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SolarWinds

7 Best Log and Syslog Viewers

Many devices—such as switches, routers, firewalls, servers, and printers—support syslog protocol. This standard for sending log messages within a network offers critical information about your system. Consequently, monitoring your network and its syslog messages should be a top priority. Many IT professionals use log and syslog monitors or viewers to gather logs and syslog messages from across their network in a centralized location.

Put the Machines to Work for You: A Modern Approach to Increase IT Agility

Putting machines to work to enhance our everyday lives has been well-ingrained in our society for at least a couple of centuries now. IT workers use machine learning (ML) in their daily work routines, even if they don’t consciously realize it. Automated email alerts, issue escalations, and security patching are just a few examples of how ML has put the systems we rely on to work for us.

The Importance of Sharing "Pretty" Things | An IT Journey to Monitoring Glory: Session 3

During this THWACK® Livecast series, we're focused on you, the IT professional. Whether you're an accidental admin and just getting started, welcoming scope creep and getting noticed at your company, or the monitoring engineer who's ready to shine, these sessions are for you. Attendees will learn how to leverage SolarWinds tools to communicate clearly and concisely to management and become heroes in the Monday morning postmortem meetings. Join the sessions as they happen to ask questions directly to the presenters and get your answers live. Monitoring is a journey, not a destination—we may start at SNMP and WMI, but we'll help you end up victorious.

Native SQL Server Backup Types and How To Guide

When a disaster occurs, the ability to successfully restore SQL Server databases is fundamental for avoiding data loss. It’s not enough to rely on hardware and software technologies to replicate data because these technologies can go wrong or there can be multiple failures during a disaster, meaning you have to rely on backups to recover. SQL Server allows multiple types of backups, and a multitude of options to use with those backups.

SQL Server Storage Best Practices: Choosing Storage Options

Storage is one of the most critical components for any relational database management system, and getting the right storage configuration affects reliability, availability, and performance. When it comes to SQL Server storage best practices, choosing between storage hardware options has changed significantly over the last decade, but that doesn’t necessarily make choosing the correct storage options for SQL Server any easier.

Troubleshooting the Internet: If You Can't Have Authority, Visibility Will Do

The vast majority of businesses aren’t all on-premises or all-cloud, but rather in some form of hybrid IT middle ground. That means “who owns the system” (and a closely related issue: “who owns the problem”) continues to be a thorn in the side of many IT pros. In this conversation, SolarWinds Technical Content Manager for Community Kevin M. Sparenberg and Head Geek Leon Adato break down some ways technical teams can get around the lack of authority needed to solve problems and keep critical services up and running.

Boss-Level Log Management for WordPress Site Administrators

WordPress is the most dominant content management system (CMS) in the enterprise website market today. Its open-source nature, thousands of plugins, and wide adoption by commercial hosting providers have bolstered its success. In addition, it’s highly compatible with other website technologies like web servers, database servers, or middleware.

The Questions You Should Ask Your Software Providers

Software providers everywhere are under attack by cyber threat actors. Whether it’s a ransomware, the latest zero-day exploit, or a highly sophisticated, well-resourced, and persistent supply chain like SUNBURST, our entire industry faces an increasingly treacherous threat landscape, and nearly every news day brings with it another wave of announcements and urgent system updates to be made.

Is Application Sprawl in Government Really a Big Problem?

When considering whether to add more applications or monitoring components to your IT system, the answer should always be quality over quantity. Agencies often fall into the trap of application sprawl by adding more and more to their systems—more applications, more tools—without realizing this actually has the potential to reduce system effectiveness. Instead of simply adding more apps, consider instead interoperable ones, or ones you can plug into a common platform.