diff --git a/bin/swift-drive-audit b/bin/swift-drive-audit
index 46ddcb2722..7dbf5e256a 100755
--- a/bin/swift-drive-audit
+++ b/bin/swift-drive-audit
@@ -25,13 +25,6 @@ from ConfigParser import ConfigParser
 from swift.common.utils import backward, get_logger
 
 
-# To search for more types of errors, add the regex to the list below
-error_re = [
-    re.compile(r'\berror\b.*\b(sd[a-z]{1,2}\d?)\b'),
-    re.compile(r'\b(sd[a-z]{1,2}\d?)\b.*\berror\b'),
-]
-
-
 def get_devices(device_dir, logger):
     devices = []
     for line in open('/proc/mounts').readlines():
@@ -61,12 +54,17 @@ def get_devices(device_dir, logger):
     return devices
 
 
-def get_errors(minutes):
+def get_errors(error_re, log_file_pattern, minutes):
     # Assuming log rotation is being used, we need to examine
     # recently rotated files in case the rotation occured
     # just before the script is being run - the data we are
     # looking for may have rotated.
-    log_files = [f for f in glob.glob('/var/log/kern.*[!.][!g][!z]')]
+    #
+    # The globbing used before would not work with all out-of-box
+    # distro setup for logrotate and syslog therefore moving this
+    # to the config where one can set it with the desired
+    # globbing pattern.
+    log_files = [f for f in glob.glob(log_file_pattern)]
     log_files.sort()
 
     now_time = datetime.datetime.now()
@@ -143,13 +141,30 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     device_dir = conf.get('device_dir', '/srv/node')
     minutes = int(conf.get('minutes', 60))
     error_limit = int(conf.get('error_limit', 1))
+    log_file_pattern = conf.get('log_file_pattern',
+                                '/var/log/kern.*[!.][!g][!z]')
+    error_re = []
+    for conf_key in conf:
+        if conf_key.startswith('regex_pattern_'):
+            error_pattern = conf[conf_key]
+            try:
+                r = re.compile(error_pattern)
+            except re.error:
+                sys.exit('Error: unable to compile regex pattern "%s"' %
+                         error_pattern)
+            error_re.append(r)
+    if not error_re:
+        error_re = [
+            re.compile(r'\berror\b.*\b(sd[a-z]{1,2}\d?)\b'),
+            re.compile(r'\b(sd[a-z]{1,2}\d?)\b.*\berror\b'),
+        ]
     conf['log_name'] = conf.get('log_name', 'drive-audit')
     logger = get_logger(conf, log_route='drive-audit')
     devices = get_devices(device_dir, logger)
     logger.debug("Devices found: %s" % str(devices))
     if not devices:
         logger.error("Error: No devices found!")
-    errors = get_errors(minutes)
+    errors = get_errors(error_re, log_file_pattern, minutes)
     logger.debug("Errors found: %s" % str(errors))
     unmounts = 0
     for kernel_device, count in errors.items():
diff --git a/doc/source/admin_guide.rst b/doc/source/admin_guide.rst
index dcfe908eab..42b836c773 100644
--- a/doc/source/admin_guide.rst
+++ b/doc/source/admin_guide.rst
@@ -156,20 +156,30 @@ settings:
 
 [drive-audit]
 
-==================  ==========  ===========================================
-Option              Default     Description
-------------------  ----------  -------------------------------------------
-log_facility        LOG_LOCAL0  Syslog log facility
-log_level           INFO        Log level
-device_dir          /srv/node   Directory devices are mounted under
-minutes             60          Number of minutes to look back in
-                                `/var/log/kern.log`
-error_limit         1           Number of errors to find before a device
-                                is unmounted
-==================  ==========  ===========================================
+==================  ==============  ===========================================
+Option              Default         Description
+------------------  --------------  -------------------------------------------
+log_facility        LOG_LOCAL0      Syslog log facility
+log_level           INFO            Log level
+device_dir          /srv/node       Directory devices are mounted under
+minutes             60              Number of minutes to look back in
+                                    `/var/log/kern.log`
+error_limit         1               Number of errors to find before a device
+                                    is unmounted
+log_file_pattern    /var/log/kern*  Location of the log file with globbing
+                                    pattern to check against device errors
+regex_pattern_X     (see below)     Regular expression patterns to be used to
+                                    locate device blocks with errors in the
+                                    log file  
+==================  ==============  ===========================================
 
-This script has only been tested on Ubuntu 10.04, so if you are using a
-different distro or OS, some care should be taken before using in production.
+The default regex pattern used to locate device blocks with errors are
+`\berror\b.*\b(sd[a-z]{1,2}\d?)\b` and `\b(sd[a-z]{1,2}\d?)\b.*\berror\b`.
+One is able to overwrite the default above by providing new expressions
+using the format `regex_pattern_X = regex_expression`, where `X` is a number.
+
+This script has been tested on Ubuntu 10.04 and Ubuntu 12.04, so if you are
+using a different distro or OS, some care should be taken before using in production.
 
 --------------
 Cluster Health
diff --git a/etc/drive-audit.conf-sample b/etc/drive-audit.conf-sample
index 98ef4eb1be..f57b4fc5b2 100644
--- a/etc/drive-audit.conf-sample
+++ b/etc/drive-audit.conf-sample
@@ -5,3 +5,18 @@
 # log_address = /dev/log
 # minutes = 60
 # error_limit = 1
+#
+# Location of the log file with globbing
+# pattern to check against device errors.
+# log_file_pattern = /var/log/kern*
+#
+# Regular expression patterns to be used to locate
+# device blocks with errors in the log file. Currently
+# the default ones are as follows:
+#   \berror\b.*\b(sd[a-z]{1,2}\d?)\b
+#   \b(sd[a-z]{1,2}\d?)\b.*\berror\b
+# One can overwrite the default ones by providing
+# new expressions using the format below: 
+# Format: regex_pattern_X = regex_expression
+# Example:
+#   regex_pattern_1 = \berror\b.*\b(dm-[0-9]{1,2}\d?)\b