Looking for some conceptual opinions...
I am working on a data logger for some of the computer system where I work. What I need to do is on boot up I would collect some specific data and send it to a central database.
In my past works I would append data to single flat file by using a function in the data collector which manages access concurrency. I would then import the flat files into a real database and massage the data as needed. the only side effects to this method is one of access rights to the data share that the flat file resided on which sometimes posed a problem.
I am now rethinking my strategy and looking at other methods, perhaps sending a data packet via TCP to a listening server. That server in turn would add the data directly to tables in a database.
Personally I wish there was something I could fire an XML data packet at and have it handle the conversion to the database without me writing the server component. Not sure if such an animal exists.
What have others done?