HomeLab: Basic Syslog Configuration on Cisco Catalyst Devices : FATMIN

In my homelab setup I am dumping syslog on all my devices to my Linux desktop. Have not figure out what I am going to do with it yet, but I see myself either setting up Splunk or Greylog in the near future. Note, a while back I wrote a post on how to configure rsyslog on RHEL 6 – s0 if you are interested you can find that post here.

So lets get down to brass tacks and configure some freaking syslog.

In this instance we are configuring syslog redirection on a Cisco 3548xl switch. Note we are in configure terminal mode.

First we must tell our device to insert timestamps on

s-3550-1(config)#service timestamps log datetime

Now we tell the device where to send the syslog messages

s-3550-1(config)#logging 192.168.0.195

Now we tell the device which log levels to send to the syslog server. In this instance I am sending warning level messages and above. This is pretty verbose, but its a home lab so I am not worried about a slew of log messages pounding my syslog server.

s-3550-1(config)#logging trap warning

For reference I am including the logging levels below.

Emergency: 0

Alert: 1

Critical: 2

Error: 3

Warning: 4

Notice: 5

Informational: 6

Debug: 7

Now lets review what we have done with the show logging command

s-3550-1#show logging
Syslog logging: enabled (0 messages dropped, 0 flushes, 0 overruns)
    Console logging: level debugging, 13 messages logged
    Monitor logging: level debugging, 0 messages logged
    Buffer logging: level debugging, 13 messages logged
    File logging: disabled
    Trap logging: level warnings, 13 message lines logged
        Logging to 192.168.0.195, 0 message lines logged

Note that this procedure is exactly the same on my Cisco 2621 switch.