux

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Docker

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Deployment and Management

Group Policy deployment

heavy check mark 2714

heavy check mark 2714

Log source health monitoring

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Web-based UI log source configuration and management

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

API-based log source configuration and management

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Auto-enrollment

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Enrollment rules

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Configuration templates

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Log Processing Features

Event filtering

heavy check mark 2714

heavy check mark 2714

Event parsing

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Message rewrite

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Data enrichment

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Event log caching

heavy check mark 2714

heavy check mark 2714

Event correlation

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

UTC logging

heavy check mark 2714

heavy check mark 2714

Alerting

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Log Transfer and Output Features

TLS/SSL encryption

heavy check mark 2714

heavy check mark 2714

Compression

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Failover

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Multiple output formats (syslog, JSON, XML, CSV, etc.)

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Log forwarding to third-party platforms (SIEMs, log analytics solutions, etc.)

cross mark 274c

heavy check mark 2714

Event throttling

heavy check mark 2714

heavy check mark 2714

Conclusion

While WEF is a valuable tool and can be a viable solution for collecting logs from remote Windows machines, implementing it for large-scale log collection and centralization can be a headache. As highlighted in this blog post, a WEF setup does not scale well and becomes difficult to manage. Apart from that, you still require a solution to forward logs from your WEC servers to third-party platforms.

NXLog Platform gives you the ability to implement an agent-based or hybrid solution that you can tailor to handle all your logging needs. Its ease of deployment, configuration (with an ever-expanding list of solution packs for all major operating systems and SIEMs), and management will reduce your operational costs. This can significantly reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of this scalable, enterprise-ready logging solution when compared with other, less capable alternatives.

If you are looking for a centralized Windows log collection solution, we invite you to take a closer look at NXLog Platform’s features and plans and take it for a test drive.

NXLog Platform is an on-premises solution for centralized log management with
versatile processing forming the backbone of security monitoring.

With our industry-leading expertise in log collection and agent management, we comprehensively
address your security log-related tasks, including collection, parsing, processing, enrichment, storage, management, and analytics.

Start free Contact us
  • windows logs
  • centralized logging
  • nxlog platform
  • wef
  • comparison
Share

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit Mail
Related Posts

Making the most of Windows Event Forwarding for centralized log collection
6 minutes | December 17, 2018
DNS Log Collection on Windows
8 minutes | May 28, 2020
Security logging on Windows - beyond 4625
5 minutes | June 28, 2022

Stay connected:

Sign up

Keep up to date with our monthly digest of articles.

By clicking singing up, I agree to the use of my personal data in accordance with NXLog Privacy Policy.

Featured posts

Announcing NXLog Platform 1.6
April 22, 2025
Announcing NXLog Platform 1.5
February 27, 2025
Announcing NXLog Platform 1.4
December 20, 2024
NXLog redefines log management for the digital age
December 19, 2024
2024 and NXLog - a review
December 19, 2024
Announcing NXLog Platform 1.3
October 25, 2024
NXLog redefines the market with the launch of NXLog Platform: a new centralized log management solution
September 24, 2024
Welcome to the future of log management with NXLog Platform
August 28, 2024
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 5.11
June 20, 2024
Raijin announces release of version 2.1
May 31, 2024
Ingesting log data from Debian UFW to Loki and Grafana
May 21, 2024
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 6.3
May 13, 2024
Raijin announces release of version 2.0
March 14, 2024
NXLog Enterprise Edition on Submarines
March 11, 2024
The evolution of event logging: from clay tablets to Taylor Swift
February 6, 2024
Migrate to NXLog Enterprise Edition 6 for our best ever log collection experience
February 2, 2024
Raijin announces release of version 1.5
January 26, 2024
2023 and NXLog - a review
December 22, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 5.10
December 21, 2023
Raijin announces release of version 1.4
December 12, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 6.2
December 4, 2023
Announcing NXLog Manager 5.7
November 3, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 6.1
October 20, 2023
Raijin announces release of version 1.3
October 6, 2023
Upgrading from NXLog Enterprise Edition 5 to NXLog Enterprise Edition 6
September 11, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 6.0
September 11, 2023
The cybersecurity challenges of modern aviation systems
September 8, 2023
Raijin announces release of version 1.2
August 11, 2023
The Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act and security observability
August 9, 2023
Log Management and PCI DSS 4.0 compliance
August 2, 2023
Detect threats using NXLog and Sigma
July 27, 2023
HIPAA compliance logging requirements
July 19, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 5.9
June 20, 2023
Industrial cybersecurity - The facts
June 8, 2023
Raijin announces release of version 1.1
May 30, 2023
CISO starter pack - Security Policy
May 2, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 5.8
April 24, 2023
CISO starter pack - Log collection fundamentals
April 3, 2023
Raijin announces release of version 1.0
March 9, 2023
Avoid vendor lock-in and declare SIEM independence
February 13, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 5.7
January 20, 2023
NXLog - 2022 in review
December 22, 2022
Need to replace syslog-ng? Changing to NXLog is easier than you think
November 23, 2022
The EU's response to cyberwarfare
November 22, 2022
Looking beyond Cybersecurity Awareness Month
November 8, 2022
GDPR compliance and log data
September 23, 2022
NXLog in an industrial control security context
August 10, 2022
Raijin vs Elasticsearch
August 9, 2022
NXLog provides native support for Google Chronicle
May 11, 2022
Aggregating macOS logs for SIEM systems
February 17, 2022
How a centralized log collection tool can help your SIEM solutions
April 1, 2020

Categories

  • SIEM
  • STRATEGY
  • SECURITY
  • ANNOUNCEMENT
  • DEPLOYMENT
  • COMPLIANCE
  • COMPARISON
logo

Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates, news, and products releases. 

© Copyright 2024 NXLog FZE.

Privacy Policy. General Terms of Use

Follow us

  • Product
  • NXLog Platform 
  • Log collection
  • Log management and analysis
  • Log storage
  • Integration
  • Professional Services
  • Plans
  • Resources
  • Documentation
  • Blog
  • White papers
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • Case studies
  • Community Program
  • Community forum
  • Support
  • Getting started guide
  • Support portals
  • About NXLog
  • About us
  • Careers
  • Find a reseller
  • Partner program
  • Contact us