The Windows® Event Log serves as a cen-tralized repository for security, system, andapplication-level information. While the EventLog contains information of interest primarilyto system administrators (for example, failedlogin attempts, disk errors, unexpected shut-downs, and so on), it also contains databaseand application errors that concern develop-ers. When these errors occur on productionservers, it’s important that the responsibledevelopers are alerted immediately.

There are a number of products designedfor system administrators to provide monitor-ing of the Event Log and notifications. Onesuch tool is Event Sentry version 2.70, byNETIKUS.NET, which offers an easy-to-use, yetpowerful interface for receiving notificationwhen certain conditions are met in theWindows Event Log. Event Sentry provides fil-ters that allow for only specific event condi-tions to trigger a notification. The filterable criteriainclude the event source, the event ID, the event severity,and the event text, among others.

You can also set a threshold indicating that you onlywant to be notified if an event occurs a certain number oftimes, like twice in the span of five minutes. Once a fil-ter’s criteria are met, a notification is generated. EventSentry supports 12 forms of notification, including RSSfeeds, sending e-mail, starting a process or script, andrecording the results to a database or file.

For example, you might be using the EnterpriseLibrary’s ExceptionHandling feature to log unhandled

exceptions to the server’s Event Log with the Source “MyApplication”. If you’d like to receive an e-mail notificationwhen your application raises an unhandled exception,simply create a filter that looks for events from the “MyApplication” Source. Next, add an e-mail notification,specifying the SMTP server to use and the recipient list.Henceforth, any unhandled exceptions in your applicationwill result in an e-mail notification in your Inbox!

Price: $69 per server (with discounts for multiple licenses).www.eventsentry.com

Monitor Your Event Logs

Monitor Event Logs, Generate Office Documents, and More SCOTT MITCHELLTOOLBOX

The Microsoft Journal for Developers

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