When a user reports a problem with syslog-ng, developers create code to fix it. The fix is called a patch or a pull request (PR) in Git terminology. Often this code does not enter the main source code automatically but developers ask the user to test…

The syslog-ng configuration library (SCL) is a collection of ready-to-use configuration snippets that hide away the complexity of the specifics of your log processing pipeline. If you already reuse parts of your configuration on different machines, i…

One of the main advantages of syslog-ng is that it is high performance and low on resource usage. Why throttle the messages then? There are three main reasons – licensing, performance, and bandwidth – all outside of syslog-ng. From this b...

The hook-commands() option of syslog-ng makes it easy to execute external commands when a driver is started or stopped. For example, you can open a port in the firewall when a network source is started and close it once syslog-ng is shut down. Or you…

Getting started with the Telegram destination of syslog-ng is not an easy and straightforward process, but it is well worth the efforts. If you do not know Telegram yet, Telegram is a cloud-based messaging application known for its security...

Last week SANS published a brand new white paper about the Internet of Things: “Stopping IoT-based Attacks on Enterprise Networks”. IoT devices have been around in the networks of enterprises for many years, just think about network-conne…

The syslog-ng application was used for many years as a log collection layer in front of Splunk. But why use a full-blown log management appliance with a graphical user interface instead of a simple command line application? I learned the answers at&…

During the past six weeks I visited five different conferences in four different countries either as a speaker or as booth staff. While traveling so much in such a short span of time was quite exhausting, I would do it again without hesitation. Altog…

When starting a new project, Big Data vendors usually recommend a “save all” and “save raw” approach, as you never know what data might come handy later and in what format. Companies starting those projects also often have the...

Origin story We just realized that syslog-ng has a nice milestone as it reached the 3.14 version. I wanted to create something to celebrate it. There were a few ideas – still not forgotten, but in the end I though I do not want to extend syslog...

Dear syslog-ng users, This is the 66th issue of syslog-ng Insider, a monthly newsletter that brings you syslog-ng-related news. NEWS syslog-ng is available for RHEL 6 / CentOS 6 again After more than a year, the latest version of syslog-ng compiles a…

Recently Splunk started to recommend the use of the HTTP Event Collector (HEC) instead of forwarders. Syslog-ng supports this in multiple ways. Last time I showed you how to use the http() destination of syslog-ng. This time I introduce you to anothe…