syslog-ng Premium Edition 6.0.17 - Administration Guide

The syslog-ng PE application can store log messages securely in encrypted, compressed and timestamped binary files. Timestamps can be requested from an external Timestamping Authority (TSA).

Logstore files consist of individual chunks, every chunk can be encrypted, compressed, and timestamped separately. Chunks contain compressed log messages and header information needed for retrieving messages from the logstore file.

The syslog-ng PE application generates an SHA-1 hash for every chunk to verify the integrity of the chunk. The hashes of the chunks are chained together to prevent injecting chunks into the logstore file. The syslog-ng PE application can encrypt the logstore using various algorithms, using the aes128 encryption algorithm in CBC mode and the hmac-sha1 hashing (HMAC) algorithm as default. For other algorithms, see the section called “cipher()” and the section called “digest()”.

The destination filename may include macros which get expanded when the message is written, thus a simple logstore() driver may create several files. For more information on available macros see the section called “Macros of syslog-ng PE”.

If the expanded filename refers to a directory which does not exist, it will be created depending on the create-dirs() setting (both global and a per destination option).

The logstore() has a single required parameter that specifies the filename that stores the log messages. For the list of available optional parameters, see the section called “logstore() destination options”.

Caution:

Hazard of data loss! If your log files are on an NFS-mounted network file system, see the section called “NFS file system for log files”.

Declaration:

logstore(filename options());

Example 7.15. Using the logstore() driver

A simple example saving and compressing log messages.

destination d_logstore { logstore("/var/log/messages.lgs" compress(5) ); };

NOTE:

On Microsoft Windows platforms, enclose paths and filenames between single quotes, for example, 'C:\temp\logs\mylogs.log'

A more detailed example that encrypts messages, modifies the parameters for closing chunks, and sets file privileges.

destination d_logstore { logstore("/var/log/messages-logstore.lgs"
encrypt-certificate("/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/keys/10-100-20-40/public-certificate-of-the-server.pem")
owner("balabit")
group("balabit")
perm(0777)
); };

The URL to the Timestamping Authority and if needed, the OID of the timestamping policy can be set as global options, or also per logstore destination. The following example specifies the URL and the OID as global options:

options {
        timestamp-url("http://10.50.50.50:8080/");
        timestamp-policy("0.4.0.2023.1.1");
};

NOTE:

When using the logstore() destination, update the configuration of your log rotation program to rotate these files. Otherwise, the log files can become very large.

Caution:

Since the state of each created file must be tracked by syslog-ng, it consumes some memory for each file. If no new messages are written to a file within 60 seconds (controlled by the time-reap() global option), it is closed, and its state is freed.

Exploiting this, a DoS attack can be mounted against the system. If the number of possible destination files and its needed memory is more than the amount available on the syslog-ng server.

The most suspicious macro is ${PROGRAM}, where the number of possible variations is rather high. Do not use the ${PROGRAM} macro in insecure environments.

Displaying the contents of logstore files

To display the contents of a logstore file, use the lgstool (formerly called logcat) command supplied with syslog-ng, for example lgstool cat /var/log/messages.lgs. Log messages available in the journal file of the logstore (but not yet written to the logstore file itself) are displayed as well.

To display the contents of encrypted log files, specify the private key of the certificate used to encrypt the file, for example lgstool cat -k private.key /var/log/messages.lgs. The contents of the file are sent to the standard output, so it is possible to use grep and other tools to find particular log messages, for example lgstool cat /var/log/messages.lgs |grep 192.168.1.1. For further details, see lgstool(1).

TIP:

The lgstool utility is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems at the syslog-ng Downloads page.

Caution:

For files that are in use by syslog-ng, the last chunk that is open cannot be read.

Journal files

Starting with syslog-ng Premium Edition 3.2, syslog-ng PE processes log messages into a journal file before writing them to the logstore file. That way logstore files are consistent even if syslog-ng PE crashes unexpectedly, avoiding losing messages. Note that this does not protect against losing messages if the operating system crashes.

A journal file is automatically created for every logstore file that syslog-ng PE opens. A journal file consists of journal blocks which store the log messages. When a journal block fills up with messages, syslog-ng PE writes the entire block into the logstore file and starts to reuse the journal block (one journal block becomes one chunk in the logstore file). If the messages cannot be written to the logstore file (for example, because the disk becomes unaccessible, or file operations are slow), messages are put to the next journal block (syslog-ng PE uses four blocks by default). When all journal blocks become full, syslog-ng PE will stop processing incoming traffic. syslog-ng PE starts accepting messages to the logstore file again when the first journal block is successfully written to the logstore file. If syslog-ng PE receives a HUP or STOP signal, or no new message arrives into the logstore for the period set in the time-reap() parameter, it writes every journal block to the logstore.

When syslog-ng PE is restarted, it automatically processes the journal files to the logstore files, unless a particular logstore file is not part of configuration of syslog-ng PE. Such orphaned journal files can be processed with the lgstool recover command. For details on processing orphaned journal files, see the section called “The recover command”.

Caution:

If a particular logstore destination receives messages at a constant but very low message rate (for example, a 100-byte message every 30 seconds), messages do not get written to the logstore file for a long time, because the journal block does not get full, and messages are more frequent than the time-reap() time. This becomes a problem when using logrotate to rotate the logstore files, because log messages will not be in the files they are expected. To avoid this situation, either use time-based macros in the filenames of the logstore files, or send a HUP signal to syslog-ng PE right before rotating the logstore files.
When every block of a journal becomes full and syslog-ng PE stops processing incoming traffic, it will not read new messages at all until a block is successfully written to the related logstore file. This is in contrast with flow-control, where only messages from the source related to the particular destination are not processed.
The messages in the journal file are in plain-text format: they are neither encrypted nor compressed. The journal file has the same permission as the logstore, by default, root privileges are required to access them. Make sure you consider this if you change the permissions of the journal file (owner, group, perm) in the syslog-ng PE configuration file.

NOTE:

Journal files are located in the same folder as the logstore file. The name of the journal file is the same as the logstore file with .jor suffix added. For example, the journal file for messages.lgs is messages.lgs.jor.

The syslog-ng PE application uses a separate journal file for every logstore file. Every journal file is processed by a separate thread. The journal files are mapped into the memory. The journal of an individual logstore file uses up to journal-block-size()*journal-block-count() memory address, which is 4MB by default. However, if you have several logstore files open in parallel (for example, you are collecting log messages from 500 hosts and storing them in separate files for every host, and the hosts are continuously sending messages) the memory requirements for journaling rise quickly (to ~2GB for the 500 hosts). To limit the memory use of journals, adjust the logstore-journal-shmem-threshold() global option (by default, it is 512 MB).

