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Abstract: This paper proposes a comparison between two log management tools, namely ELK Stack and Graylog, used as proactive measures for keeping track of changes in a network environment. Several experiments were based on performance metrics such as response time, CPU and memory usage, as well as on testing the security, alerting, monitoring, and data visualization capabilities. Performance-wise, ELK was the best solution due to its stability, faster response time and reliability under stress conditions. Graylog, on the other hand, was an easier to maintain, fitting the needs of a centralized log management, being more suitable for security and alerting purposes.
Keywords: Containerization; Docker; ELK Stack; Graylog; log management; Virtualization.
I.INTRODUCTION
In the so-called Zettabyte Era, Internet usage continues to grow and technology starts playing an even more important role in our lives. It is crucial to keep tabs of relevant events occurring online or locally on our computers. All software applications and the infrastructures on which they run generate log files which include information on every action that took place in the system. From databases and enterprise applications to firewalls and routers, wireless access points and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateways, logs are being spewed forth at an ever-increasing pace.
Immense volumes of logging data are generated daily, resulting in a need to store, filter, and search all this. Reviewing the information needs to happen both proactively, in search of potential risks and future problems and reactively, following incidents that require immediate intervention [1]. Therefore, instead of considering log files as separate, unrelated entities, the solution is using a management tool to centralize them and get visibility into the health of the applications.
Currently, there are multiple open-source and commercial logging solutions present on the market. For a company that manages a fair number of recorded information per day, there are so many options to be considered. Thus it becomes a tedious task to choose which one suits the best. There is also the possibility that the implemented log management tool may not have the desired functionalities or has so many extra functionalities it becomes difficult to work with. Therefore, when choosing the right tool the consumer should figure out whether the platform is more suited for a small organization looking to...