Life in the world of Win32 administration is indeed a precarious existence. Having lived there, I can attest to how difficult it is to maintain the health of a group of machines.
Fortunately, you can use event logs to help maintain the health of your machines. The event log has been around since the beginning of Windows NT and is equivalent to the UNIX syslog. An event log is a simple database that houses information about events. Basically, an event is an announcement that a program or OS component makes to indicate that something noteworthy has occurred.
Typically, event-log entries tell you that a problem has occurred. For example, an entry might tell you that a SCSI driver was unable to commit data to a drive, a Web server shut down, or a user attempted to log on but failed to provide the correct password. This information is useful because it can help isolate or predict system failures. For example, if the SCSI driver event is frequently showing up in a log, you might have a SCSI card or drive that is about to fail. Such preemptive foresight can prevent a catastrophe. . . .
Sylvain Grenon February 13, 2004