When you create a log file monitor, you choose the specific file content you want to monitor. Your ability to focus on specific content is valuable because log files typically contain considerable data. For example, you might be especially concerned about tracking system errors or monitoring any warnings that are recorded in the log.
You create a file monitor to check on the characteristics, rather than the content, of a file. You can create a file monitor that will gather specific information about a file, such as its size or age.
Because the log file monitor and the file monitor are concerned with different aspects of a file, you can create one of each for the same file. For example, you might create a log file monitor for the AdminServer log (admserv.log) to keep you informed of specific areas of concern in the file's contents. You can also create a file monitor for the AdminServer log that will check one or more of the file's characteristics, such as its size or growth rate. If you find that the AdminServer log is growing too quickly, you can lower the logging level so that less data is written to the log.
