$re = '~\b
(?P<key>[\w(): ]+)
\h+
<(?P<value>[^>]+)>~x';
$str = 'Feb 16 20:04:37 hostname su[1111]: [id 123456 auth.info] pam_vas: Authentication <succeeded> for <active directory> user: <bobtheperson> account: <bobtheperson@com.com> reason: <N/A> Access cont(upn): <bob>';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php