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Graylog

Graylog

Overview

What is Graylog?

Graylog, headquartered in Houston, offers their eponymous platform for centralized log management that helps users find meaning in data faster so as to take action immediately. Graylog is available via Enterprise and Cloud plans, but also has a Small Business…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Graylog has proven to be a valuable solution for users in various industries, offering a range of use cases that address common challenges …
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Graylog, Free Vs. Paid

9 out of 10
April 29, 2020
Incentivized
Graylog is currently implemented for use across the entire organization at each deployment that I have provisioned. However, Graylog is …
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Level Up Your Logging

7 out of 10
June 30, 2019
Incentivized
Graylog is used to aggregate logs and SNMP traps from our network devices and Linux servers. We not only aggregate and store logs but …
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Graylog is GREAT

9 out of 10
December 05, 2018
Incentivized
We use Graylog to view all of our system logs in one place. We use this software to back up our logs so in the event we need to review …
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Product Demos

Demo GrayLog 2 with Laravel5 app

YouTube

Demo GrayLog 2 with Rails app

YouTube

Send Syslog from MuleSoft RTF to GrayLog

YouTube

Graylog Security

YouTube
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Product Details

What is Graylog?

Graylog Video

Tour of Graylog v4.0

Graylog Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, ,
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Graylog, headquartered in Houston, offers their eponymous platform for centralized log management that helps users find meaning in data faster so as to take action immediately. Graylog is available via Enterprise and Cloud plans, but also has a Small Business Plan, and an Open (free) plan with limited features.

Splunk Enterprise, Datadog, and Logz.io are common alternatives for Graylog.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 3.6.

The most common users of Graylog are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(29)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Graylog has proven to be a valuable solution for users in various industries, offering a range of use cases that address common challenges in log management and security monitoring. Users have successfully utilized Graylog as a centralized log aggregator and SEIM, enabling them to collect logs from multiple applications and sources in one central location. This has greatly simplified the process of tracking and tracing errors, saving valuable time when troubleshooting problems across their systems.

With Graylog's well-known plugin architecture, such as log4net for .NET developers, users have found it easy to integrate and utilize the platform. Additionally, Graylog's ability to extract values from logs and customize dashboards has enhanced its usability and provided users with greater searchability. By defining alerts for specific events or patterns, they are able to promptly identify and address potential issues.

Another significant use case for Graylog is its value in security-related tasks. Users have successfully employed Graylog to analyze access sign-in logs from various platforms and receive alerts when necessary. Additionally, its capability to collect messages from network devices like switches, routers, and wifi controllers has allowed users to group and visualize important information through graphs. This feature has proven particularly useful for monitoring critical events and ensuring prompt action.

The cost-effectiveness of Graylog combined with its customization options has contributed to its widespread adoption within organizations. Users across different teams are able to tailor the platform to their specific needs, making it a valuable tool for both log management and security monitoring purposes. From capturing NAT translations for DMCA-related notifications to serving as an internal syslog server, Graylog provides an efficient and accessible solution for aggregating logs and organizing them in a searchable manner.

Efficient log aggregation and intuitive dashboards: Multiple reviewers have praised Graylog for its efficient log aggregation pipeline, allowing users to easily collect and analyze logs from various sources. The clear and intuitive dashboards provided by Graylog were also highlighted as a positive aspect, making it easier for users to understand and monitor their logs effectively.

Powerful search options: Many reviewers have appreciated the powerful search capabilities offered by Graylog. Users mentioned that they can quickly search through large volumes of logs and easily find specific data without manual filtering. This feature enhances efficiency and saves time for users when troubleshooting or investigating issues.

Flexible configuration options: Users have commended Graylog for its flexibility in configuration. Some reviewers mentioned the ability to store everything on a single box, while others highlighted the option to scale out horizontally using a cluster of Elasticsearch nodes and MongoDB servers. This flexibility allows users to tailor their log management setup according to their specific needs and infrastructure requirements.

Unrealistic Pricing: Some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the pricing of the Enterprise version, considering it unrealistic for their needs.

Lack of Intuitive Configuration: Several reviewers have mentioned that configuring Graylog's backend, which relies on Elasticsearch and MongoDB, can be challenging for inexperienced users. It requires Linux knowledge and configuring three separate applications.

