Monitor System Logs via E-mail

This will provide the capability to receive system logs via e-mail. There are many customizable features (Logwatch Documentation), but this will only identify the basic ones.

• First, open a terminal window and become root. Enter the following to install:

yum install logwatch

NOTE: yum (deprecated) has been replaced with dnf as the package manager for Fedora 23 and greater.

• You can customize the settings by adding options to /etc/logwatch/conf/logwatch.conf. By default it sends the daily logwatch email to the local root mail box. To change it, add this line (change user@yourisp.com to desired email address):

Output = mail
MailTo = user@yourisp.com

• If you want the email in html, add this line:

Format = html

• To test, enter the command logwatch and go check your email.

logwatch

• Ensure sendmail or postfix is running (rerun command and change status to start if not):

service sendmail status

or

service postfix status

Optional:

• These are a few more basic options that can be configured.
  • Range = yesterday (default) - additional values are all or today.
  • Detail = Low (default) - additional values are med or high. I set mine to med.

This application runs transparent in the background, once daily in the morning. If you want to run it more frequently (i.e. send logs for today), then change the range and execute the command logwatch as needed.

NOTE: If you want to forward these emails to another (including external) account, see Forward System Emails.