Chat now with support
Chat with Support

syslog-ng Open Source Edition 3.33 - 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 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 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(): Publishing messages to Apache Kafka (C implementation, using the librdkafka client) 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 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

iptables parser

The iptables parser can parse the log messages of the iptables command. Available in version 3.16 and later.

Declaration:
@version: 3.33
@include "scl.conf"
log {
    source { system(); };
    parser { iptables-parser(); };
    destination { ... };
};

The iptables-parser() is actually a reusable configuration snippet configured to parse iptables messages. For details on using or writing such configuration snippets, see Reusing configuration blocks. You can find the source of this configuration snippet on GitHub.

prefix()
Synopsis: prefix()

Description: Insert a prefix before the name part of the parsed name-value pairs to help further processing. For example:

  • To insert the my-parsed-data. prefix, use the prefix(my-parsed-data.) option.

  • To refer to a particular data that has a prefix, use the prefix in the name of the macro, for example, ${my-parsed-data.name}.

  • If you forward the parsed messages using the IETF-syslog protocol, you can insert all the parsed data into the SDATA part of the message using the prefix(.SDATA.my-parsed-data.) option.

Names starting with a dot (for example, .example) are reserved for use by syslog-ng OSE. If you use such a macro name as the name of a parsed value, it will attempt to replace the original value of the macro (note that only soft macros can be overwritten, see Hard versus soft macros for details). To avoid such problems, use a prefix when naming the parsed values, for example, prefix(my-parsed-data.)

Names starting with a dot (for example, .example) are reserved for use by syslog-ng OSE. If you use such a macro name as the name of a parsed value, it will attempt to replace the original value of the macro (note that only soft macros can be overwritten, see Hard versus soft macros for details). To avoid such problems, use a prefix when naming the parsed values, for example, prefix(my-parsed-data.)

By default, iptables-parser() uses the .iptables. prefix. To modify it, use the following format:

parser { 
    iptables-parser(prefix("myprefix.")); 
};

Netskope parser

The Netskope parser can parse Netskope log messages. These messages do not completely comply with the syslog RFCs, making them difficult to parse. The netskope-parser() of syslog-ng OSE solves this problem, and can separate these log messages to name-value pairs. For details on using value-pairs in syslog-ng OSE see Structuring macros, metadata, and other value-pairs. The parser can parse messages in the following format:

<PRI>{JSON-formatted-log-message}

For example:

<134>{"count": 1, "supporting_data": {"data_values": ["x.x.x.x", "user@domain.com"], "data_type": "user"}, "organization_unit": "domain/domain/Domain Users/Enterprise Users", "severity_level": 2, "category": null, "timestamp": 1547421943, "_insertion_epoch_timestamp": 1547421943, "ccl": "unknown", "user": "user@domain.com", "audit_log_event": "Login Successful", "ur_normalized": "user@domain.com", "_id": "936289", "type": "admin_audit_logs", "appcategory": null}

If you find a message that the netskope-parser() cannot properly parse, open a GitHub issue so we can improve the parser.

The syslog-ng OSE application sets the ${PROGRAM} field to Netskope.

By default, the Netskope-specific fields are extracted into name-value pairs prefixed with .netskope. For example, the organization_unit in the previous message becomes ${.netskope.organization_unit}. You can change the prefix using the prefix option of the parser.

Declaration:
@version: 3.33
@include "scl.conf"
log {
    source { network(flags(no-parse)); };
    parser { netskope-parser(); };
    destination { ... };
};

Note that you have to disable message parsing in the source using the flags(no-parse) option for the parser to work.

The netskope-parser() is actually a reusable configuration snippet configured to parse Netskope messages. For details on using or writing such configuration snippets, see Reusing configuration blocks. You can find the source of this configuration snippet on GitHub.

prefix()
Synopsis: prefix()

Description: Insert a prefix before the name part of the parsed name-value pairs to help further processing. For example:

  • To insert the my-parsed-data. prefix, use the prefix(my-parsed-data.) option.

  • To refer to a particular data that has a prefix, use the prefix in the name of the macro, for example, ${my-parsed-data.name}.

  • If you forward the parsed messages using the IETF-syslog protocol, you can insert all the parsed data into the SDATA part of the message using the prefix(.SDATA.my-parsed-data.) option.

Names starting with a dot (for example, .example) are reserved for use by syslog-ng OSE. If you use such a macro name as the name of a parsed value, it will attempt to replace the original value of the macro (note that only soft macros can be overwritten, see Hard versus soft macros for details). To avoid such problems, use a prefix when naming the parsed values, for example, prefix(my-parsed-data.)

By default, netskope-parser() uses the .netskope. prefix. To modify it, use the following format:

parser {
    netskope-parser(prefix("myprefix."));
};

panos-parser(): parsing PAN-OS log messages

The PAN-OS (a short version of Palo Alto Networks Operating System) parser can parse log messages originating from Palo Alto Networks devices. Even though these messages completely comply to the RFC standards, their MESSAGE part is not a plain text. Instead, the MESSAGE part contains a data structure that requires additional parsing.

The panos-parser() of syslog-ng Open Source Edition (syslog-ng OSE) solves this problem, and can separate PAN-OS log messages to name-value pairs.

For details on using value-pairs in syslog-ng OSE, see Structuring macros, metadata, and other value-pairs.

Prerequisites
  • Version 3.29 of syslog-ng OSE or later.

    NOTE: Most Linux distributions feature syslog-ng OSE versions earlier than version 3.29. For up-to-date binaries, visit the syslog-ng third-party binaries page.

  • PAN-OS log messages from Palo Alto Networks devices.

Limitations

The panos-parser() only works on syslog-ng OSE version 3.29 or later.

Configuration

You can include the panos-parser() in your syslog-ng OSE configuration like this:

parser p_parser{
    panos-parser();
};

To use this parser, the scl.conf file must be included in your syslog-ng OSE configuration:

@include "scl.conf"

The panos-parser() is a reusable configuration snippet configured to parse Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS log messages. For details on using or writing such configuration snippets, see Reusing configuration blocks. You can find the source of this configuration snippet on GitHub.

Message format parsed by panos-parser()

This section illustrates the most commonly used PAN-OS log format on the syslog-ng Open Source Edition (syslog-ng OSE) side.

For information about customizing log format on the PAN-OS side, see the relevant section of the PAN-OS® Administrator's Guide.

Message format and log format

Using the panos-parser(), the parsed messages in syslog-ng OSE have the following general format:

<PRI><TIMESTAMP> <HOST> <PALO-ALTO-fields-in-CSV-format>

There are several "types" of log formats in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS. For example, the most commonly used SYSTEM type has the following message format on the syslog-ng OSE side after parsing:

<12>Apr 14 16:48:54 paloalto.test.net 1,2020/04/14 16:48:54,unknown,SYSTEM,auth,0,2020/04/14 16:48:54,,auth-fail,,0,0,general,medium,failed authentication for user 'admin'. Reason: Invalid username/password. From: 10.0.10.55.,1718,0x0,0,0,0,0,,paloalto
Related Documents

The document was helpful.

Select Rating

I easily found the information I needed.

Select Rating