Install by DEB Package (Debian/Ubuntu)

This article explains how to install stable versions of fluent-package deb packages, the stable Fluentd distribution packages maintained by Fluentd Project and calyptia-fluentd which is maintained by Chronosphere after its acquisition of Calyptia.

What is fluent-package?

Fluentd is written in Ruby for flexibility, with performance-sensitive parts in C. However, some users may have difficulty installing and operating a Ruby daemon.

That is why Fluentd Project provides the stable distribution of Fluentd, called fluent-package (formerly known as td-agent). The differences between Fluentd and fluent-package can be found here.

What is calyptia-fluentd?

Fluentd is written in Ruby for flexibility, with performance-sensitive parts in C. However, some users may have difficulty installing and operating a Ruby daemon. And td-agent is still seated on Ruby 2.7 due to compatibility reasons and Ruby versioning policy, calyptia-fluentd uses Ruby 3 instead of Ruby 2.7 for now.

That is why Chronosphere (formerly Calyptia) provides the alternative stable distribution of Fluentd, called calyptia-fluentd. The differences between td-agent and calyptia-fluentd are bundled and running Ruby versions for now.

This installation guide is for fluent-package v5 and calyptia-fluentd v1. fluent-package v5 and calyptia-fluentd use fluentd v1 in the core. See fluent-package-v5-vs-td-agent or td-agent-v2-vs-v3-vs-v4 for the comparison and supported OS.

Installing fluent-package

NOTE:

Step 0: Before Installation

Please follow the Pre-installation Guide to configure your OS properly.

Step 1: Install from Apt Repository

NOTE: If your OS is not supported, consider gem installation instead.

A shell script is provided to automate the installation process for each version. The shell script registers a new apt repository at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/fluent.sources (or /etc/apt/sources.list.d/fluent-lts.sources) and installs the fluent-package deb package.

For Ubuntu Noble:

fluent-package 5 (LTS)

curl -fsSL https://toolbelt.treasuredata.com/sh/install-ubuntu-noble-fluent-package5-lts.sh | sh

fluent-package 5

curl -fsSL https://toolbelt.treasuredata.com/sh/install-ubuntu-noble-fluent-package5.sh | sh

For Ubuntu Jammy:

fluent-package 5 (LTS)

curl -fsSL https://toolbelt.treasuredata.com/sh/install-ubuntu-jammy-fluent-package5-lts.sh | sh

fluent-package 5

curl -fsSL https://toolbelt.treasuredata.com/sh/install-ubuntu-jammy-fluent-package5.sh | sh

For Ubuntu Focal:

fluent-package 5 (LTS)

curl -fsSL https://toolbelt.treasuredata.com/sh/install-ubuntu-focal-fluent-package5-lts.sh | sh

fluent-package 5

curl -fsSL https://toolbelt.treasuredata.com/sh/install-ubuntu-focal-fluent-package5.sh | sh

For Debian Bookworm:

fluent-package 5 (LTS)

curl -fsSL https://toolbelt.treasuredata.com/sh/install-debian-bookworm-fluent-package5-lts.sh | sh

fluent-package 5

curl -fsSL https://toolbelt.treasuredata.com/sh/install-debian-bookworm-fluent-package5.sh | sh

For Debian Bullseye:

fluent-package 5 (LTS)

curl -fsSL https://toolbelt.treasuredata.com/sh/install-debian-bullseye-fluent-package5-lts.sh | sh

fluent-package 5

curl -fsSL https://toolbelt.treasuredata.com/sh/install-debian-bullseye-fluent-package5.sh | sh

Step 2: Launch Daemon

systemd

Use /lib/systemd/system/fluentd script to start, stop, or restart the agent:

$ sudo systemctl start fluentd.service
$ sudo systemctl status fluentd.service
 sudo systemctl status fluentd
● fluentd.service - fluentd: All in one package of Fluentd
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/fluentd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2023-08-16 08:18:22 UTC; 18s ago
       Docs: https://docs.fluentd.org/
    Process: 494 ExecStart=/opt/fluent/bin/fluentd --log $FLUENT_PACKAGE_LOG_FILE --daemon /var/run/fluent/fluentd.pid $FLUENT_PACKAGE_OPTI>
   Main PID: 826 (fluentd)
      Tasks: 9 (limit: 4660)
     Memory: 95.4M
        CPU: 731ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/fluentd.service
             ├─826 /opt/fluent/bin/ruby /opt/fluent/bin/fluentd --log /var/log/fluent/fluentd.log --daemon /var/run/fluent/fluentd.pid
             └─833 /opt/fluent/bin/ruby -Eascii-8bit:ascii-8bit /opt/fluent/bin/fluentd --log /var/log/fluent/fluentd.log --daemon /var/run>

To customize systemd behavior, put your fluentd.service in /etc/systemd/system.

