NXLog vs Snare

There are multiple choices of log collection agents available on the market, some are free and have paid versions that come with official support. Similar to the Snare Enterprise edition, the NXLog Enterprise edition is actively maintained by NXLog and frequently enhanced by features demanded by the market.

In stark contrast to the legacy, open source Snare Lite agent (which is no longer secure and compliant according to Snare Lite on Sourceforge), the NXLog Community Edition offers superior features, such as a secure log collection agent supporting the latest major operating systems as well as providing both agent-based and agent-less logging solutions.

The NXLog Community and Enterprise Editions includes, and in many cases supersedes, the majority of the features of their Snare counterparts.

*Using NXLog Manager

One of the most important aspect of logs is the format, it is crucial to achieving readable log files. And, above all it is best if logs are in a structured format, rather than as unstructured text. The format affects information availability, readability, manageability and size as well. As opposed to the limited output formats supported by Snare, NXLog supports multiple industry-standard formats such as:

The wider format support by NXLog also enables greater flexibility for the end-user and easier integration with third party products.

NXLog’s core design embraces structured logging, while Snare was primarily designed around its propritery Snare syslog format. In contrast, NXLog provides structured data support - such as JSON and KVP, as well as CSV and XML. Using structured logging can dramatically reduce the operation cost of a SIEM.

In the world of Information Technology, infrastructure is dynamic. It is constantly being enhanced, upgraded, or even completely redesigned.

NXLog’s forte is its support for practically any operating system found in enterprise computing environments and its seamless integration with third party solutions such as IBM QRadar, Rapid7, Splunk Enterprise, FireEye, Helix, and Securonix just to name a few. For a comprehensive list, visit our integrations page.

NXLog also provides extensive documentation to help with the integrations. See the Integration section in the NXLog User Guide.

NXLog agents are lightweight and operate using minimal resources and can be run as a service practically unnoticeable in the background. With NXLog, you can get started right away with the text-based configuration, rather than going through the Snare setup wizard that ends up with a generic configuration that is unlikely to be tailored to your specific needs. In addition, any further NXLog installation instances will only require the custom configuration file that was created once to be deployed, potentially to thousands of agents, in an enterprise environment, which results in conserving considerable time and money.

Our constantly updated, ever-growing documentation, already well above 1,000 pages, is a stand-alone product in itself. It is complete with configuration samples, real-world examples, and integration guides offering much more than a generic manual. Alongside this self-help resource, there is also the Community Forum for the Community Edition users, as well as the dedicated support team for our Enterprise customers which is available 24/7 with a world-class, 4-hour SLA.

In light of the information presented, it is now readily apparent that NXLog is a viable alternative to Snare for logging in an enterprise environment.

For further information or questions, please contact us.