Over the coffee today, one of the friends in office got a call and I heard him saying, “Use GPT to parse through the logs and find the pattern. It would just take 30 seconds to figure out and you….”

He was still chatting over the phone but I traversed back in the time in 2006-07…..

3AM scene in the datacenter-
“Which event viewer log should we check first?”
“Check ISA logs, then AD replication logs, then every DC’s Security logs…”
“Open notepad and list down all the error IDs”
“Export all logs before they rotate!”
“But the logs are showing 4:30 PM… wait, check timezone in that server!!”
“Match error codes with Microsoft KB articles”

It was just like–
“Kitne logs he?” (How many logs?)
“Saab, bahut saare…” (Sir, too many…)
“To analysis kab karoge?” (When would you analyze them then?)
“Karenge saab, LogMan se ek-ek file analyze karenge”. (We would do it sir with analyzing each files from LogMan)

Back then, log analysis was less IT and more crime scene investigation- zoom in, enhance, and hope the root cause confesses before your shift ends!!!

And now in 2025? You hear someone chatting “Use GPT to parse through the logs and find the pattern.” But even that is old-school I believe. Today’s AI-powered systems analyze themselves, pinpoint the issue, and recommend remedies also! And add ML in it for self healing also!

We have come a long way…

That feeling when GenAI finds the root cause in seconds – “Bade bade systems mein aisi chhoti chhoti problems hoti rehti hai, Senorita!” (Small problems like this happen in big systems, Senorita!)

What is your favorite log analysis story? From LogMan to LogGPT (GenAI), how has your journey been?

PS: Sure, GenAI is damn impressive and is the way ahead, but there is a certain charm in the past where teams would spend hours hunting a single error in logs, only to discover the server clock was running on Mars time. 😉