NOTE: In fluent-package v5, path is different. /opt/fluent/bin instead of /opt/td-agent/bin

Step 3: Post Sample Logs via HTTP

The default configuration (/etc/fluent/fluentd.conf) is to receive logs at an HTTP endpoint and route them to stdout. For fluent-package logs, see /var/log/fluent/fluentd.log.

You can post sample log records with curl command:

$ curl -X POST -d 'json={"json":"message"}' http://localhost:8888/debug.test
$ tail -n 1 /var/log/fluent/fluentd.log
2018-01-01 17:51:47 -0700 debug.test: {"json":"message"}

Using to install calyptia-fluentd

Step 0: Before Installation

Please follow the Pre-installation Guide to configure your OS properly.

Step 1: Install from Apt Repository

NOTE: If your OS is not supported, consider gem installation instead.

A shell script is provided to automate the installation process for each version. The shell script registers a new apt repository at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/calyptia-fluentd.sources and installs the calyptia-fluentd deb package.

For Ubuntu Focal:

# calyptia-fluentd 1
curl -fsSL https://calyptia-fluentd.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/calyptia-fluentd-1-ubuntu-focal.sh | sh

For Ubuntu Bionic:

# calyptia-fluentd 1
curl -fsSL https://calyptia-fluentd.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/calyptia-fluentd-1-ubuntu-bionic.sh | sh

For Ubuntu Xenial:

# calyptia-fluentd 1
curl -fsSL https://calyptia-fluentd.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/calyptia-fluentd-1-ubuntu-xenial.sh | sh

For Debian Buster:

# calyptia-fluentd 1
curl -fsSL https://calyptia-fluentd.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/calyptia-fluentd-1-debian-buster.sh | sh

Step 2: Launch Daemon

systemd

Use /lib/systemd/system/calyptia-fluentd script to start, stop, or restart the agent:

$ sudo systemctl start calyptia-fluentd.service
$ sudo systemctl status calyptia-fluentd.service
● calyptia-fluentd.service - calyptia-fluentd: Fluentd based data collector for Calyptia Services
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/calyptia-fluentd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Fri 2021-05-28 15:29:45 JST; 1s ago
     Docs: https://docs.fluentd.org/
  Process: 406739 ExecStart=/opt/calyptia-fluentd/bin/fluentd --log $CALYPTIA_FLUENTD_LOG_FILE --daemon /var/run/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.pid $CALYPTIA_FLUENTD_OPTIONS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 406762 (fluentd)
    Tasks: 5 (limit: 4915)
   CGroup: /system.slice/calyptia-fluentd.service
           ├─406762 /opt/calyptia-fluentd/bin/ruby /opt/calyptia-fluentd/bin/fluentd --log /var/log/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.log --daemon /var/run/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.pid
           └─406835 /opt/calyptia-fluentd/bin/ruby -Eascii-8bit:ascii-8bit /opt/calyptia-fluentd/bin/fluentd --log /var/log/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.log --daemon /var/run/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.pid --under-supervisor

To customize systemd behavior, put your calyptia-fluentd.service in /lib/systemd/system.

Please make sure your configuration file path is:

/etc/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.conf

Step 3: Post Sample Logs via HTTP

The default configuration (/etc/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.conf) is to receive logs at an HTTP endpoint and route them to stdout. For calyptia-fluentd logs, see /var/log/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.log.

You can post sample log records with curl command:

$ curl -X POST -d 'json={"json":"message"}' http://localhost:8888/debug.test
$ sudo tail -n 1 /var/log/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.log
2021-05-28 15:45:17.998214460 +0900 debug.test: {"json":"message"}

Next Steps

You are now ready to collect real logs with Fluentd. Refer to the following tutorials on how to collect data from various sources:

For further steps, follow these:

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.

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