LogViewPlus Support » LogViewPlus Support » Help & Support » Alarm if something does not happen

Alarm if something does not happen

zearla55 — Mon, 13 May 2024 12:35:49 GMT

Hello,

I am currently working with LogViewPlus and getting to know the program.

I have a use case and do not know whether it can be mapped with LogViewPlus:
I want to monitor Microsoft SMTP logfiles and if a certain log entry does NOT show up within a certain period of time there should be an alert.

Is this possible?

Thank you!

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

LogViewPlus Support — Mon, 13 May 2024 12:35:49 GMT

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear the issue appears unrelated to LogViewPlus.

I would suggest that it may not a Windows issue, but an issue with how the target application is writing log files. There may be some kind of caching involved. If so, you could look for a 'flush logging' option. That is just a blind guess though, I don't know anything about the target application.

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

zearla55 — Mon, 13 May 2024 10:52:28 GMT

I have now monitored the logs again with Notepad++ via tail. Even there, entries are not displayed at all or only with a long delay when they change.

Obviously Windows only writes the log file from time to time and keeps the rest (until it is written) in some cache.

Thanks for your help, I think the problem is not with LogViewPlus but with Windows

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

LogViewPlus Support — Wed, 08 May 2024 13:03:42 GMT

To see the file size change in explorer, you will need to refresh (F5).

LogViewPlus monitors the file size. If the size is changing, you should see some activity in LogViewPlus. I just tested and this feature appears to be working. You are the first customer to highlight this issue.

If you look at the statistics view, are there any changes? Maybe the file is being tailed, but auto-scroll is disabled? Have you tried tailing the file in another program, or from the command line?

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

zearla55 — Wed, 08 May 2024 12:12:48 GMT

Yes, tail is enabled and I also checked the settings.

But when i watch the file in file explorer I see that the KB size does not increase. Apparently the explorer does not update the file size in real time.
In the file itself, however, several (albeit few lines) logs are written per minute

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

LogViewPlus Support — Tue, 07 May 2024 08:09:57 GMT

Is tail enabled? There are also application settings for tail which may be worth reviewing.

If you monitor the file in explorer, does the file size grow over time?

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

zearla55 — Tue, 07 May 2024 07:26:16 GMT

I apologize for my very belated reply

Basically, your built-in function works! I was able to test this successfully with other logs and the Windows events.

But I now have another or further problem with the SMTP logs (they are plain text files in a directory). When I open them and monitor them via Tail, new entries are not shown in LogViwPlus. It seems like there is simply no change being observed.

Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to configure something else? Or can I set a periodic reload of the file if LogViewPlus does not notice the changes by itself?

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

zearla55 — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 06:39:15 GMT

Thank you!

I'll try the Beta version

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

LogViewPlus Support — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 19:38:22 GMT

The change is now available in the latest BETA release.

Hope that helps,

Toby

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

zearla55 — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 13:21:02 GMT

To be honest, I can't say whether that would work. But it certainly sounds good

I don't want to stress you out, but do you know when this function might come?
I'm currently still in the test version and this feature would actually be the deciding factor in whether I would buy or not.

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

LogViewPlus Support — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 13:11:45 GMT

I can add a "do not require initial event" flag to the next version of LogViewPlus:

This will set the event to an initial state of primed, so the activity will fire after the timer expires. If the file is reloaded, the timer will be reset.

Would that help?

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

zearla55 — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:37:54 GMT

The specific use case is that a certain e-mail or two must be sent every day. I need an alarm if this does not happen.
Of course, various log entries still run in the SMTP protocol because the mailing itself works.

I am trying to monitor that an alarm is triggered if a specific e-mail address does not appear in the log.

Perhaps I did not explain this correctly in the first post

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

LogViewPlus Support — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:27:32 GMT

I just ran a quick test and it seems to be working ok. I tested by running the log generating application under tail and then stopping it.

I think the issue here is that Negative Events need to be primed. The first event into the filter signals that monitoring is working and the timer should start. They are fired when something stops, but if that thing never started how can you tell if it stopped?

Events detected by the filter during log file load will not prime the filter. A new event is required.

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

zearla55 — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:14:23 GMT

Hi Toby,

unfortunately, this does not work.

As a test, I set up a notify like in the video and that worked. But as soon as I set a corresponding alarm on negative notification, unfortunately nothing happens...

RE: Alarm if something does not happen

LogViewPlus Support — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 11:32:11 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to evaluate LogViewPlus.

Yes - LogViewPlus should be able to do this through a Negative Notification. You can see how to configure a positive notification in our documentation. If you have any questions or issues, please let me know.

Hope that helps,

Toby