Collecting logs is step one. Managing them so you can use them is harder.
Retention policies:
How long do you keep logs? PCI requires year. SOX requires years. Balance legal requirements against storage costs.
Log rotation:
Automatically archive and compress old logs. Delete logs past retention. Without rotation, disks fill up.
Parsing and indexing:
Raw logs are hard to search. Good tools parse messages into fields and index them.
Common tools:
- ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana)
- Splunk
- Graylog
Invest in log management. When incidents happen, logs are your only record.