Collecting logs from Siemens SICAM SCC and sending them to Logstash 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 SICAM SCC to Logstash by incorporating the NXLog log collection tool.
Siemens SICAM SCC
Siemens SICAM SCC or SICAM Station Control Center is a human-machine interface (HMI) for multiple power automation systems. Using various integrated communication drivers, SICAM SCC can communicate with SICAM PAS/PQS, SICAM RTUs, bay units, and protection devices that support IEC 61850/IEC 60870-5-104.
SICAM SCC system is scalable and offers efficient engineering for energy automation applications at utilities and industrial enterprises.
Collecting Siemens SICAM SCC logs
Siemens SICAM SCC 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.
Siemens SICAM SCC controls systems of significant financial and security importance. In mission-critical settings, the timely collection and processing of SICAM SCC 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 SICAM SCC logs.
- Collecting Siemens SICAM SCC 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. Siemens SICAM SCC 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 SICAM SCC or by a given source name.
- Collecting Siemens SICAM SCC logs from file
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File-based SICAM SCC logs include logs from:
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Dynamic Alarm Filter Configuration trace log
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Communication Connection trace log
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Add-in trace log
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Runtime Data Server trace log
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Import/Export Wizard trace log
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SICAM Global Wizard log, SICAM PAS Wizard log, SICAM IEC Wizard log
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Import/Export Wizard log
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Report log
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- Siemens SICAM SCC Network Monitoring
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NXLog can passively monitor network traffic and generate logs for most network protocols. This ability to log network communication from Siemens SICAM SCC, and integrated devices, can provide another valuable log source.
The easiest way to collect and normalize Siemens SICAM SCC 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 Siemens SICAM SCC, see the Siemens SICAM SCC integration guide.
The sources mentioned above and NXLog’s features play an important role in normalizing logs accepted by Logstash.
Sending logs to Logstash
Logstash is a data collection and processing tool. It is often used as part of the ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) to collect logs from various sources, normalize them, and forward them to Elasticsearch. NXLog and Logstash can be configured to exchange log data between each other in various formats, including JSON and syslog, and over different transport protocols such as TCP, UDP, and HTTP(S).
- NXLog as a data shipper for Logstash
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Due to Logstash being resource-intensive and requiring Java to run, it is often used as an ingester, with different data shippers forwarding logs to it. NXLog, with its small resource footprint, can act as a data shipper for Logstash with the benefit of being an all-in-one solution. An NXLog installation can collect and process logs from different sources on the same host, all configured within a single configuration file.
- Sending logs to Logstash
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Logstash supports data ingestion from various sources through its many input plugins and can process data in various formats by using filters and codec plugins. NXLog also offers a vast selection of output modules and extensions that can forward logs in the data formats and ingestion methods supported by Logstash.
For more information on configuring NXLog and sending logs to Logstash, see the Logstash integration guide in the NXLog User Guide.
