syslog-ng is a flexible log daemon for collecting, processing and routing event data from systems, applications and network devices.
It extends the traditional syslog model into a general-purpose logging pipeline capable of accepting structured and unstructured input, extracting useful information and delivering the resulting messages to a wide variety of destinations. Administrators can construct processing paths to centralise logs from multiple hosts, normalise heterogeneous messages and forward selected data to storage or downstream analysis systems. Its configuration language allows sources, transformations and destinations to be combined into pipelines appropriate for anything from a single Linux machine to larger centralised logging installations.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Receives and sends messages using both RFC 3164 and RFC 5424 syslog formats.
- Accepts structured JSON messages as well as arbitrary unstructured data.
- Collects messages generated locally and logs arriving over a network.
- Provides built-in CSV, key-value and pattern-database parsers.
- Can classify, restructure and otherwise process messages while they pass through a logging pipeline.
- Routes different classes of messages to separate destinations according to configured rules.
- Writes processed data to conventional files.
- Can forward messages to SQL and NoSQL databases.
- Supports message queues such as AMQP as downstream destinations.
- Integrates logging pipelines with systems including Apache Kafka, Elasticsearch and Apache Hadoop.
- Handles both conventional system logging and structured application logging.
- Supports high-volume centralised logging workloads while allowing parsing and filtering to take place during ingestion.
- Uses a modular design in which additional functionality is supplied by loadable modules.
Website: github.com/syslog-ng/syslog-ng
Support:
Developer: syslog-ng community
License: GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 / GNU General Public License v2.0
syslog-ng is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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