Collecting logs from Siemens SICAM SCC 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 SICAM SCC to Splunk 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 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.
