Element: create-context
Description
OPTIONAL — Creates a new correlation context from the current message and its associated context. This can be used to "split" a context.
Available in syslog-ng OSE version
Attributes
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context-id: OPTIONAL — An identifier to group related log messages when using the pattern database to correlate events. The ID can be a descriptive string describing the events related to the log message (for example, ssh-sessions for log messages related to SSH traffic), but can also contain macros to generate IDs dynamically. When using macros in IDs, see also the context-scope attribute. Starting with syslog-ng OSE version
NOTE: The syslog-ng OSE application determines the context of the message after the pattern matching is completed. This means that macros and name-value pairs created by the matching pattern database rule can be used as context-id macros.
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context-timeout: OPTIONAL — The number of seconds the context is stored. Note that for high-traffic log servers, storing open contexts for long time can require significant amount of memory. For details on correlating messages, see Correlating log messages using pattern databases.
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context-scope: OPTIONAL — Specifies which messages belong to the same context. This attribute is used to determine the context of the message if the context-id does not specify any macros. Usually, context-scope acts a filter for the context, with context-id refining the filtering if needed. The following values are available:
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process: Only messages that are generated by the same process of a client belong to the same context, that is, messages that have identical ${HOST}, ${PROGRAM} and ${PID} values. This is the default behavior of syslog-ng OSE if context-scope is not specified.
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program: Messages that are generated by the same application of a client belong to the same context, that is, messages that have identical ${HOST} and ${PROGRAM} values.
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host: Every message generated by a client belongs to the same context, only the ${HOST} value of the messages must be identical.
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global: Every message belongs to the same context.
NOTE: Using the context-scope attribute is significantly faster than using macros in the context-id attribute.
For details on correlating messages, see Correlating log messages using pattern databases.
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Children
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message: A container element storing the message that is added to the new context when the action is executed.
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inherit-mode: This attribute controls which name-value pairs and tags are propagated to the newly generated message.
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context: syslog-ng OSE collects every name-value pair from each message stored in the context, and includes them in the generated message. If a name-value pair appears in multiple messages of the context, the value in the latest message will be used. Note that tags are not merged, the generated message will inherit the tags assigned to the last message of the context.
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last-message: Only the name-value pairs appearing in the last message are copied. If the context contains only a single message, then it is the message that triggered the action.
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none: An empty message is created, without inheriting any tags or name-value pairs.
For details on the message context, see Correlating log messages using pattern databases and Actions and message correlation. For details on triggering messages, see Triggering actions for identified messages
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Example
The following example creates a new context whenever the rule matches. The new context receives 1000 as ID, and program as scope, and the content set in the <message> element of the <create-context> element.
<rule provider='test' id='12' class='violation'>
<patterns>
<pattern>simple-message-with-action-to-create-context</pattern>
</patterns>
<actions>
<action trigger='match'>
<create-context context-id='1000' context-timeout='60' context-scope='program'>
<message inherit-properties='context'>
<values>
<value name='MESSAGE'>context message</value>
</values>
</message>
</create-context>
</action>
</actions>
</rule>