There’s a very useful feature in LogMeister (and EventMeister) that some customers have missed: custom event log views.  They enable you to gather events from multiple eventlogs – filterered by type – through a single feed. Not only does this make management of your most important events much easier, it is also more efficient in terms of cpu and network utilization.

The option to use custom views first appears on the “Types” page of the Eventlog wizard:

As you can see from the screenshot, LogMeister comes with two pre-built custom views: “_Administrative Events_” which covers Microsoft’s recommendations for Server 2008 installations, and “_Administrative Events For Svr2012_” which has been extended specifically for Server 2012. You’re free to use them as-is, or customize them, but by pressing “Add Custom View” you can define your own from scratch.

Just tick the event logs that you want to monitor. If a log you need isn’t shown in the list (and you know it’s present on the remote machine) then just type its name in the “Additional Log” field and press Add. Finally choose what level of event you want to record by ticking the Event Types boxes, and give your custom view a meaningful name.

And that’s it! The feed(s) you create with your new custom event view will now gather all your targeted events. What’s more, you’re still free to add additional filtering on a per feed basis, and to use LogMeister’s rule-based interface to create “notifications” that will alert you or even take automatic action when specific conditions are met.