Collecting logs from AVEVA System Platform and sending them to Splunk could be complex because of the unique combination of the log source and the desired destination. This post will show you how to forward log data from AVEVA System Platform to Splunk by incorporating the NXLog log collection tool.
AVEVA System Platform
AVEVA System Platform is a modular and scalable industrial software platform for software solutions focused on industrial automation and engineering personnel, including SCADA, HMI, IIoT, and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). AVEVA System Platform supports both the supervisory control layer and the manufacturing execution system (MES) layer, presenting them as a single information source.
Collecting AVEVA System Platform logs
AVEVA System Platform produces a wide variety of logs concerning its operations. Some of those logs are available through Windows Event Log and network monitoring, but most exist as flat files.
AVEVA System Platform controls systems of significant financial and security importance. In mission-critical settings, the timely collection and processing of AVEVA System Platform logs is crucial to the reliability and security of the systems it controls. Even a brief interruption of normal operations could result in catastrophic consequences. However, the sheer diversity of log formats and data structures, and the noise that some of these logs contain, pose severe challenges to most logging software.
NXLog Enterprise Edition is a lightweight, modular log collection tool capable of tackling the most challenging cases log collection may pose. Its rich features allow it to read almost any log format and parse fields to produce structured data for further processing. It is the perfect tool for monitoring and collecting AVEVA System Platform logs.
- Collecting AVEVA System Platform logs from Windows Event Log
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Many applications send their logs directly to Windows Event Log, the preferred logging facility on the Windows platform. AVEVA System Platform sends its diagnostic and security-related events, such as user authentication, the state of system components, record modifications, and information about various other services to Windows Event Log. Logs can be read and collected using an Event ID related to AVEVA System Platform or by a given source name.
- Collecting AVEVA System Platform logs from file
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File-based AVEVA System Platform logs include logs from:
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ArchestrA system
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ArchestrA Logger and Log Viewer
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Historian Search
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Historian Configuration Exporter error
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InTouch Access Anywhere
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License Server
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- Collecting AVEVA System Platform logs from database tables
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AVEVA System Platform reads information from database tables and provides insights into internal components and process-related data such as tag data, process alarms, and process events. Logs are collected from the following databases:
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System Monitor
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Runtime
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Holding
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Alarm
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Records from history blocks
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- AVEVA System Platform Network Monitoring
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AVEVA System Platform supports open platform communications (OPC) functionality, SuiteLink, DDE/FastDDE, and ArchestrA Message Exchange. NXLog can passively monitor network traffic and generate logs for most network protocols.
The easiest way to collect and normalize AVEVA System Platform logs is by deploying NXLog. With its unique capabilities, logs can be collected from literally any file in any format. Given the wide variation in format and structure of such log files, its versatility is ideal for these systems.
For more information on integrating NXLog with AVEVA System Platform, see the AVEVA System Platform integration guide.
The sources mentioned above and NXLog’s features play an important role in normalizing logs accepted by Splunk.
Sending logs to Splunk
Splunk is a platform for data collection, searching, indexing, and data visualization. It accepts logs forwarded via TLS, TCP, UDP or HTTP and can ingest both structured or unstructured data from a multitude of sources.
- Generic structured logs
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To send logs via HTTP, Splunk’s HTTP event collector handles HTTP requests with either raw data payloads or formatted as JSON objects. To send logs via TCP or UDP you will need to set up the appropriate data input and specify the transmission protocol. To do this, use the Splunk dashboard to set up a new data input following their configuration guidelines. Alternatively, to send logs via TLS, you will need to edit your configuration files to generate the required security certificates.
- Specific structured logs
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Windows Event Log data can be forwarded to Splunk in XML format by installing the Splunk Add-on for Windows version 6.0.0. To reliably forward SICAM PAS/PQS logs to Splunk, all you need to do is specify Splunk’s network socket address along with the path and file names of the log files in your NXLog configuration file.
For more information on how to configure NXLog and send logs to Splunk, please visit the Splunk section in the NXLog User Guide.
