syslog

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Read syslog messages as events over the network.

This input is a good choice if you already use syslog today. It is also a good choice if you want to receive logs from appliances and network devices where you cannot run your own log collector.

Of course, syslog is a very muddy term. This input only supports RFC3164 syslog with some small modifications. The date format is allowed to be RFC3164 style or ISO8601. Otherwise the rest of RFC3164 must be obeyed. If you do not use RFC3164, do not use this input.

For more information see the RFC3164 page.

Note: This input will start listeners on both TCP and UDP.

 

Synopsis

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This plugin supports the following configuration options:

Required configuration options:

syslog {
}

Available configuration options:

Setting Input type Required Default value

add_field

hash

No

{}

codec

codec

No

"plain"

facility_labels

array

No

["kernel", "user-level", "mail", "system", "security/authorization", "syslogd", "line printer", "network news", "UUCP", "clock", "security/authorization", "FTP", "NTP", "log audit", "log alert", "clock", "local0", "local1", "local2", "local3", "local4", "local5", "local6", "local7"]

host

string

No

"0.0.0.0"

locale

string

No

port

number

No

514

severity_labels

array

No

["Emergency", "Alert", "Critical", "Error", "Warning", "Notice", "Informational", "Debug"]

tags

array

No

timezone

string

No

type

string

No

use_labels

boolean

No

true

Details

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add_field

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  • Value type is hash
  • Default value is {}

Add a field to an event

codec

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  • Value type is codec
  • Default value is "plain"

The codec used for input data. Input codecs are a convenient method for decoding your data before it enters the input, without needing a separate filter in your Logstash pipeline.

facility_labels

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  • Value type is array
  • Default value is ["kernel", "user-level", "mail", "system", "security/authorization", "syslogd", "line printer", "network news", "UUCP", "clock", "security/authorization", "FTP", "NTP", "log audit", "log alert", "clock", "local0", "local1", "local2", "local3", "local4", "local5", "local6", "local7"]

Labels for facility levels. These are defined in RFC3164.

host

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  • Value type is string
  • Default value is "0.0.0.0"

The address to listen on.

locale

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  • Value type is string
  • There is no default value for this setting.

Specify a locale to be used for date parsing using either IETF-BCP47 or POSIX language tag. Simple examples are en,en-US for BCP47 or en_US for POSIX. If not specified, the platform default will be used.

The locale is mostly necessary to be set for parsing month names (pattern with MMM) and weekday names (pattern with EEE).

port

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  • Value type is number
  • Default value is 514

The port to listen on. Remember that ports less than 1024 (privileged ports) may require root to use.

severity_labels

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  • Value type is array
  • Default value is ["Emergency", "Alert", "Critical", "Error", "Warning", "Notice", "Informational", "Debug"]

Labels for severity levels. These are defined in RFC3164.

tags

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  • Value type is array
  • There is no default value for this setting.

Add any number of arbitrary tags to your event.

This can help with processing later.

timezone

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  • Value type is string
  • There is no default value for this setting.

Specify a time zone canonical ID to be used for date parsing. The valid IDs are listed on the [Joda.org available time zones page](http://joda-time.sourceforge.net/timezones.html). This is useful in case the time zone cannot be extracted from the value, and is not the platform default. If this is not specified the platform default will be used. Canonical ID is good as it takes care of daylight saving time for you For example, America/Los_Angeles or Europe/France are valid IDs.

type

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  • Value type is string
  • There is no default value for this setting.

Add a type field to all events handled by this input.

Types are used mainly for filter activation.

The type is stored as part of the event itself, so you can also use the type to search for it in Kibana.

If you try to set a type on an event that already has one (for example when you send an event from a shipper to an indexer) then a new input will not override the existing type. A type set at the shipper stays with that event for its life even when sent to another Logstash server.

use_labels

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  • Value type is boolean
  • Default value is true

Use label parsing for severity and facility levels.