If the memory required for the journal files exceeds the logstore-journal-shmem-threshold() limit, syslog-ng PE will store only a single journal block of every journal file in the memory, and — if more blocks are needed for a journal — store the additional blocks on the hard disk. Opening new logstore files means allocating memory for one new journal block for every new file. In extreme situations involving large traffic, this can lead to syslog-ng PE consuming the entire memory of the system. Adjust the journal-block-size() and your file-naming conventions as needed to avoid such situations. For details on logstore journals, see the section called “Journal files”.

Caution:

If you have a large amount of open logstore files in parrallel (for example, you are using the ${HOST} or ${PROGRAM} macros in your filenames) consider lowering the journal-block-size() to avoid syslog-ng PE consuming the entire memory of the system.

Example 7.16. Calculating memory usage of logstore journals

If you are using the default settings (4 journal blocks for every logstore journal, one block is 1MB, logstore-journal-shmem-threshold() is 512MB), this means that syslog-ng PE will allocate 4MB memory for every open logstore file, up to 512MB if you have 128 open logstore files. Opening a new logstore file would require 4 more megabytes of memory for journaling, bringing the total required memory to 516MB, which is above the logstore-journal-shmem-threshold(). In this case, syslog-ng PE switches to storing only a single journal block in the memory, lowering the memory requirements of journaling to 129MB. However, opening more and more logstore files will require more and more memory, and this is not limited, except when syslog-ng PE reaches the maximum number of files that can be open (as set in the --fd-limit command-line option).

logstore() destination options

The logstore driver stores log messages in binary files that can be encrypted, compressed, checked for integrity, and timestamped by an external Timestamping Authority (TSA). Otherwise, it is very similar to the file() destination.

Caution:

When creating several thousands separate log files, syslog-ng might not be able to open the required number of files. This might happen for example when using the ${HOST} macro in the filename while receiving messages from a large number of hosts. To overcome this problem, adjust the --fd-limit command-line parameter of syslog-ng or the global ulimit parameter of your host. For setting the --fd-limit command-line parameter of syslog-ng see the syslog-ng(8) manual page. For setting the ulimit parameter of the host, see the documentation of your operating system.

NOTE:

When using this destination, update the configuration of your log rotation program to rotate these files. Otherwise, the log files can become very large.

Also, after rotating the log files, reload syslog-ng PE using the syslog-ng-ctl reload command, or use another method to send a SIGHUP to syslog-ng PE.

The logstore() has a single required parameter that specifies the filename that stores the log messages.

Declaration:

logstore(filename options());

The logstore() destination has the following options:

cipher()

Type:	string
Default:	`aes-128-cbc`

Description: Set the cipher method used to encrypt the logstore. The following cipher methods are available: aes-128-cbc, aes-128-cfb, aes-128-cfb1, aes-128-cfb8, aes-128-ecb, aes-128-ofb , aes-192-cbc, aes-192-cfb, aes-192-cfb1, aes-192-cfb8, aes-192-ecb, aes-192-ofb , aes-256-cbc, aes-256-cfb, aes-256-cfb1, aes-256-cfb8, aes-256-ecb, aes-256-ofb , aes128 , aes192 , aes256, bf , bf-cbc , bf-cfb, bf-ecb , bf-ofb , blowfish, cast , cast-cbc , cast5-cbc , cast5-cfb, cast5-ecb, cast5-ofb , des, des-cbc, des-cfb , des-cfb1 , des-cfb8 , des-ecb , des-ede, des-ede-cbc, des-ede-cfb , des-ede-ofb, des-ede3 , des-ede3-cbc, des-ede3-cfb, des-ede3-ofb, des-ofb , des3 , desx , desx-cbc, rc2, rc2-40-cbc , rc2-64-cbc, rc2-cbc, rc2-cfb, rc2-ecb , rc2-ofb, rc4, and rc4-40. By default, syslog-ng PE uses the aes-128-cbc method.

Note that the size of the digest hash must be equal to or larger than the key size of the cipher method. For example, to use the aes-256-cbc cipher method, the digest method must be at least SHA-256. This option is available in syslog-ng PE 3.1 and later.

chunk-size()

Type:	number (kilobytes)
Default:	128

Description: This option is obsolete. Use the journal-block-size() option instead.

Size of a logstore chunk in kilobytes. Note that this size refers to the compressed size of the chunk. Also, the gzip library used for compressing the messages has a 32k long buffer, so messages may not appear in the actual logfile until this buffer is not filled. Logstore chunks are closed when they reach the specified size, or when the time limit set in chunk-time() expires.

chunk-time()

Type:	number (seconds)
Default:	5

Description: This option is obsolete.

Time limit in seconds: syslog-ng PE closes the chunk if no new messages arrive until the time limit expires. Logstore chunks are closed when the time limit expires, or when they reach the size specified in the chunk-size() parameter. If the time limit set in the time-reap() parameter expires, the entire file is closed.

compress()

Type:	number (between 0-9)
Default:	3

Description: Compression level. 0 means uncompressed files, while 1-9 is the compression level used by gzip (9 means the highest but slowest compression, 3 is usually a good compromise).

create-dirs()

Type:	yes or no
Default:	no

Description: Enable creating non-existing directories.

digest()

Type:	string
Default:	SHA1

Description: Set the digest method to use. The following digest methods are available: MD4, MD5, SHA0 (SHA), SHA1, RIPEMD160, SHA224, SHA256, SHA384, and SHA512. By default, syslog-ng PE uses the SHA1 method.

Note that the size of the digest hash must be equal to or larger than the key size of the cipher method. For example, to use the aes-256-cbc cipher method, the digest method must be at least SHA256. This option is available in syslog-ng PE 3.1 and later.

dir-group()

Type:	string
Default:	Use the global settings

Description: The group of the directories created by syslog-ng. To preserve the original properties of an existing directory, use the option without specifying an attribute: dir-group().

dir-owner()

Type:	string
Default:	Use the global settings

Description: The owner of the directories created by syslog-ng. To preserve the original properties of an existing directory, use the option without specifying an attribute: dir-owner().

dir-perm()

Type:	number (octal notation)
Default:	Use the global settings

Description: The permission mask of directories created by syslog-ng. Log directories are only created if a file after macro expansion refers to a non-existing directory, and directory creation is enabled (see also the create-dirs() option). For octal numbers prefix the number with 0, for example use 0755 for rwxr-xr-x.

