Selenium to check log files

Does anyone know if it is possible to use selenium WebDriver (im using java) to check for messages in log files?

Currently the only way to know if an action in the front end of our system has completed is to ssh into our servers and wait for confirmation from the log files. This is how the process is tested manually but now I need to automate that test. Is it possible to use selenium to check this out?

My current method to achieve this seems overly complex:

• Run actions in Front end
• Launch shell Script to check log files from Selenium Test (includes ssh to server as logs are stored there)
• Create "Action Completed" message in simple text file on server if logs show action is completed otherwise show "Action NOT completed"
• scp file back to my machine/VM
• read in file to eclipse
• Create method in test to check contents of file something like if ("Action completed" message is returned -> continue) else (repeat from bullet point 2)

Is there a simpler way???