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Send Syslog Data to InfluxDB
Syslog + Fluentd + InfluxDB
Prerequisites
- A basic understanding of Fluentd
- A running instance of
rsyslogd
In this guide, we assume we are running
td-agent (Fluentd package for Linux and macOS) on Ubuntu Xenial.Step 1: Install InfluxDB
InfluxDB supports Ubuntu, RedHat and macOS (via
brew).Since we are assumed to be on Ubuntu, the following two lines install InfluxDB:
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$ wget https://dl.influxdata.com/influxdb/releases/influxdb_1.7.3_amd64.deb
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$ sudo dpkg -i influxdb_1.7.3_amd64.deb
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Once it is installed, you can run it with:
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$ sudo systemctl start influxdb
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Then, you can verify that InfluxDB is running:
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$ curl "http://localhost:8086/query?q=show+databases"
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If InfluxDB is running normally, you will see an object that contains the
_internal database:1
{"results":[{"statement_id":0,"series":[{"name":"databases","columns":["name"],"values":[["_internal"]]}]}]}
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Also, the following two lines install Chronograf:
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$ wget https://dl.influxdata.com/chronograf/releases/chronograf_1.7.7_amd64.deb
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$ sudo dpkg -i chronograf_1.7.7_amd64.deb
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Once it is installed, you can run it with:
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$ sudo systemctl start chronograf
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Then, go to localhost:8888 (or wherever you are hosting Chronograf) to access Chronograf's web console which is the successor to InfluxDB's web console.
Create a database called
test. This is where we will be storing syslog data:1
$ curl -i -XPOST http://localhost:8086/query --data-urlencode "q=CREATE DATABASE test"
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If you prefer command line or cannot access port 8083 from your local machine, running the following command creates a database called
test:1
$ curl -i -X POST 'http://localhost:8086/write?db=test' --data-binary 'task,host=server01,region=us-west value=1 1434055562000000000'
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We are done for now.
Step 2: Install Fluentd and the InfluxDB plugin
On your aggregator server, set up Fluentd.
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$ curl -L https://toolbelt.treasuredata.com/sh/install-ubuntu-xenial-td-agent3.sh | sh
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Next, install the InfluxDB output plugin:
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/usr/sbin/td-agent-gem install fluent-plugin-influxdb
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For the vanilla Fluentd, run:
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fluent-gem install fluent-plugin-influxdb
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You might need
sudo to install the plugin.Finally, configure
/etc/td-agent/td-agent.conf as follows:1
<source>
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@type syslog
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port 42185
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tag system
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</source>
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​
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<match system.*.*>
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@type influxdb
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dbname test
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flush_interval 10s # for testing
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host YOUR_INFLUXDB_HOST # default: localhost
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port YOUR_INFLUXDB_PORT # default: 8086
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</match>
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Restart
td-agent with sudo service td-agent restart.Step 3: Configure rsyslogd
rsyslogdIf remote
rsyslogd instances are already collecting data into the aggregator rsyslogd, the settings for rsyslog should remain unchanged. However, if this is a brand new setup, start forward syslog output by adding the following line to /etc/rsyslogd.conf:1
*.* @182.39.20.2:42185
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You should replace
182.39.20.2 with the IP address of your aggregator server. Also, there is nothing special about port 42185 (do make sure this port is open though).Now, restart
rsyslogd:1
$ sudo systemctl restart rsyslog
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Step 4: Confirm Data Flow
Your
syslog data should be flowing into InfluxDB every 10 seconds (this is configured by flush_interval).Clicking on
Explore brings up the query interface that lets you write SQL queries against your log data.And then click
Visualization and select the line chart:
Chronograf: Explore Data
Now, to count the number of lines of
syslog messages per facility/priority:1
SELECT COUNT(ident) FROM test.autogen./^system\./ GROUP BY time(1s)
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Click on Submit Query to get a graph like this:
Chronograf: Query
Here is another screenshot for the
system.daemon.info series:
Chronograf: Query
If this article is incorrect or outdated, or omits critical information, please let us know. Fluentd is an open-source project under Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). All components are available under the Apache 2 License.
Last modified 7mo ago