The collation client nodes prepare their log buffers for transfer across the network and send the buffers to the log collation server. When the log collation server receives a log buffer from a client, it writes it to its own log file as if it were generated locally. If log clients cannot contact their log collation server, they write their log buffers to their local disks, into orphan log files. Orphan log files require manual collation. Log collation servers can be stand-alone or they can be part of a node running Content Gateway.