Recently I was asked if syslog-ng supports Ubuntu 26.04 (Ubuntu Resolute). Yes, and with the arrival of the syslog-ng 4.12.0 release we also provide ready-to-use packages for it. The release notes mention it, and info is in the Readme on GitHub.
I tend to mention FreeBSD and openSUSE more often in my blogs (personal preference), so today I installed Ubuntu 26.04 and tested syslog-ng myself.
Installing syslog-ng
The information needed to install syslog-ng from our repositories is also available in the syslog-ng Readme on GitHub. However, below I provide some additional information along with command lines ready to copy and paste.
First you have to add the syslog-ng repository:
wget -qO - https://ose-repo.syslog-ng.com/apt/syslog-ng-ose-pub.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/syslog-ng-ose.gpg echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/syslog-ng-ose.gpg] https://ose-repo.syslog-ng.com/apt/ stable ubuntu-resolute" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/syslog-ng-ose.list apt update
The syslog-ng package is a metapackage. It pulls in all possible syslog-ng subpackages and their dependencies. While disk space is cheap, any additional package also needs maintenance. So, I tend to install only what is really necessary. The syslog-ng-core package contains the minimal binaries, and the syslog-ng-scl package contains some basic configuration. In most cases, I store logs to somewhere needing an HTTP-based protocol, like Elasticsearch, so I also install syslog-ng-mod-http. You can get a full list of syslog-ng modules using apt search syslog-ng.
You can simply install the meta package and have all supported syslog-ng features and their dependencies installed in one go (over 300 MB), or you can install the core functionality with HTTP support and basic configuration (taking just 2.5 MB).
apt install syslog-ng-mod-http syslog-ng-scl
Note that installing syslog-ng removes rsyslog from the system. In most cases it is not a problem, but some applications might have dependencies on it.
Testing
By the end of the installation, syslog-ng should be up and running. There are many ways to verify syslog-ng, but the easiest is:
root@ubi2604:~# logger this is a test root@ubi2604:~# tail -1 /var/log/messages Jul 13 13:04:08 ubi2604 root[17254]: this is a test
What is next?
Of course, installing syslog-ng is just a first step. Customizing it for your environment is next. If you are new to syslog-ng, use the learning syslog-ng blog to get started.
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If you have questions or comments related to syslog-ng, do not hesitate to contact us. You can reach us by email or even chat with us. For a list of possibilities, check our GitHub page under the “Community” section at https://github.com/syslog-ng/syslog-ng. On Twitter, I am available as @PCzanik, on Mastodon as @Pczanik@fosstodon.org.