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syslog-ng Premium Edition 7.0.17 - Administration Guide

Preface Introduction to syslog-ng The concepts of syslog-ng Installing syslog-ng The syslog-ng PE quick-start guide The syslog-ng PE configuration file Collecting log messages — sources and source drivers
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) office365: Fetching logs from Office 365 osquery: Collect and parse osquery result logs pipe: Collecting messages from named pipes 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 unix-stream, unix-dgram: Collecting messages from UNIX domain sockets windowsevent: Collecting Windows event logs
Sending and storing log messages — destinations and destination drivers
elasticsearch2: Sending messages directly to Elasticsearch version 2.0 or higher (DEPRECATED) elasticsearch-http: Sending messages to Elasticsearch HTTP Event Collector file: Storing messages in plain-text files hdfs: Storing messages on the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) http: Posting messages over HTTP kafka: Publishing messages to Apache Kafka logstore: Storing messages in encrypted files mongodb: Storing messages in a MongoDB database network: Sending messages to a remote log server using the RFC3164 protocol (network() driver) pipe: Sending messages to named pipes program: Sending messages to external applications python: writing custom Python destinations smtp: Generating SMTP messages (email) from logs splunk-hec: Sending messages to Splunk HTTP Event Collector sql: Storing messages in an SQL database stackdriver: Sending logs to the Google Stackdriver cloud 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) unix-stream, unix-dgram: Sending messages to UNIX domain sockets usertty: Sending messages to a user terminal — usertty() destination Client-side failover
Routing messages: log paths, flags, and filters Global options of syslog-ng PE TLS-encrypted message transfer Advanced Log Transfer Protocol Reliability and minimizing the loss of log messages Manipulating messages parser: Parse and segment structured messages Processing message content with a pattern database Correlating log messages Enriching log messages with external data Monitoring statistics and metrics of syslog-ng Multithreading and scaling in syslog-ng PE Troubleshooting syslog-ng Best practices and examples The syslog-ng manual pages

Upgrading from syslog-ng PE 6.0.x to version 7

The following describes how to upgrade to syslog-ng PE 7.

Notes and warnings about the upgrade

 Caution:

Read the entire document thoroughly before starting the upgrade.

  • Versions 6.0.x and 7.0.x are significantly different, therefore direct upgrade is not possible. Read the entire document thoroughly before starting the upgrade. For a detailed list about the differences, see "Differences in features between syslog-ng PE 6 LTS and 7" in the Release Notes.

  • Hazard of data loss! When upgrading a syslog-ng PE installation that is running in server or relay mode, One Identity recommends redirecting the client logs to another syslog server to avoid message loss.

  • Hazard of data loss! During the upgrade, there will be periods when syslog-ng PE will not be able to receive logs. Make sure to upgrade in a dedicated maintenance window when you can disable receiving logs.

  • The list of supported platforms has changed in version 7.0.x. Verify that your platform is supported on the Supported platforms page. In particular, 32-bit systems are no longer supported, so they can not be upgraded to version 7.0.x.

  • Version 7.0.x of syslog-ng PE does not support every feature of 6.0.x. For a detailed list about the differences, see "Differences in features between syslog-ng PE 6 LTS and 7" in the Release Notes.

  • Features available in both 7.0.x and 6 LTS may work differently. For a detailed list about the differences, see "Differences in features between syslog-ng PE 6 LTS and 7" in the Release Notes.

Prerequisites

  • You must have a valid software subscription to be able to download the new version of syslog-ng PE.

Complete the following steps before starting the actual upgrade process.

  1. Download the installer package for the latest 7.0.x version of syslog-ng PE from the Downloads page.

  2. If you are using syslog-ng PE in server mode, download the new license from My License Assets.

  3. Install syslog-ng PE 7 on a test machine.

  4. Replace the syslog-ng PE configuration file on the test machine with your syslog-ng PE version 6.0.x configuration file.

  5. Edit the configuration file: update the version string to @version: 7.0.

  6. Update the configuration file.

    Some features and functionalities have changed between version 6 and 7 and require you to change the configuration file, for example, to delete options that have been removed from the product, or change the names of options that have been renamed. For a detailed list about the differences, see "Differences in features between syslog-ng PE 6 LTS and 7" in the Release Notes.

    Perform the following steps until you have an updated configuration file that properly works with syslog-ng PE 7.

    1. Check the configuration for syntax errors using the syslog-ng --syntax-only --cfgfile <your-modified-configuration-file> command. Modify your configuration to correct any errors and warnings.

    2. Restart syslog-ng.

    3. Verify that message filtering and processing (for example, parsing and rewriting) works properly.

    4. Verify that the format and content of the output messages is correct, including the SDATA of RFC-5424-formatted messages if you are using them.

To upgrade fromsyslog-ng PE 6.0.x to 7 on a production machine

  1. Login to the host you want to upgrade.

  		2.  Caution:

    Hazard of data loss! This host will not be able to receive or send log messages until the upgrade procedure is complete. Make sure to upgrade in a dedicated maintenance window when you can disable receiving logs.

    When upgrading a syslog-ng PE installation that is running in server or relay mode, One Identity recommends redirecting the client logs to another syslog server to avoid message loss.

    Stop syslog-ng PE version 6.

  3. Verify that syslog-ng PE has stopped. The output of the following command must be empty: ps axu | grep syslog-ng

  4. Create a backup of the syslog-ng PE installation directory using the following command: cp -a /opt/syslog-ng /opt/syslog-ng-pe6-backup

  5. Uninstall syslog-ng PE version 6. For details, see Uninstalling syslog-ng PE 6.

  6. Delete the installation directory using the following command: rm -rf /opt/syslog-ng

  7. Download the new installer package from the Downloads page.

  8. Install syslog-ng PE 7. For details, see "Installing syslog-ng" in the Administration Guide.

    NOTE:

    If you want to run syslog-ng PE under a non-privileged user, see this knowledgebase article for details.

  9. Stop syslog-ng PE version 7 started by the installer.

  10. Copy the syslog-ng PE version 7 configuration file that you created on your test machine into the /opt/syslog-ng/etc directory of the host you are upgrading.

  11. If the host you are upgrading is running syslog-ng PE in server mode, replace the old (version 6) license file with the new one.

    		 Caution:

    Hazard of data loss! Without the new license file, syslog-ng PE will run in relay mode, and will not store the incoming messages locally.

  12. Restart syslog-ng PE and verify that it is running and processing logs properly. For details, see Managing and checking syslog-ng service on Linux.

  13. If you experience problems during the upgrade, contact our Support Team.

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