[erlang-questions] how: logging messages to another node

[Jay Nelson]

I am working on a scenario with diskless nodes talking to a back end  
node with a disk.  I want to forward error_logger messages to the  
backend node.  Here is the chain of events:

1) Start the diskless node
     a) installs an event_handler to capture error_logger messages
     b) messages are queued up until the backend node connects
2) Start the backend node
3) Detect node up and forward messages to backend

I could put a server on the backend node and forward messages to it,  
but it seemed that there should be a way to leverage the existing  
error_logger.  My first attempts were trying to get the process id of  
the error_logger on another node, but there was no way to do this  
that I could find.  I could monitor that process using {error_logger,  
Node} but I couldn't figure out a way to remotely obtain the  
process_id.  Is there a way?

I have a working version now, which feels a bit of a hack to me which  
works as follows:

Backend machine:
    - global:register_name(logger, whereis(error_logger)).

Diskless machine:
    - Pid = global:whereis_name(logger),
    - group_leader(Pid, self()),
    - error_logger:error_report(Msg)

Voila, the message appears on the backend node.  I don't like the  
idea of using the group_leader / error_logger approach or the magic  
'logger' global name.  It seems there should be an easier way to  
reach out to the remote error_logger process, especially since I can  
monitor it using the {RegName, Node}, but I can't find any other  
functions for discovering the process_id.

Any suggestions for an alternate approach?

jay