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You can create a data collector to collect Windows events. This data collector can collect Windows events locally.

Local collection implies collection of events by using the Collection Agent and from the computer where the Collection Agent resides. To collect Windows events remotely, see Monitor remote Windows events. For more information about local and remote collection, see Agent types.

Related topics

To collect Windows events locally

  1. Navigate to Administration > Data Collectors > Add Data Collector .
  2. In the Name box, provide a unique name to identify this data collector.
  3. From the Type list, select Monitor Local Windows Events.
    Provide the following information, as appropriate:

    FieldDescription
    Target/Collection Host
    Collection Host (Agent)

    Type or select the collection host depending on whether you want to use the Collection Station or the Collection Agent to perform data collection.

    The collection host is the computer on which the Collection Station or the Collection Agent is located.

    By default, the Collection Station is already selected. You can either retain the default selection or select the Collection Agent.

    Note: For this type of data collector, the target host and collection host are expected to have the same values.

    Collector Inputs
    Windows Logs

    Select the log types that you want to collect by using this data collector. You can select Application, Security, or System.

    To select multiple items, press Ctrl and then select the items.

    Poll Interval (mins)

    Enter a number to specify the poll interval (in minutes) for the log collection (0 indicates that this is a one-time log collection).

    By default, this value is set to 1.

    Start/Stop Collection(Optional) Select this check box if you want to start the data collection immediately.

    Ignore Data Matching Input

    (Optional) If you do not want to index certain lines in your data file, then you can ignore them by providing one of the following inputs:

    • Provide a line that consistently occurs in the event data that you want to ignore. This line will be used as the criterion to ignore data during indexing.
    • Provide a Java regular expression that will be used as the criterion for ignoring data matching the regular expression.

    Example: While using the following sample data, you can provide the following input to ignore particular lines.

    • To ignore the line containing the string, "WARN", you can specify WARN in this field.
    • To ignore lines containing the words both "WARN" and "INFO", you can specify a regular expression .*(WARN|INFO).* in this field.
    Sample data
    Sep 25, 2014 10:26:47 AM net.sf.ehcache.config.
    ConfigurationFactory parseConfiguration():134
    WARN: No configuration found. Configuring ehcache from 
    ehcache-failsafe.xml  found in the classpath:
    
    Sep 25, 2014 10:26:53 AM com.bmc.ola.metadataserver.
    MetadataServerHibernateImpl bootstrap():550
    INFO: Executing Query to check init property: select * 
    from CONFIGURATIONS where userName = 'admin' and 
    propertyName ='init'
    
    Sep 30, 2014 07:03:06 PM org.hibernate.engine.jdbc.spi.
    SqlExceptionHelper logExceptions():144
    ERROR: An SQLException was provoked by the following 
    failure: java.lang.InterruptedException
    
    Sep 30, 2014 04:39:27 PM com.bmc.ola.engine.query.
    ElasticSearchClient indexCleanupOperations():206
    INFO: IndexOptimizeTask: index: bw-2014-09-23-18-006 
    optimized of type: data

    Inherit Host Level Tags From Target Host(Optional) Select this check box to inherit your tag selections associated with the target host that you selected earlier. This option is not applicable if you did not select a target host. Note that after selecting this check box, you can further manually select additional user groups. When you manually select additional user groups, both the inherited permissions as well as the manually assigned permissions are applied. To remove the inherited permissions, clear this check box.
    Select Tag name and corresponding value

    (Optional) Select a tag name and specify the corresponding value by which you want to categorize the data collected. Later while searching data, you can use these tags to narrow down your search results.

    Example: If your are collecting data from hosts located at Houston, you can select a tag name for "Location" and in the value specify "Houston". While searching the data, you can use the tag, Location="Houston" to filter data and see results associated with the Houston location.

    To be able to see tag names, you need to first add them by navigating to Administration > System Settings.

    To specify tag names and corresponding values, in the left box select a tag name and then type the corresponding tag value in the right box. While you type the value, you might see type-ahead suggestions based on values specified in the past. If you want to use one of the suggestions, click the suggestion. Click Add to add the tag name and corresponding value to the list of added tags that follow. Click Remove Tag to remove a tag.

    The tags saved while creating the data collector are displayed on the Search tab, under the Filters panel, and in the Tags section.

    Note: At a time, you can specify only one value for a tag name. To specify multiple values for the same tag name, each time you need to select the tag name, specify the corresponding value, and click Add.

    For more information about tags, see Understanding fields and tags.

    Inherit Host Level Access Groups From Target Host(Optional) Select this check box to inherit your group access configurations associated with the target host that you selected earlier. This option is not applicable if you did not select a target host.

    Note:
    After selecting this check box, you can further manually select additional user groups. When you manually select additional user groups, both the inherited permissions as well as the manually assigned permissions are applied. To remove the inherited permissions, clear this check box.
    Select All Groups

    (Optional) Select this option if you want to select all user groups. You can also manually select multiple user groups.

    Notes:

    • If you do not select any user groups and data access control is not enabled, then all users can access data retrieved by this data collector. You can restrict access permissions by selecting the relevant user groups that must be given access permissions. To enable data access control, navigate to Administration > System Settings.
    • If you do not select any user group and data access control is enabled, then only the creator of the data collector has access to data retrieved by this data collector.

    For more information, see Managing user groups.

  4. Click Create to save your changes.
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