Difficulties in Log Management: Users have encountered difficulties in rotating indexes and managing log retention. They feel that there is no built-in feature to auto-delete logs or accurately estimate storage space needed, making log management a challenging task.

Users highly recommend Graylog for its efficiency in collecting information and managing records, emphasizing that it is suitable for any department and helps save time and increase productivity. It is particularly recommended for organizations dealing with large amounts of data.

Graylog is praised for fulfilling users' expectations at a low price point. It offers many useful features, making it a highly recommended logging and monitoring tool. Users find it easy to access and install, making it one of the best tools for log analysis and understanding product details at runtime.

Graylog is considered a good software for collecting records and analyzing data efficiently. It is particularly recommended for companies looking to monitor threats and analyze data effectively. Users appreciate its high functionality, optimal performance, and ability to handle large amounts of different data. Moreover, it generates confidence in its users while offering an economical price for its services.

Overall, users recommend carefully evaluating data requirements, having a solid understanding of Linux and the basics of MongoDB and Elasticsearch before using Graylog, as well as configuring a retention profile to avoid storage issues. It is also advised to research the competition before deciding on a logging solution and consider the deployment and system requirements before using Graylog.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-1 of 1)
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Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have more than 60 applications, ranging from websites, Winforms, windows services, API's and console executables. All of them need to log their tracing and/or error information to a central location. It needs to be central because you don't want to search for this location, especially when you only have 5 minutes to solve a problem. We used to have a dedicated database for logging, but this does not eliminate the time lost searching for "the" logs. Also, [the] configuration used to be a manual and self-made business that wasn't always clear. Graylog is a dedicated logging solution that comes "out of the box" and is made accessible through a well-known plugin architecture (log4net if you're developing with the .NET framework).
  • Nice search interface and powerful search options
  • JSON extractor to "extract" variables and values from JSON input.
  • Clear and intuitive dashboards
  • In the front end, the search "tricks" could have been made a little easier to find. There seems to be some kind of "search language" where you can use keywords like "AND" and "OR," etc. (much like SQL language). But it's totally unclear what does work and what doesn't. If you don't know that it's there, you'll never find it. Of course, after you do know it, you can find many examples online on how to use it.
  • The backend is not for the inexperienced. Graylog is based on elastic search and MongoDB. And it's Linux. This means that Graylog is actually 3 applications that you need to configure in a Linux environment. This means that you need quite some experience to get this running. Fortunately, though, things are kept as simple as possible. What I mean is that at first, the task seems daunting, but then you'll find that there's not much to it after all.
  • We've had multiple occasions that disk size was full or indexes went larger than allowed. When this happens, the systems can become corrupt. The solution is to just delete the indexes, but it took quite some time to find this out.
  • We disabled "Automatic updates" on the Linux server because unattended updates always lead to problems. This is not a real problem, or solely related to Graylog, but worth mentioning. Updates are best handled manually.
For small companies, Graylog is the best solution possible. It's easy to configure and "just works." Above everything else, it's free. The only thing I hold against it is the fact that it's Linux-based. [This] makes sense because Elasticsearch is Linux-based. But Linux adds a layer of complexity that we don't need for something basic as a logging server. I'm pretty sure that we would have had a logging server years earlier if I had to convince quite a few decision-making people to go ahead with it anyway.
  • Central (the fact that it's central), one place to log them all
  • Multiple ways to log, one I already mentioned (log4net)
  • AD support
  • The fact that it's free
  • Negative: None. There is no negative impact by using Graylog.
  • Speed of solving bugs. Logging is so accessible and easy to search that we spend a lot less time [searching] for specific errors.
  • Better health of applications. Since monitoring the logs is so easy, it's very easy to keep an eye on the tracing to see if things are going smoothly and according to plan.
Azure Monitor is not exactly what I mean, but I couldn't find Azure Application Insights. Anyway, for a large organization, Azure makes more sense than using Graylog because a lot of logging will already be inside Azure. And you don't want to have two "central" logging locations. But Azure is chaos and highly "not intuitive." So for small and mid-size organizations, Graylog is still the better option.
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