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syslog-ng Open Source Edition 3.18 - 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 network: Collecting messages using the RFC3164 protocol (network() driver) nodejs: Receiving JSON messages from nodejs applications mbox: Converting local e-mail 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 elasticsearch: Sending messages directly to Elasticsearch version 1.x (DEPRECATED) elasticsearch2: Sending logs directly to Elasticsearch and Kibana 2.0 or higher 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 loggly: Using Loggly logmatic: Using Logmatic.io mongodb: Storing messages in a MongoDB database 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 smtp: Generating SMTP messages (e-mail) from logs Splunk: Sending log messages to Splunk sql: Storing messages in an SQL database stomp: Publishing messages using STOMP syslog: Sending messages to a remote logserver using the IETF-syslog protocol syslog-ng: Forwarding messages and tags 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 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 Third-party contributions Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd) License About us

Setting message fields to specific values

To set a field of the message to a specific value, you have to:

  • define the string to include in the message, and

  • select the field where it should be included.

You can set the value of available macros, for example HOST, MESSAGE, PROGRAM, or any user-defined macros created using parsers (for details, see parser: Parse and segment structured messages and db-parser: Process message content with a pattern database (patterndb)). Hard macros cannot be modified. For details on the hard and soft macros, see Hard vs. soft macros). Note that the rewrite operation completely replaces any previous value of that field. Use the following syntax:

Declaration:
rewrite <name_of_the_rule> {
    set("<string to include>", value(<field name>));
};
Example: Setting message fields to a particular value

The following example sets the HOST field of the message to myhost.

rewrite r_rewrite_set{
    set("myhost", value("HOST"));
};

The following example appends the "suffix" string to the MESSAGE field:

rewrite r_rewrite_set{
    set("$MESSAGE suffix", value("MESSAGE"));
};

For details on rewriting SDATA fields, see Creating custom SDATA fields.

You can also use the following options in rewrite rules that use the set() operator.

rewrite <name_of_the_rule> {
    set("<string to include>", value(<field name>), on-error("fallback-to-string");
};
frac-digits()
Type: number
Default: 0

Description: The syslog-ng application can store fractions of a second in the timestamps according to the ISO8601 format. The frac-digits() parameter specifies the number of digits stored. The digits storing the fractions are padded by zeros if the original timestamp of the message specifies only seconds. Fractions can always be stored for the time the message was received. Note that syslog-ng can add the fractions to non-ISO8601 timestamps as well.

local-time-zone()
Type: name of the timezone, or the timezone offset
Default: The local timezone.

Description: Sets the timezone used when expanding filename and tablename templates.

The timezone can be specified by using the name, for example, time-zone("Europe/Budapest")), or as the timezone offset in +/-HH:MM format, for example, +01:00). On Linux and UNIX platforms, the valid timezone names are listed under the /usr/share/zoneinfo directory.

on-error()
Accepted values:

drop-message|drop-property|fallback-to-string|

silently-drop-message|silently-drop-property|silently-fallback-to-string

Default: Use the global setting (which defaults to drop-message)

Description: Controls what happens when type-casting fails and syslog-ng OSE cannot convert some data to the specified type. By default, syslog-ng OSE drops the entire message and logs the error. Currently the value-pairs() option uses the settings of on-error().

  • drop-message: Drop the entire message and log an error message to the internal() source. This is the default behavior of syslog-ng OSE.

  • drop-property: Omit the affected property (macro, template, or message-field) from the log message and log an error message to the internal() source.

  • fallback-to-string: Convert the property to string and log an error message to the internal() source.

  • silently-drop-message: Drop the entire message silently, without logging the error.

  • silently-drop-property: Omit the affected property (macro, template, or message-field) silently, without logging the error.

  • silently-fallback-to-string: Convert the property to string silently, without logging the error.

send-time-zone()
Accepted values: name of the timezone, or the timezone offset
Default: local timezone

Description: Specifies the time zone associated with the messages sent by syslog-ng, if not specified otherwise in the message or in the destination driver. For details, see Timezones and daylight saving.

The timezone can be specified by using the name, for example, time-zone("Europe/Budapest")), or as the timezone offset in +/-HH:MM format, for example, +01:00). On Linux and UNIX platforms, the valid timezone names are listed under the /usr/share/zoneinfo directory.

time-zone()
Type: name of the timezone, or the timezone offset
Default: unspecified

Description: Convert timestamps to the timezone specified by this option. If this option is not set, then the original timezone information in the message is used. Converting the timezone changes the values of all date-related macros derived from the timestamp, for example, HOUR. For the complete list of such macros, see Date-related macros.