To preserve the original properties of an existing directory, use the option without specifying an attribute: dir-perm(). Note that when creating a new directory without specifying attributes for dir-perm(), the default permission of the directories is masked with the umask of the parent process (typically 0022).

encrypt-certificate()

Type:	filename
Default:	none

Description: Name of a file, that contains an X.509 certificate (and the public key) in PEM format. The syslog-ng PE application uses this certificate to encrypt the logstore files which can be decrypted using the private key of the certificate.

flags()

Type:	serialized
Default:	empty set

Description: Flags influence the behavior of the destination driver.

The serialized flag instructs the driver to store the log messages in a serialized format. When using the lgstool utility to display messages from the logstore, the messages can be reformatted with a template only if the serialized flag has been enabled on the logstore.

frac-digits()

Type:	number (digits of fractions of a second)
Default:	Value of the global option (which defaults to 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.

group()

Type:	string
Default:	Use the global settings

Description: Set the group of the created file to the one specified. To preserve the original properties of an existing file, use the option without specifying an attribute: group().

log-fifo-size()

Type:	number (messages)
Default:	Use global setting.

Description: The number of messages that the output queue can store.

journal-block-count()

Type:	number (1-255)
Default:	4

Description: The number of blocks in the journal file. If set to 0, syslog-ng will set it to the default value (4). The maximal value is 255. If journal-block-count() is set higher than 255, syslog-ng will use the maximum value.

NOTE:

By default, journal files are mapped into the memory of the host. To influence the amount of memory addresses used by journal files, see the logstore-journal-shmem-threshold() global option.

Example 7.17. Setting journal block number and size

The following example sets the size of a journal block to 512KB and increases the number of blocks to 5.

destination d_logstore {
     logstore("/var/log/messages-logstore.lgs"
        encrypt-certificate ("/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/keys/public-server-certificate.pem")
        journal-block-size(524288)
        journal-block-count(5));
};

journal-block-size()

Type:	number (bytes)
Default:	1048576

Description: The size of blocks (in bytes) in the journal file. The size of the block must be a multiple of the page size: if not, syslog-ng PE automatically increases it to the next multiple of the page size. The maximum size of a journal block is 32MB, the minimum size is 256KB. If the value specified as journal-block-size() is lower than minimum size or higher than the maximum size, syslog-ng PE will use the minimum or maximum size, respectively.

NOTE:

At least one journal block for every logstore file open is mapped into the memory. For details on logstore journals, see the section called “Journal files”.
The size of the journal block is not equal with the size of logstore chunks, because the records in the logstore file can be encrypted or compressed.

Example 7.18. Setting journal block number and size

The following example sets the size of a journal block to 512KB and increases the number of blocks to 5.

destination d_logstore {
     logstore("/var/log/messages-logstore.lgs"
        encrypt-certificate ("/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/keys/public-server-certificate.pem")
        journal-block-size(524288)
        journal-block-count(5));
};

owner()

Type:	string
Default:	Use the global settings

Description: Set the owner of the created file to the one specified. To preserve the original properties of an existing file, use the option without specifying an attribute: owner().

perm()

Type:	number (octal notation)
Default:	Use the global settings

Description: The permission mask of the file if it is created by syslog-ng. For octal numbers prefix the number with 0, for example use 0755 for rwxr-xr-x.

To preserve the original properties of an existing file, use the option without specifying an attribute: perm().

template()

Type:	string
Default:	A format conforming to the default logfile format.

Description: Specifies a template defining the logformat to be used in the destination. Macros are described in the section called “Macros of syslog-ng PE”. Please note that for network destinations it might not be appropriate to change the template as it changes the on-wire format of the syslog protocol which might not be tolerated by stock syslog receivers (like syslogd or syslog-ng itself). For network destinations make sure the receiver can cope with the custom format defined.

throttle()

Type:	number (messages per second)
Default:	0

Description: Sets the maximum number of messages sent to the destination per second. Use this output-rate-limiting functionality only when using disk-buffer as well to avoid the risk of losing messages. Specifying 0 or a lower value sets the output limit to unlimited.

timestamp-freq()

Type:	number (seconds)
Default:	Use global setting.

Description: The minimum time (in seconds) that should expire between two timestamping requests. When syslog-ng closes a chunk, it checks how much time has expired since the last timestamping request: if it is higher than the value set in the timestamp-freq() parameter, it requests a new timestamp from the authority set in the timestamp-url() parameter.

By default, timestamping is disabled: the timestamp-freq() global option is set to 0. To enable timestamping, set it to a positive value.

timestamp-policy()

Type:	string
Default:

Description: If the Timestamping Server has timestamping policies configured, specify the OID of the policy to use with this parameter. syslog-ng PE will include this ID in the timestamping requests sent to the TSA. This option is available in syslog-ng PE 3.1 and later.

timestamp-url()

Type:	string
Default:	Use global setting.

Description: The URL of the Timestamping Authority used to request timestamps to sign logstore chunks. Note that syslog-ng PE currently supports only Timestamping Authorities that conform to RFC3161 Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Time-Stamp Protocol, other protocols like Microsoft Authenticode Timestamping are not supported.

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 the section called “Date-related macros”.

The timezone can be specified as using the name of the (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:	Use the global option (which defaults to rfc3164)

Description: Override the global timestamp format (set in the global ts-format() parameter) for the specific destination. For details, see the section called “A note on timezones and timestamps”.

Storing messages in a MongoDB database

Chapter 7. Sending and storing log messages — destinations and destination drivers > Storing messages in a MongoDB database

The mongodb() driver sends messages to a MongoDB database. MongoDB is a schema-free, document-oriented database. For the list of available optional parameters, see the section called “mongodb() destination options”.

NOTE:

In order to use this destination, syslog-ng Premium Edition must run in server mode. Typically, only the central syslog-ng Premium Edition server uses this destination. For details on the server mode, see the section called “Server mode”.

Caution:

This feature is currently not available when running the syslog-ng PE application on Microsoft Windows platforms. For a complete list of limitations, see the section called “Limitations on Microsoft Windows platforms”.

Declaration:

mongodb(parameters);

The mongodb() driver does not support creating indexes, as that can be a very complex operation in MongoDB. If needed, the administrator of the MongoDB database must ensure that indexes are created on the collections.

