Install by .dmg Package (macOS)

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

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. 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.

For macOS, td-agent is distributed as .dmg installer.

fluent-package v5

NOTE:

calyptia-fluentd v1

Prerequisite: Install ruby 3.x

Install ruby version 3.x using brew and update the path variable.

Step 1: Install calyptia-fluentd

Download and install the .dmg package:

NOTE: If your OS is not supported, consider gem installation instead. NOTE: Since calyptia-fluentd v1.3.1, intel version and apple silicon version of packages are provided. -intel suffix is for Intel version and -apple suffix is for Apple Silicon.

Step 2: Launch calyptia-fluentd

Use launchctl command to launch calyptia-fluentd. Make sure that the daemon is started correctly. Checks logs (/var/log/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.log).

$ sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/calyptia-fluentd.plist
$ less /var/log/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.log
2021-05-31 14:29:38 +0900 [info]: starting fluentd-1.12.3 pid=72608 ruby="3.0.1"
2021-05-31 14:29:38 +0900 [info]: spawn command to main:  cmdline=["/opt/calyptia-fluentd/bin/ruby", "-Eascii-8bit:ascii-8bit", "/opt/calyptia-fluentd/usr/sbin/calyptia-fluentd", "--log", "/var/log/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.log", "--use-v1-config", "--under-supervisor"]

The configuration file is located at /etc/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.conf and the plugin directory is at /etc/calyptia-fluentd/plugin.

To stop the agent, run this command:

$ sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/calyptia-fluentd.plist

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
$ tail -n 1 /var/log/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.log
2021-05-31 14:32:02.707482000 +0900 debug.test: {"json":"message"}

Uninstall calyptia-fluentd

On macOS, calyptia-fluentd uses dmg which includes macOS installer a.k.a. pkg. It does not provide any uninstallation app functionality like rpm / deb on CentOS / Ubuntu.

To uninstall calyptia-fluentd from macOS, remove these files / directories:

  • /Library/LaunchDaemons/calyptia-fluentd.plist

  • /etc/calyptia-fluentd

  • /opt/calyptia-fluentd

  • /var/log/calyptia-fluentd

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.

PreviousInstall by DEB Package (Debian/Ubuntu)NextInstall by .msi Installer (Windows)

Last updated