Monitor System Logs via E-mail

This will provide the capability to receive system logs via e-mail. This applies to Fedora 9 & 10. 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

• Settings are stored in /etc/usr/share/logwatch/default.conf/logwatch.conf and require minor changes to make it work. Use your favorite editor (mine is nano) and make the following change:
  • MailTo = root (line 35) to MailTo = (your email address)

• Ensure sendmail is started (/etc/init.d/sendmail start) or it won't work.

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

Optional:

• These are a few more basic options that can be configured.
  • Range = yesterday (line 65) - additional values are all or today.
  • Detail = Low (line 72) 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.