Graphical analysis of computer log files
Stephen G. Eick, Michael Cader Nelson, Jerry D. Schmidt · Communications of the ACM · 1994
ing with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from Publications Dept, ACM Inc., fax +1 (212) 869-0481, or [email protected]. GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF COMPUTER LOG FILES* Stephen G. Eick+, Michael C. Nelson#, Jeffery D. Schmidt. Appears in Communications of the ACM, Vol. 37, No. 12, December 1994, pages 50-56. Keywords: log files, problem correlation, software visualization SUMMARY Computers generate large log files that analysts and system managers monitor. The log files may come from trouble tickets, system status reports, hardware faults, or software errors. A problem with log files is that as they become cluttered with unimportant messages, critical messages are obscured causing problems to go undetected. We have developed a tool for graphically displaying log files and visual techniques for filtering the log file noise. Our motivation for develop...