The mongodb() driver does not add the _id field to the message: the MongoDB server will do that automatically, if none is present. If you want to override this field from syslog-ng PE, use the key() parameter of the value-pairs() option.

The syslog-ng PEmongodb() driver is compatible with MongoDB server version 1.4 and newer.

NOTE:

By default, syslog-ng PE handles every message field as a string. For details on how to send selected fields as other types of data (for example, handle the PID as a number), see the section called “Specifying data types in value-pairs”.

Example 7.19. Using the mongodb() driver

The following example creates a mongodb() destination using only default values.

destination d_mongodb {
    mongodb();
};

The following example displays the default values, and is equivalent with the previous example.

destination d_mongodb {
    mongodb(
        servers("localhost:27017")
        database("syslog")
        collection("messages")
        value-pairs(
            scope("selected-macros" "nv-pairs" "sdata")
        )
    );
};

Procedure 7.7. How syslog-ng PE connects the MongoDB server

When syslog-ng PE connects the MongoDB server during startup, it completes the following steps.

The syslog-ng PE application connects the first address listed in the servers() option.
- If the server is accessible and it is a master MongoDB server, syslog-ng PE authenticates on the server (if needed), then starts sending the log messages to the server.
- If the server is not accessible, or it is not a master server in a MongoDB replicaset and it does not send the address of the master server, syslog-ng PE connects the next address listed in the servers() option.
- If the server is not a master server in a MongoDB replicaset, but it sends the address of the master server, syslog-ng PE connects the received address.

When syslog-ng PE connects the master MongoDB server, it retrieves the list of replicas (from the replSet option of the server), and appends this list to the servers() option.

Caution:

This means that syslog-ng PE can send log messages to addresses that are not listed in its configuration.
Make sure to include the address of your master server in your syslog-ng PE configuration file, otherwise you risk losing log messages if all the addresses listed in the syslog-ng PE configuration are offline.
Addresses retrieved from the MongoDB servers are not stored, and can be lost when syslog-ng PE is restarted. The retrieved addresses are not lost if the server() option of the destination was not changed in the configuration file since the last restart.
The failover mechanism used in the mongodb() driver is different from the client-side failover used in other drivers.

The syslog-ng PE application attempts to connect another server if the servers() list contains at least two addresses, and one of the following events happens:
- The safe-mode() option is set to no, and the MongoDB server becomes unreachable.
- The safe-mode() option is set to yes, and syslog-ng PE cannot insert a log message into the database because of an error.
In such case, syslog-ng PE starts to connect the addresses in from the servers() list (starting from the first address) to find the new master server, authenticates on the new server (if needed), then continues to send the log messages to the new master server.

During this failover step, one message can be lost if the safe-mode() option is disabled.
If the original master becomes accessible again, syslog-ng PE will automatically connect to the original master.

mongodb() destination options

The mongodb() driver sends messages to a MongoDB database. MongoDB is a schema-free, document-oriented database.

NOTE:

Caution:

The mongodb() destination has the following options:

collection()

Type:	string
Default:	messages

Description: The name of the MongoDB collection where the log messages are stored (collections are similar to SQL tables). Note that the name of the collection must not start with a dollar sign ($), and that it may contain dot (.) characters.

Caution:

Hazard of data loss! The syslog-ng PE application does not verify that the specified collection name does not contain invalid characters. If you specify a collection with an invalid name, the log messages sent to the MongoDB database will be irrevocably lost without any warning.

database()

Type:	string
Default:	syslog

Description: The name of the MongoDB database where the log messages are stored. Note that the name of the database must not start with a dollar sign ($) and it cannot contain dot (.) characters.

Caution:

Hazard of data loss! The syslog-ng PE application does not verify that the specified database name does not contain invalid characters. If you specify a database with an invalid name, the log messages sent to the MongoDB database will be irrevocably lost without any warning.

disk-buffer()

Description: This option enables putting outgoing messages into the disk buffer of the destination to avoid message loss in case of a system failure on the destination side. It has the following options:

reliable()

Type: yes|no

Default: no

Description: If set to yes, syslog-ng PE cannot lose logs in case of reload/restart, unreachable destination or syslog-ng PE crash. This solution provides a slower, but reliable disk-buffer option. It is created and initialized at startup and gradually grows as new messages arrive. If set to no, the normal disk-buffer will be used. This provides a faster, but less reliable disk-buffer option.

Caution:

Hazard of data loss! If you change the value of reliable() option when there are messages in the disk-buffer, the messages stored in the disk-buffer will be lost.

dir()

Type: string

Default: N/A

Description: Defines the folder where the disk-buffer files are stored. This option has priority over --qdisk-dir=.

Caution:

When creating a new dir() option for a disk buffer, or modifying an existing one, make sure you delete the persist file, or at least remove the relevant persist-entry.

syslog-ng PE creates disk-buffer files based on the path recorded in the persist file. Therefore, if the persist file or the relevant entry is not deleted after modifying the dir() option, then following a restart, syslog-ng PE will look for or create disk-buffer files in their old location. To ensure that syslog-ng PE uses the new dir() setting, the persist file must not contain any information about the destinations which the disk-buffer file in question belongs to.

disk-buf-size()
Type:	number (bytes)
Default:
	Description: This is a required option. The maximum size of the disk-buffer in bytes. The minimum value is 1048576 bytes. If you set a smaller value, the minimum value will be used automatically. It replaces the old `log-disk-fifo-size()` option.

mem-buf-length()
Type:	number (messages)
Default:	10000
	Description: Use this option if the option `reliable()` is set to `no`. This option contains the number of messages stored in overflow queue. It replaces the old `log-fifo-size()` option. It inherits the value of the global `log-fifo-size()` option if provided. If it is not provided, the default value is `10000` messages. Note that this option will be ignored if the option `reliable()` is set to `yes`.

mem-buf-size()
Type:	number (bytes)
Default:	163840000
	Description: Use this option if the option `reliable()` is set to `yes`. This option contains the size of the messages in bytes that is used in the memory part of the disk buffer. It replaces the old `log-fifo-size()` option. It does not inherit the value of the global `log-fifo-size()` option, even if it is provided. Note that this option will be ignored if the option `reliable()` is set to `no`.

quot-size()
Type:	number (messages)
Default:	64
	Description: The number of messages stored in the output buffer of the destination.

Options reliable() and disk-buf-size() are required options.

