You’d be amazed at how much information your machine, operating systems, and applications generate during their normal course of operation. One of my relatively quiet Unix servers, for example, generates about 2 MB of syslog information every week. But that information is completely useless unless it is converted into meaningful data about what is going on on the server. To do this, I need to know about errors, any potential problems, and any failures that could cause the machine to go down or fail at a critical time. In other words, I have to analyze the logs.This article, at ServerWatch.com, covers some of the basics of log analysis, hitting on what we believe are the key points and techniques, so you too can analyzes your voluminous server logs.