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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

The syslog-ng pattern database format

Pattern databases are XML files that contain rules describing the message patterns. For sample pattern databases, see Downloading sample pattern databases.

The following scheme describes the V5 format of the pattern database. This format is backwards-compatible with the earlier formats.

For a sample database containing only a single pattern, see Example: A pattern database containing a single rule.

TIP: Use the pdbtool utility that is bundled with syslog-ng to test message patterns and convert existing databases to the latest format. For details, see The pdbtool manual page.

To automatically create an initial pattern database from an existing log file, use the pdbtool patternize command. For details, see The pdbtool manual page.

Example: A pattern database containing a single rule

The following pattern database contains a single rule that matches a log message of the ssh application. A sample log message looks like:

Accepted password for sampleuser from 10.50.0.247 port 42156 ssh2

The following is a simple pattern database containing a matching rule.

<patterndb version='5' pub_date='2010-10-17'>
    <ruleset name='ssh' id='123456678'>
        <pattern>ssh</pattern>
            <rules>
                <rule provider='me' id='182437592347598' class='system'>
                    <patterns>
                        <pattern>Accepted @QSTRING:SSH.AUTH_METHOD: @ for@QSTRING:SSH_USERNAME: @from\ @QSTRING:SSH_CLIENT_ADDRESS: @port @NUMBER:SSH_PORT_NUMBER:@ ssh2</pattern>
                    </patterns>
                </rule>
            </rules>
    </ruleset>
</patterndb>

Note that the rule uses macros that refer to parts of the message, for example, you can use the ${SSH_USERNAME} macro refer to the username used in the connection.

The following is the same example, but with a test message and test values for the parsers.

<patterndb version='4' pub_date='2010-10-17'>
    <ruleset name='ssh' id='123456678'>
        <pattern>ssh</pattern>
            <rules>
                <rule provider='me' id='182437592347598' class='system'>
                    <patterns>
                        <pattern>Accepted @QSTRING:SSH.AUTH_METHOD: @ for@QSTRING:SSH_USERNAME: @from\ @QSTRING:SSH_CLIENT_ADDRESS: @port @NUMBER:SSH_PORT_NUMBER:@ ssh2</pattern>
                    </patterns>
                    <examples>
                        <example>
                            <test_message>Accepted password for sampleuser from 10.50.0.247 port 42156 ssh2</test_message>
                            <test_values>
                                <test_value name="SSH.AUTH_METHOD">password</test_value>
                                <test_value name="SSH_USERNAME">sampleuser</test_value>
                                <test_value name="SSH_CLIENT_ADDRESS">10.50.0.247</test_value>
                                <test_value name="SSH_PORT_NUMBER">42156</test_value>
                            </test_values>
                       </example>
                    </examples>
                </rule>
            </rules>
    </ruleset>
</patterndb>

Element: patterndb

Location

/patterndb

Description

The container element of the pattern database.

Attributes

  • version: The schema version of the pattern database. The current version is 4.

  • pubdate: The publication date of the XML file.

Children
Example
<patterndb version='4' pub_date='2010-10-25'>

Element: ruleset

Location

/patterndb/ruleset

Description

A container element to group log patterns for an application or program. A <patterndb> element may contain any number of <ruleset> elements.

Attributes

  • name: The name of the application. Note that the function of this attribute is to make the database more readable, syslog-ng uses the <pattern> element to identify the applications sending log messages.

  • id: A unique ID of the application, for example, the md5 sum of the name attribute.

Children

  • patterns

  • rules

  • actions

  • tags

  • description: OPTIONAL — A description of the ruleset or the application.

  • url: OPTIONAL — An URL referring to further information about the ruleset or the application.

  • rule_urls: OPTIONAL — To list multiple URLs referring to further information about the ruleset or the application, enclose the <url> elements into an <urls> element.

Example
<ruleset name='su' id='480de478-d4a6-4a7f-bea4-0c0245d361e1'>

Element: patterns

Location

/patterndb/ruleset/patterns

Description

A container element. A <patterns> element may contain any number of <pattern> elements.

Attributes

N/A

Children

  • pattern: The name of the application — syslog-ng matches this value to the ${PROGRAM} header of the syslog message to find the rulesets applicable to the syslog message.

    Specifying multiple patterns is useful if two or more applications have different names (that is, different ${PROGRAM} fields), but otherwise send identical log messages.

    It is not necessary to use multiple patterns if only the end of the ${PROGRAM} fields is different, use only the beginning of the ${PROGRAM} field as the pattern. For example, the Postfix email server sends messages using different process names, but all of them begin with the postfix string.

    You can also use parsers in the program pattern if needed, and use the parsed results later. For example: <pattern>postfix\@ESTRING:.postfix.component:[@</pattern>

    NOTE: If the <pattern> element of a ruleset is not specified, syslog-ng OSE will use this ruleset as a fallback ruleset: it will apply the ruleset to messages that have an empty PROGRAM header, or if none of the program patterns matched the PROGRAM header of the incoming message.

Example
<patterns>
    <pattern>firstapplication</pattern>
    <pattern>otherapplication</pattern>
</patterns>

Using parsers in the program pattern:

<pattern>postfix\@ESTRING:.postfix.component:[@</pattern>
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