Example 7.20. Examples for using disk-buffer()

In the following case reliable disk-buffer() is used.

destination d_demo {
    network(
            "127.0.0.1"
            port(3333)
            disk-buffer(
                mem-buf-size(10000)
                disk-buf-size(2000000)
                reliable(yes)
                dir("/tmp/disk-buffer")
            )
        );
};

In the following case normal disk-buffer() is used.

destination d_demo {
    network(
            "127.0.0.1"
            port(3333)
            disk-buffer(
                mem-buf-length(10000)
                disk-buf-size(2000000)
                reliable(no)
                dir("/tmp/disk-buffer")
            )
        );
};

frac-digits()

Type:	number (digits of fractions of a second)
Default:	Value of the global option (which defaults to 0)

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.

log-fifo-size()

Type:	number (messages)
Default:	Use global setting.

Description: The number of messages that the output queue can store.

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 PE cannot convert some data to the specified type. By default, syslog-ng PE 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 PE.
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.

password()

Type:	string
Default:	n/a

Description: Password of the database user.

path()

Type:	string
Default:	empty

Description: If the path() option is set, syslog-ng PE will connect to the database using the specified UNIX domain socket. Note that you cannot set the path() and the servers() options at the same time.

retries()

Type:	number (of attempts)
Default:	3

Description: The number of times syslog-ng PE attempts to send a message to this destination. If syslog-ng PE could not send a message, it will try again until the number of attempts reaches retries, then drops the message.

For MongoDB operations, syslog-ng PE uses a one-minute timeout: if an operation times out, syslog-ng PE assumes the operation has failed.

safe-mode()

Type:	yes or no
Default:	yes

Description: If safe-mode() is enabled, syslog-ng PE performs an extra check after each insert to verify that the insert succeeded. The insert is successful only if this second check is successful.

Note that disabling this option increases the performance of the driver, but can result in message loss. Using safe-mode(yes) is technically equivalent of using the RLTP™ protocol between syslog-ng PE and the MongoDB server. If you use the reliable(yes) option of disk-buffer() in your destinations, make sure that the safe-mode() option of the mongodb() destination is set to yes.

servers()

Type:	list of hostname:port pairs
Default:	127.0.0.1:27017

Description: Specifies the hostname or IP address and the port number of the database server. When specifying an IP address, IPv4 (for example, 192.168.0.1) or IPv6 (for example, [::1]) can be used as well.

To send the messages to a MongoDB replicaset, specify the addresses of the database servers as a comma-separated list, for example: servers(192.168.1.1:27017,192.168.3.3:27017)

For details on how syslog-ng PE connects the MongoDB server, see Procedure 7.7, “How syslog-ng PE connects the MongoDB server”.

To connect to the server using a UNIX domain socket, use path option. Note that you cannot set the path() and the servers() options at the same time.

time-zone()

Type:	name of the timezone, or the timezone offset
Default:	unspecified

username()

Type:	string
Default:	n/a

Description: Name of the database user. Note that the mongodb() driver currently does not support TLS-encrypted authentication.

value-pairs()

Type:	parameter list of the `value-pairs()` option
Default:	scope("selected-macros" "nv-pairs")

Description: The value-pairs() option creates structured name-value pairs from the data and metadata of the log message. For details on using value-pairs(), see the section called “Structuring macros, metadata, and other value-pairs”.

NOTE:

Empty keys are not logged.

Sending messages to a remote log server using the RFC3164 protocol (network() driver)

Chapter 7. Sending and storing log messages — destinations and destination drivers > Sending messages to a remote log server using the RFC3164 protocol (network() driver)

The network() destination driver can send syslog messages conforming to RFC3164 from the network using the TCP, TLS, and UDP networking protocols.

You can use the RLTP™ protocol as well. For details about the RLTP™ protocol, see Chapter 12, Reliable Log Transfer Protocol™ .

UDP is a simple datagram oriented protocol, which provides "best effort service" to transfer messages between hosts. It may lose messages, and no attempt is made to retransmit lost messages. The BSD-syslog protocol traditionally uses UDP.

Use UDP only if you have no other choice.

For details on minimizing message loss when using UDP, see Collecting log messages from UDP sources.
TCP provides connection-oriented service: the client and the server establish a connection, each message is acknowledged, and lost packets are resent. TCP can detect lost connections, and messages are lost, only if the TCP connection breaks. When a TCP connection is broken, messages that the client has sent but were not yet received on the server are lost.
The syslog-ng application supports TLS (Transport Layer Security, also known as SSL) over TCP. For details, see the section called “Encrypting log messages with TLS”.

When you send your log messages from a syslog-ng PE client through the network to a syslog-ng PE server, you can use different protocols and options. Every combination has its advantages and disadvantages. The most important thing is to use matching protocols and options, so the server handles the incoming log messages properly. For details, see the section called “Things to consider when forwarding messages between syslog-ng PE hosts”.

Declaration:

network("<destination-address>" [options]);

The network() destination has a single required parameter that specifies the destination host address where messages should be sent. If name resolution is configured, you can use the hostname of the target server. By default, syslog-ng PE sends messages using the TCP protocol to port 514.

Example 7.21. Using the network() driver

TCP destination that sends messages to 10.1.2.3, port 1999:

destination d_tcp { network("10.1.2.3" port(1999)); };

If name resolution is configured, you can use the hostname of the target server as well.

destination d_tcp { network("target_host" port(1999)); };

TCP destination that sends messages to the ::1 IPv6 address, port 2222.

destination d_tcp6 {
    network(
        "::1"
        port(2222)
        transport(tcp)
        ip-protocol(6)
        );
};

To send messages using the IETF-syslog message format without using the IETF-syslog protocol, enable the syslog-protocol flag. (For details on how to use the IETF-syslog protocol, see the section called “syslog() destination options”.)

destination d_tcp { network("10.1.2.3" port(1999) flags(syslog-protocol) ); };

network() destination options

The network() driver sends messages to a remote host (for example a syslog-ng server or relay) on the local intranet or internet using the RFC3164 syslog protocol (for details about the protocol, see the section called “BSD-syslog or legacy-syslog messages”). The network() driver supports sending messages using the UDP, TCP, RLTP ™or the encrypted TLS networking protocols.

These destinations have the following options:

disk-buffer()

reliable()

Type: yes|no

Default: no

Caution:

Hazard of data loss! If you change the value of reliable() option when there are messages in the disk-buffer, the messages stored in the disk-buffer will be lost.

dir()

Type: string

Default: N/A

Description: Defines the folder where the disk-buffer files are stored. This option has priority over --qdisk-dir=.

