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Monitor Event Log

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The Monitor Event Log activity invokes runbooks when new events that match a filter that you specify appear in the Windows Event Log. You can use the Monitor Event Log activity to run runbooks that will escalate, investigate, or correct any issues in response to events being generated to the Windows Event Log. For example, a security audit failure appears in the security log which will send an email to an administrator to notify them of the problem. The second mode invokes your runbook when the size of the Windows Event Log reaches the maximum size allowed.

Configure the Monitor Event Log Activity

Before you configure the Monitor Event Log activity, you need to determine the following:

  • Name of the event log you are monitoring

  • Details about the events that will invoke the runbook

To configure the Monitor Event Log activity, follow these steps:

  1. From the Activity pane, drag a Monitor Event Log activity to the runbook.

  2. Double-click the Monitor Event Log activity icon to open the Properties dialog box.

  3. Configure the settings on the Details tab and on the Advanced tab. Configuration instructions are listed in the following tables.

Details Tab

Settings Configuration Instructions
Computer Type the name of the computer that stores the Windows Event Log that you want to monitor. You can also browse for the computer using the ellipsis (...) button. The runbook server that runs this activity must have the appropriate rights to monitor the Windows Event Log on that computer.
Event log Type the name of the Windows Event Log that you are monitoring. You can also browse for the Windows Event Log using the ellipsis (...) button. Windows includes three Event Logs by default: Application, Security, and System. The computer that you are connecting to may contain other Event Logs.
Message filters The list shows all the filters that have been configured to filter the events that are generated in the log that you have specified. To edit or remove an item in the list, select it and click Edit or Remove as applicable.

To add an event filter
1. Click Add to open the Filter Properties dialog box.
2. Select the property of the event log entry that you are filtering against. You can filter against the Category, Description, Event ID, Source, and Type that is attributed to the event.
3. Specify the relation you are using to compare the value of the event property to the filter value. If you select Category, Description, Type, and Source you can specify Contains or Does not contain. For Event ID you can specify is different than, is equal to , is lower than, is lower than or equals, is more than, and is more than or equals.
4. Specify the filter value that you are comparing the event property against. For Category, Description, and Source, enter the string that is contained within the property. For Event ID, enter the numeric value that will be compared against the ID of the event. For the Type condition, select the specific type of event that you want to filter for such as Error, Warning, Information, Success Audit, or Failure Audit.

Published Data

The following table lists the published data items.

Item Description
Event log name The name of the Windows Event Log being monitored.
Computer The name of the computer where the Windows Event Log is stored.
Log entry description The text that is contained in the Event Log entry description.
Log Entry ID The ID of the Event Log entry.
Log Entry source The source of the event.
Log Entry computer The computer where the event occurred.
Log Entry type The type of event.
Log Entry date The date the event was logged.
Log Entry time The time the event was logged.