The event header

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

The event header

The event header contains the following information:

Information Meaning

Date

The date the event occurred. The date and time of an event are stored in Universal Time Coordinate (UTC) but always display in the viewer's locale.

Time

The time the event occurred. The date and time of an event are stored in UTC but always display in the viewer's locale.

User

The name of the user on whose behalf the event occurred. This name is the client ID if the event was actually caused by a server process, or the primary ID if impersonation is not taking place. Where applicable, a security log entry contains both the primary and impersonation IDs. Impersonation occurs when the server allows one process to take on the security attributes of another.

Computer

The name of the computer where the event occurred. This is usually the name of your own computer, unless you are viewing an event log on another computer.

Source

The software that logged the event, which can be either a program name such as SQL Server, or a component of the system (such as a driver name) or of a large program. For example, "Elnkii" indicates an EtherLink II driver. The Source always remains in its original language.

Event

A number identifying the particular event type for this source. The first line of the description usually contains the name of the event type. For example, 6005 is the ID of the event that occurs when the Event log service is started. The first line of the description of such an event is "The Event log service was started." Using the values of Source and Event together, product support representatives can troubleshoot system problems.

Type

A classification of the event severity: Error, Information, or Warning in the system and application logs; Success Audit or Failure Audit in the security log. In the Event Viewer normal list view, these are represented by a symbol.

Category

A classification of the event by the event source. This information is primarily used in the security log. For example, for security audits, this corresponds to one of the event types for which success or failure auditing can be enabled in Group Policy by a member of the Administrators group.

For more information, see