Caution:

When creating a new dir() option for a disk buffer, or modifying an existing one, make sure you delete the persist file, or at least remove the relevant persist-entry.

disk-buf-size()
Type:	number (bytes)
Default:
	Description: This is a required option. The maximum size of the disk-buffer in bytes. The minimum value is 1048576 bytes. If you set a smaller value, the minimum value will be used automatically. It replaces the old `log-disk-fifo-size()` option.

mem-buf-length()
Type:	number (messages)
Default:	10000
	Description: Use this option if the option `reliable()` is set to `no`. This option contains the number of messages stored in overflow queue. It replaces the old `log-fifo-size()` option. It inherits the value of the global `log-fifo-size()` option if provided. If it is not provided, the default value is `10000` messages. Note that this option will be ignored if the option `reliable()` is set to `yes`.

mem-buf-size()
Type:	number (bytes)
Default:	163840000
	Description: Use this option if the option `reliable()` is set to `yes`. This option contains the size of the messages in bytes that is used in the memory part of the disk buffer. It replaces the old `log-fifo-size()` option. It does not inherit the value of the global `log-fifo-size()` option, even if it is provided. Note that this option will be ignored if the option `reliable()` is set to `no`.

quot-size()
Type:	number (messages)
Default:	64
	Description: The number of messages stored in the output buffer of the destination.

Options reliable() and disk-buf-size() are required options.

Example 7.22. Examples for using disk-buffer()

In the following case reliable disk-buffer() is used.

destination d_demo {
    network(
            "127.0.0.1"
            port(3333)
            disk-buffer(
                mem-buf-size(10000)
                disk-buf-size(2000000)
                reliable(yes)
                dir("/tmp/disk-buffer")
            )
        );
};

In the following case normal disk-buffer() is used.

destination d_demo {
    network(
            "127.0.0.1"
            port(3333)
            disk-buffer(
                mem-buf-length(10000)
                disk-buf-size(2000000)
                reliable(no)
                dir("/tmp/disk-buffer")
            )
        );
};

failover-servers()

Type:	list of IP addresses and fully-qualified domain names
Default:	0

Description: Available only in syslog-ng Premium Edition version 3.2 and later. Specifies a secondary destination server where log messages are sent if the primary server becomes unaccessible. To list several failover servers, separate the address of the servers with comma. The time syslog-ng PE waits for the a server before switching to the next failover server is set in the time-reopen() option. For details about how client-side failover works, see the section called “Client-side failover”.

Caution:

The failover servers must be accessible on the same port as the primary server.

NOTE:

This option is not available for the connection-less UDP protocol, because in this case the client does not detect that the destination becomes unaccessible.

Example 7.23. Specifying failover servers for syslog() destinations

The following example specifies two failover servers for a simple syslog() destination.

destination d_syslog_tcp{
                syslog("10.100.20.40"
                transport("tcp")
                port(6514)
                failover-servers("10.2.3.4", "myfailoverserver")
                );};

The following example specifies a failover server for a network() destination that uses TLS encryption.

destination d_syslog_tls{
                network("10.100.20.40"
                transport("tls")
                port(6514)
                failover-servers("10.2.3.4", "myfailoverserver")
                tls(peer-verify(required-trusted)
                ca-dir('/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/keys/ca.d/')
                key-file('/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/keys/client_key.pem')
                cert-file('/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/keys/client_certificate.pem'))
                );};

flags()

Type:	no_multi_line, syslog-protocol
Default:	empty set

Description: Flags influence the behavior of the destination driver.

no-multi-line: The no-multi-line flag disables line-breaking in the messages: the entire message is converted to a single line.
syslog-protocol: The syslog-protocol flag instructs the driver to format the messages according to the new IETF syslog protocol standard (RFC5424), but without the frame header. If this flag is enabled, macros used for the message have effect only for the text of the message, the message header is formatted to the new standard. Note that this flag is not needed for the syslog driver, and that the syslog driver automatically adds the frame header to the messages.

flush-lines()

Type:	number (messages)
Default:	Use global setting.

Description: Specifies how many lines are sent to a destination at a time. The syslog-ng PE application waits for this number of lines to accumulate and sends them off in a single batch. Setting this number high increases throughput as fully filled frames are sent to the destination, but also increases message latency.

For optimal performance when sending messages to an syslog-ng PE server, make sure that the flush-lines() is smaller than the window size set using the log-iw-size() option in the source of your server.

flush-timeout() (OBSOLETE)

Type:	time in milliseconds
Default:	Use global setting.

Description: This is an obsolete option. Specifies the time syslog-ng waits for lines to accumulate in its output buffer. For details, see the flush-lines() option.

NOTE:

This option will be removed from the list of acceptable options. After that, your configuration will become invalid if it still contains the flush-timeout() option. To avoid future problems, remove this option from your configuration.

frac-digits()

Type:	number (digits of fractions of a second)
Default:	Value of the global option (which defaults to 0)

ip-tos()

Type:	number (type of service)
Default:	0

Description: Specifies the Type-of-Service value of outgoing packets.

ip-ttl()

Type:	number (hops)
Default:	0

Description: Specifies the Time-To-Live value of outgoing packets.

keep-alive()

Type:	yes or no
Default:	yes

Description: Specifies whether connections to destinations should be closed when syslog-ng is reloaded. Note that this applies to the client (destination) side of the syslog-ng connections, server-side (source) connections are always reopened after receiving a HUP signal unless the keep-alive option is enabled for the source.

localip()

Type:	string
Default:	0.0.0.0

Description: The IP address to bind to before connecting to target.

localport()

Type:	number (port number)
Default:	0

Description: The port number to bind to. Messages are sent from this port.

log-fifo-size()

Type:	number (messages)
Default:	Use global setting.

