Structured logging implements a consistent, predetermined format for log data that enables them to be handled as data sets that can be easily searched and analyzed. The goal of structured logging is to bring a more defined format and details to logs. Some commonly used standard formats are JSON, CSV, XML, and KVP.

Most logs already contain structured or at least semi-structured data. However, even with structured data, some fields may have embedded fields of information that can be parsed into new fields, making the event records even more valuable later during the analytical stage. For unstructured or semi-structured data that is known to contain such fields, it is vital to parse the fields sooner rather than later, ideally on the same host where the logs are generated. This is where NXLog’s capabilities of parsing fields at the source come into the picture.

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The benefits of log aggregation