syslog-ng Open Source Edition 3.36 - Administration Guide

Preface Introduction to syslog-ng The concepts of syslog-ng Installing syslog-ng The syslog-ng OSE quick-start guide The syslog-ng OSE configuration file source: Read, receive, and collect log messages
How sources work default-network-drivers: Receive and parse common syslog messages internal: Collecting internal messages file: Collecting messages from text files wildcard-file: Collecting messages from multiple text files linux-audit: Collecting messages from Linux audit logs mqtt: receiving messages from an MQTT broker network: Collecting messages using the RFC3164 protocol (network() driver) nodejs: Receiving JSON messages from nodejs applications mbox: Converting local email messages to log messages osquery: Collect and parse osquery result logs pipe: Collecting messages from named pipes pacct: Collecting process accounting logs on Linux program: Receiving messages from external applications python: writing server-style Python sources python-fetcher: writing fetcher-style Python sources snmptrap: Read Net-SNMP traps sun-streams: Collecting messages on Sun Solaris syslog: Collecting messages using the IETF syslog protocol (syslog() driver) system: Collecting the system-specific log messages of a platform systemd-journal: Collecting messages from the systemd-journal system log storage systemd-syslog: Collecting systemd messages using a socket tcp, tcp6, udp, udp6: Collecting messages from remote hosts using the BSD syslog protocol— OBSOLETE unix-stream, unix-dgram: Collecting messages from UNIX domain sockets stdin: Collecting messages from the standard input stream
destination: Forward, send, and store log messages
amqp: Publishing messages using AMQP collectd: sending metrics to collectd discord: Sending alerts and notifications to Discord elasticsearch2: Sending messages directly to Elasticsearch version 2.0 or higher (DEPRECATED) elasticsearch-http: Sending messages to Elasticsearch HTTP Bulk API file: Storing messages in plain-text files graphite: Sending metrics to Graphite Sending logs to Graylog hdfs: Storing messages on the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) Posting messages over HTTP http: Posting messages over HTTP without Java kafka: Publishing messages to Apache Kafka (Java implementation) kafka-c(): Publishing messages to Apache Kafka using the librdkafka client (C implementation) loggly: Using Loggly logmatic: Using Logmatic.io mongodb(): Storing messages in a MongoDB database mqtt() destination: sending messages from a local network to an MQTT broker network: Sending messages to a remote log server using the RFC3164 protocol (network() driver) osquery: Sending log messages to osquery's syslog table pipe: Sending messages to named pipes program: Sending messages to external applications pseudofile() python: writing custom Python destinations redis: Storing name-value pairs in Redis riemann: Monitoring your data with Riemann slack: Sending alerts and notifications to a Slack channel smtp: Generating SMTP messages (email) from logs snmp: Sending SNMP traps Splunk: Sending log messages to Splunk sql: Storing messages in an SQL database stomp: Publishing messages using STOMP Sumo Logic destinations: sumologic-http() and sumologic-syslog() syslog: Sending messages to a remote logserver using the IETF-syslog protocol syslog-ng(): Forward logs to another syslog-ng node tcp, tcp6, udp, udp6: Sending messages to a remote log server using the legacy BSD-syslog protocol (tcp(), udp() drivers) Telegram: Sending messages to Telegram unix-stream, unix-dgram: Sending messages to UNIX domain sockets usertty: Sending messages to a user terminal: usertty() destination Write your own custom destination in Java or Python Client-side failover
log: Filter and route log messages using log paths, flags, and filters Global options of syslog-ng OSE TLS-encrypted message transfer template and rewrite: Format, modify, and manipulate log messages parser: Parse and segment structured messages
Parsing syslog messages Parsing messages with comma-separated and similar values Parsing key=value pairs JSON parser XML parser Parsing dates and timestamps Python parser Parsing tags Apache access log parser Linux audit parser Cisco parser Parsing enterprise-wide message model (EWMM) messages iptables parser Netskope parser panos-parser(): parsing PAN-OS log messages Sudo parser Websense parser Fortigate parser Check Point Log Exporter parser Regular expression (regexp) parser db-parser: Process message content with a pattern database (patterndb)
Correlating log messages Enriching log messages with external data Statistics of syslog-ng Multithreading and scaling in syslog-ng OSE Troubleshooting syslog-ng Best practices and examples The syslog-ng manual pages Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd) License Glossary

Reporting bugs and finding help

If you need help, want to open a support ticket, or report a bug, we recommend using the syslog-ng-debun tool to collect information about your environment and syslog-ng OSE version. For details, see The syslog-ng-debun manual page. For support contacts, see About us.


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Recover data from orphaned diskbuffer files

When you change the configuration of a syslog-ng OSE host that uses disk-based buffering (also called disk queue), syslog-ng OSE may start new disk buffer files for the destinations that you have changed. In this case, syslog-ng OSE abandons the old disk queue files. If there were unsent log messages in the disk queue files, these messages remain in the disk queue files, and will not be sent to the destinations.


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No local logs after specifying an unusual storage directory

Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is a set of kernel and user-space tools enforcing strict access control policies. SELinux rules in Linux distributions cover all aspects of the syslog-ng configuration coming in the syslog-ng package available in the distribution. But as soon as an unusual port number or directory name is specified in the configuration, syslog-ng fails to work even with a completely legitimate configuration.

When you choose to save logs of a central syslog-ng OSE server to a directory other than the /var/log directory, logs will not start appearing on the newly configured directory. For details on how to fix this issue, see sectionUsing a different storage directoryin the blog post titled Using syslog-ng with SELinux in enforcing mode.


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No logs after specifying an unusual port number

Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is a set of kernel and user-space tools enforcing strict access control policies. SELinux rules in Linux distributions cover all aspects of the syslog-ng configuration coming in the syslog-ng package available in the distribution. But as soon as an unusual port number or directory name is specified in the configuration, syslog-ng fails to work even with a completely legitimate configuration.

By default, SELinux only allows connections to the default syslog ports. When you have to use any other port for some reason, sending logs to that port will not work. For details on how to fix this issue, see sectionUsing a different portin the blog post titled Using syslog-ng with SELinux in enforcing mode.


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