Description: The number of messages that the output queue can store.

mark-freq()

Accepted values:	number (seconds)
Default:	1200

Description: An alias for the obsolete mark() option, retained for compatibility with syslog-ng version 1.6.x. The number of seconds between two MARK messages. MARK messages are generated when there was no message traffic to inform the receiver that the connection is still alive. If set to zero (0), no MARK messages are sent. The mark-freq() can be set for global option and/or every MARK capable destination driver if mark-mode() is periodical or dst-idle or host-idle. If mark-freq() is not defined in the destination, then the mark-freq() will be inherited from the global options. If the destination uses internal mark-mode(), then the global mark-freq() will be valid (does not matter what mark-freq() set in the destination side).

mark-mode()

Default:

internal for pipe, program drivers

none for file, unix-dgram, unix-stream drivers

global for syslog, tcp, udp destinations

host-idle for global option

Description: The mark-mode() option can be set for the following destination drivers: file(), program(), unix-dgram(), unix-stream(), network(), pipe(), syslog() and in global option.

internal: When internal mark mode is selected, internal source should be placed in the log path as this mode does not generate mark by itself at the destination. This mode only yields the mark messages from internal source. This is the mode as syslog-ng PE 3.x worked. MARK will be generated by internal source if there was NO traffic on local sources:

file(), pipe(), unix-stream(), unix-dgram(), program()
dst-idle: Sends MARK signal if there was NO traffic on destination drivers. MARK signal from internal source will be dropped.

MARK signal can be sent by the following destination drivers: network(), syslog(), program(), file(), pipe(), unix-stream(), unix-dgram().
host-idle: Sends MARK signal if there was NO local message on destination drivers. For example MARK is generated even if messages were received from tcp. MARK signal from internal source will be dropped.

MARK signal can be sent by the following destination drivers: network(), syslog(), program(), file(), pipe(), unix-stream(), unix-dgram().
periodical: Sends MARK signal perodically, regardless of traffic on destination driver. MARK signal from internal source will be dropped.

MARK signal can be sent by the following destination drivers: network(), syslog(), program(), file(), pipe(), unix-stream(), unix-dgram().
none: Destination driver drops all MARK messages. If an explicit mark-mode() is not given to the drivers where none is the default value, then none will be used.
global: Destination driver uses the global mark-mode() setting. The syslog-ng interprets syntax error if the global mark-mode() is global.

NOTE:

In case of dst-idle, host-idle and periodical, the MARK message will not be written in the destination, if it is not open yet.

Available in syslog-ng PE 4 LTS and later.

port() or localport()

Type:	number (port number)
Default:	UDP — 514, TCP — 601, TLS — 6514.

Description: The port number to connect to.

so-broadcast()

Type:	yes or no
Default:	no

Description: This option controls the SO_BROADCAST socket option required to make syslog-ng send messages to a broadcast address. For details, see the socket(7) manual page.

so-keepalive()

Type:	yes or no
Default:	no

Description: Enables keep-alive messages, keeping the socket open. This only effects TCP and UNIX-stream sockets. For details, see the socket(7) manual page.

so-rcvbuf()

Type:	number (bytes)
Default:	0

Description: Specifies the size of the socket receive buffer in bytes. For details, see the socket(7) manual page.

so-sndbuf()

Type:	number (bytes)
Default:	0

Description: Specifies the size of the socket send buffer in bytes. For details, see the socket(7) manual page.

spoof-interface()

Type:	string (the name of the interface)
Default:	empty

Description: Specifies the name of the interface that is used to send the spoofed messages. Using this option is required only on Microsoft Windows platforms. The name of the interface is the internal device identifier used by WinPcap, which has absolutely no relation to any other possible device identifiers used by Windows. To determine the identifier of the interface, download and install the WinPcap application from https://www.winpcap.org/, then execute the iflist.exe file that is installed with syslog-ng PE. A sample of the iflist.exe output is shown below. The first line is the identifier of the interface, but note that you need use an extra backslash character. For example, if the identifier is \Device\NPF_{ADE8ECA1-183A-43A2-AF01-9C81ABB4A4C1}, you must use spoof-interface("\\Device\\NPF_{ADE8ECA1-183A-43A2-AF01-9C81ABB4A4C1}" in the configuration file of syslog-ng PE.

\Device\NPF_{ADE8ECA1-183A-43A2-AF01-9C81ABB4A4C1}
        Description: VMware Accelerated AMD PCNet Adapter (Microsoft's Packet Scheduler)
        Loopback: no
        Address Family: #2
        Address Family Name: AF_INET
        Address: 192.168.250.1
        Netmask: 255.255.255.0
        Broadcast Address: 255.255.255.255

Example 7.24. Spoofing the source address on Microsoft Windows

The following UDP destination spoofs the address of the original client. On Microsoft Windows platforms, the spoof-interface() option must be also set.

destination d_udp {
    network("10.30.0.32" port(5555)
        transport("udp")
        spoof-source(yes)
        spoof-interface("\\Device\\NPF_{578D4231-71C1-470F-AFFE-2CB1E5BC35A8}")
    );
};

Caution:

To use spoofing, you must also use the spoof-source(yes) option.

spoof-source()

Type:	yes or no
Default:	no

Description: Enables source address spoofing. This means that the host running syslog-ng generates UDP packets with the source IP address matching the original sender of the message. This is useful when you want to perform some kind of preprocessing via syslog-ng, then forward messages to your central log management solution with the source address of the original sender. This option only works for UDP destinations, though the original message can be received by TCP as well.

Caution:

To use spoofing on Microsoft Windows platforms, you must also set the spoof-interface() option as well.

When using the spoof-source option, syslog-ng PE automatically truncates long messages to 1024 bytes, regardless of the settings of log-msg-size().

suppress()

Type:	seconds
Default:	0 (disabled)

Description: If several identical log messages would be sent to the destination without any other messages between the identical messages (for example, an application repeated an error message ten times), syslog-ng can suppress the repeated messages and send the message only once, followed by the Last message repeated n times. message. The parameter of this option specifies the number of seconds syslog-ng waits for identical messages.

template()

Type:	string
Default:	A format conforming to the default logfile format.

NOTE:

If a message uses the IETF-syslog format (RFC5424), only the text of the message can be customized (that is, the $MESSAGE part of the log), the structure of the header is fixed.

template-escape()

Type:	yes or no
Default:	no

Description: Turns on escaping for the ', ", and backspace characters in templated output files. This is useful for generating SQL statements and quoting string contents so that parts of the log message are not interpreted as commands to the SQL server.

throttle()

Type:	number (messages per second)
Default:	0

time-zone()

Type:	name of the timezone, or the timezone offset
Default:	unspecified

tls()

Type:	tls options
Default:	n/a

Description: This option sets various options related to TLS encryption, for example, key/certificate files and trusted CA locations. TLS can be used only with tcp-based transport protocols. For details, see the section called “TLS options”.

transport()

Type:	rltp, udp, tcp, or tls
Default:	tcp

Description: Specifies the protocol used to send messages to the destination server.