The timezone can be specified by using the name, for example, time-zone("Europe/Budapest")), or as the timezone offset in +/-HH:MM format, for example, +01:00). On Linux and UNIX platforms, the valid timezone names are listed under the /usr/share/zoneinfo directory.

ts-format()
Type: rfc3164, bsd, rfc3339, iso
Default: rfc3164

Description: Override the global timestamp format (set in the global ts-format() parameter) for the specific destination. For details, see ts-format().

NOTE:

This option applies only to file and file-like destinations. Destinations that use specific protocols (for example, network(), or syslog()) ignore this option. For protocol-like destinations, use a template locally in the destination, or use the proto-template option.

Unsetting message fields

You can unset macros or fields of the message, including any user-defined macros created using parsers (for details, see parser: Parse and segment structured messages and db-parser: Process message content with a pattern database (patterndb)). Hard macros cannot be modified. For details on hard and soft macros, see Hard vs. soft macros). Note that the unset operation completely deletes any previous value of the field that you apply it on. Use the following syntax:

Declaration:
rewrite <name_of_the_rule> {
    unset(value("<field-name>"));
};
Example: Unsetting a message field

The following example unsets the HOST field of the message.

rewrite r_rewrite_unset{
    unset(value("HOST"));
};

To unset a group of fields, you can use the groupunset() rewrite rule.

Declaration:
rewrite <name_of_the_rule> {
    groupunset(values("<expression-for-field-names>"));
};
Example: Unsetting a group of fields

The following rule clears all SDATA fields:

rewrite r_rewrite_unset_SDATA{
    groupunset(values(".SDATA.*"));
};

Creating custom SDATA fields

If you use RFC5424-formatted (IETF-syslog) messages, you can also create custom fields in the SDATA part of the message (For details on the SDATA message part, see The STRUCTURED-DATA message part). According to RFC5424, the name of the field (its SD-ID) must not contain the @ character for reserved SD-IDs. Custom SDATA fields must be in the following format: .SDATA.group-name@<private enterprise number>.field-name, for example, .SDATA.mySDATA-field-group@18372.4.mySDATA-field. (18372.4 is the private enterprise number of &fullvendor;, the developer of &abbrev;.)

Example: Rewriting custom SDATA fields

The following example sets the sequence ID field of the RFC5424-formatted (IETF-syslog) messages to a fixed value. This field is a predefined SDATA field with a reserved SD-ID, therefore its name does not contain the @ character.

rewrite r_sd {
    set("55555" value(".SDATA.meta.sequenceId"));
};

The next example creates a new SDATA field-group and field called custom and sourceip, respectively:

rewrite r_rewrite_set {
    set("${SOURCEIP}" value(".SDATA.custom@18372.4.sourceip"));
};

If you use the ${.SDATA.custom@18372.4.sourceip} macro in a template or SQL table, its value will be that of the SOURCEIP macro (as seen on the machine where the SDATA field was created) for every message that was processed with this rewrite rule, and empty for every other message.

You can verify whether or not the format is correct by looking at the actual network traffic. The SDATA field-group will be called custom@18372.4, and sourceip will become a field within that group. If you decide to set up several fields, they will be listed in consecutive order within the field-group's SDATA block.

Setting multiple message fields to specific values

The groupset() rewrite rule allows you to modify the value of multiple message fields at once, for example, to change the value of sensitive fields extracted using patterndb, or received in a JSON format. (If you want to modify the names of message fields, see map-value-pairs: Rename value-pairs to normalize logs.)

  • The first parameter is the new value of the modified fields. This can be a simple string, a macro, or a template (which can include template functions as well).

  • The second parameter (values()) specifies the fields to modify. You can explicitly list the macros or fields (a space-separated list with the values enclosed in double-quotes), or use wildcards and glob expressions to select multiple fields.

  • Note that groupset() does not create new fields, it only modifies existing fields.

  • You can refer to the old value of the field using the $_ macro. This is resolved to the value of the current field, and is available only in groupset() rules.

Declaration:
rewrite <name_of_the_rule> {
    groupset("<new-value-of-the-fields>", values("<field-name-or-glob>" ["<another-field-name-or-glob>"]));
};
Example: Using groupset rewrite rules

The following examples show how to change the values of multiple fields at the same time.

  • Change the value of the HOST field to myhost.

    groupset ("myhost" values("HOST"))
  • Change the value of the HOST and FULLHOST fields to myhost.

    groupset ("myhost" values("HOST" "FULLHOST"))
  • Change the value of the HOST FULLHOST and fields to lowercase.

    groupset ("$(lowercase "$_")" values("HOST" "FULLHOST"))
  • Change the value of each field and macro that begins with .USER to nobody.

    groupset ("nobody" values(".USER.*"))
  • Change the value of each field and macro that begins with .USER to its SHA-1 hash (truncated to 6 characters).

    groupset ("$(sha1 --length 6 $_)" values(".USER.*"))
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