NAME

grokevt-builddb - Builds a database tree based on a single windows system for the purpose of event log conversion.

SYNOPSIS

grokevt-builddb [ -c CSID ] config-profile output-dir

DESCRIPTION

grokevt-builddb uses grokevt-ripdll(1) and reglookup(1) along with information found in configuration files to extract all necessary information from a windows installation for the conversion of event log files. The registry is read to determine the locations of critical DLLs and the event log files themselves. This, and other information out of the registry is stored in a directory structure which acts as a kind of flat-file database. This database can then be used by grokevt-parselog(1) to generate human-readable output.

The key to successfully running this utility is proper configuration. Please see grokevt(7) for information on what needs to be configured.

ARGUMENTS

config-profile: This is the name of the configuration profiles stored in the global configuration directory under the directory 'systems'. See grokevt(7) for more details on how to properly configure a system profile.
output-dir: The path to the location of the output database. If anything already exists in this directory, it may be overwritten or deleted.

OPTIONS

-c CSID: This option allows one to explicitly set which ControlSet in the registry is used to extract event log message mappings. If specified, this item must be a positive decimal integer. If unspecified, grokevt-builddb will attempt to determine the best ControlSet by looking at the most recent CurrentControlSet, stored in the system registry under the path '/Select/Current'. Most users should ignore this option unless there is a specific reason why the last CurrentControlSet should not be used.

EXAMPLES

To generate a database at '~/win2k.grokevt' based on the system configuration profile 'win2k':

      grokevt-builddb win2k ~/win2k.grokevt

To repeat the last command, instead using registry information explicitly from /ControlSet002:

      grokevt-builddb -c 2 win2k ~/win2k.grokevt

BUGS

Probably a few. This script has not been extensively tested with some guest platforms.

The databases built with this script may not be portable to other systems, depending on the database drivers installed and used in Python.

CREDITS

Written by Timothy D. Morgan.

LICENSE

Please see the file "LICENSE" included with this software distribution.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License version 3 for more details.