If you use the udp transport, syslog-ng PE automatically sends multicast packets if a multicast destination address is specified. The tcp transport does not support multicasting.

ts-format()

Type:	rfc3164, bsd, rfc3339, iso
Default:	Use the global option (which defaults to rfc3164)

Sending messages to named pipes

Chapter 7. Sending and storing log messages — destinations and destination drivers > Sending messages to named pipes

The pipe() driver sends messages to a named pipe like /dev/xconsole.

The pipe driver has a single required parameter, specifying the filename of the pipe to open. The filename can include macros. For the list of available optional parameters, see the section called “pipe() destination options”.

Caution:

Declaration:

pipe(filename);

Caution:

Starting with syslog-ng PE 3.0.2, pipes are created automatically. In earlier versions, you had to create the pipe using the mkfifo(1) command.

Example 7.25. Using the pipe() driver

destination d_pipe { pipe("/dev/xconsole"); };

pipe() destination options

Caution:

This driver sends messages to a named pipe like /dev/xconsole.

The pipe() destination has the following options:

flags()

Type:	no_multi_line, syslog-protocol
Default:	empty set

Description: Flags influence the behavior of the destination driver.

no-multi-line: The no-multi-line flag disables line-breaking in the messages: the entire message is converted to a single line.
syslog-protocol: The syslog-protocol flag instructs the driver to format the messages according to the new IETF syslog protocol standard (RFC5424), but without the frame header. If this flag is enabled, macros used for the message have effect only for the text of the message, the message header is formatted to the new standard. Note that this flag is not needed for the syslog driver, and that the syslog driver automatically adds the frame header to the messages.

flush-lines()

Type:	number (messages)
Default:	Use global setting.

flush-timeout() (OBSOLETE)

Type:	time in milliseconds
Default:	Use global setting.

Description: This is an obsolete option. Specifies the time syslog-ng waits for lines to accumulate in its output buffer. For details, see the flush-lines() option.

NOTE:

frac-digits()

Type:	number (digits of fractions of a second)
Default:	Value of the global option (which defaults to 0)

group()

Type:	string
Default:	Use the global settings

Description: Set the group of the created file to the one specified. To preserve the original properties of an existing file, use the option without specifying an attribute: group().

log-fifo-size()

Type:	number (messages)
Default:	Use global setting.

Description: The number of messages that the output queue can store.

mark-freq()

Accepted values:	number (seconds)
Default:	1200

mark-mode()

Default:

internal for pipe, program drivers

none for file, unix-dgram, unix-stream drivers

global for syslog, tcp, udp destinations

host-idle for global option

Description: The mark-mode() option can be set for the following destination drivers: file(), program(), unix-dgram(), unix-stream(), network(), pipe(), syslog() and in global option.

internal: When internal mark mode is selected, internal source should be placed in the log path as this mode does not generate mark by itself at the destination. This mode only yields the mark messages from internal source. This is the mode as syslog-ng PE 3.x worked. MARK will be generated by internal source if there was NO traffic on local sources:

file(), pipe(), unix-stream(), unix-dgram(), program()
dst-idle: Sends MARK signal if there was NO traffic on destination drivers. MARK signal from internal source will be dropped.

MARK signal can be sent by the following destination drivers: network(), syslog(), program(), file(), pipe(), unix-stream(), unix-dgram().
host-idle: Sends MARK signal if there was NO local message on destination drivers. For example MARK is generated even if messages were received from tcp. MARK signal from internal source will be dropped.

MARK signal can be sent by the following destination drivers: network(), syslog(), program(), file(), pipe(), unix-stream(), unix-dgram().
periodical: Sends MARK signal perodically, regardless of traffic on destination driver. MARK signal from internal source will be dropped.

MARK signal can be sent by the following destination drivers: network(), syslog(), program(), file(), pipe(), unix-stream(), unix-dgram().
none: Destination driver drops all MARK messages. If an explicit mark-mode() is not given to the drivers where none is the default value, then none will be used.
global: Destination driver uses the global mark-mode() setting. The syslog-ng interprets syntax error if the global mark-mode() is global.

NOTE:

In case of dst-idle, host-idle and periodical, the MARK message will not be written in the destination, if it is not open yet.

Available in syslog-ng PE 4 LTS and later.

owner()

Type:	string
Default:	Use the global settings

Description: Set the owner of the created file to the one specified. To preserve the original properties of an existing file, use the option without specifying an attribute: owner().

pad-size()

Type:	number (bytes)
Default:	0

Description: If set, syslog-ng PE will pad output messages to the specified size (in bytes). Some operating systems (such as HP-UX) pad all messages to block boundary. This option can be used to specify the block size. (HP-UX uses 2048 bytes).

Caution:

Hazard of data loss! If the size of the incoming message is larger than the previously set pad-size() value, syslog-ng will truncate the message to the specified size. Therefore, all message content above that size will be lost.

perm()

Type:	number (octal notation)
Default:	0600

Description:The permission mask of the pipe. For octal numbers prefix the number with '0', for example: use 0755 for rwxr-xr-x.

suppress()

Type:	seconds
Default:	0 (disabled)

template()

Type:	string
Default:	A format conforming to the default logfile format.

template-escape()

Type:	yes or no
Default:	no

throttle()

Type:	number (messages per second)
Default:	0

time-zone()

Type:	name of the timezone, or the timezone offset
Default:	unspecified

ts-format()

Type:	rfc3164, bsd, rfc3339, iso
Default:	Use the global option (which defaults to rfc3164)

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dir-owner()

dir-perm()

encrypt-certificate()

flags()

frac-digits()

group()

log-fifo-size()

journal-block-count()

journal-block-size()

owner()

perm()

template()

throttle()

timestamp-freq()

timestamp-policy()

timestamp-url()

time-zone()

ts-format()

Storing messages in a MongoDB database

mongodb() destination options

collection()

database()

disk-buffer()

frac-digits()

local-time-zone()

log-fifo-size()

on-error()

password()

path()

retries()

safe-mode()

servers()

time-zone()

username()

value-pairs()

Sending messages to a remote log server using the RFC3164 protocol (network() driver)

network() destination options

disk-buffer()

failover-servers()

flags()

flush-lines()

flush-timeout() (OBSOLETE)

frac-digits()

ip-tos()

ip-ttl()

keep-alive()

localip()

localport()

log-fifo-size()

mark-freq()

mark-mode()

port() or localport()

so-broadcast()

so-keepalive()

so-rcvbuf()

so-sndbuf()

spoof-interface()

spoof-source()

suppress()

template()

template-escape()

throttle()

time-zone()

tls()

transport()