# Syslog vs SNMP

Syslog and SNMP are both used for monitoring and troubleshooting of devices. They are complementary, but their functionalities are different.

**Syslog** is used for message logging.

* Event that occur within the system are categorized based on facility/severity and logged.
* Used for system management, analysis, and troubleshooting.
* Messages are sent from the devices to the server. The server **can't** actively pull information from the devices (like SNMP **Get**) or modify variables (like SNMP **Set**).

**SNMP** is used to retrieve and organize information about the SNMP managed devices.

* IP addresses, current interface status, temperature, CPU usage, etc.
* SNMP servers can use **Get** to query the clients and **Set** to modify variables on the clients.