Install by .msi Installer (Windows)

The recommended way to install Fluentd on Windows is to use MSI installers of td-agent.
What is td-agent?
td-agent is a packaged distribution of Fluentd.
Includes Ruby and other library dependencies (since most Windows machines don't have them installed).
Includes a set of commonly-used 3rd-party plugins such as out_es.
Originally developed by Treasure Data, Inc (hence the name).
Currently two versions of td-agent are available.
td-agent v4 packages Fluentd 1.11.x (or later). This version is recommended.
td-agent v3 packages Fluentd 1.10.x (or below).
What is calyptia-fluentd?
calyptia-fluentd is the alternative distribution of Fluentd.
Includes Ruby and other library dependencies (since most Windows box are not installed).
Includes a set of frequently-used 3rd party plugins such as out_elasticsearch and in_windows_eventlog2.
This alternative agent is developed by Calyptia, Inc..
Currently, calyptia-fluentd is on v1 only.
calyptia-fluentd v1 packages Fluentd 1.12.x (or later).
td-agent v4
Step 1: Install td-agent
Download the latest MSI installer from the download page. Run the installer and follow the wizard.
td-agent installation wizard
Alternatively td-agent can be installed with winget:
> winget install td-agent
Step 2: Set up td-agent.conf
Open C:/opt/td-agent/etc/td-agent/td-agent.conf with a text editor. Replace the configuration with the following content:
<source>
  @type windows_eventlog2
  @id windows_eventlog2
  channels application
  read_existing_events false
  tag winevt.raw
  rate_limit 200
  <storage>
    @type local
    persistent true
    path C:\opt\td-agent\winlog.json
  </storage>
</source>
​
<match winevt.raw>
  @type stdout
</match>
Step 3: Launch Td-agent Command Prompt
Open Windows Start menu, and search Td-agent Command Prompt. In most environments, the program will be found right under the "Recently Added" section.
Windows start menu and Td-agent Command Prompt
Td-agent Command Prompt is basically cmd.exe, with a few PATH tweaks for td-agent programs. Use this program whenever you need to interact with td-agent.
Step 4: Run td-agent
Type the following command into Td-agent Command Prompt:
C:\opt\td-agent> td-agent
Now td-agent starts listening to Windows Eventlog, and will print records to stdout as they occur.
Td-agent Command Prompt
Step 5: Run td-agent as Windows service
Since version 4.0.0, td-agent is registered as a Windows service permanently by the msi installer. You can start td-agent service manually.
Using GUI
Please guide yourself to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools -> Services, and you'll see Fluentd Windows Service is listed.
Please double click Fluentd Window Service, and click Start button. Then the process will be executed as Windows Service.
Using net.exe
> net start fluentdwinsvc
The Fluentd Windows Service service is starting..
The Fluentd Windows Service service was started successfully.
Using Powershell Cmdlet
PS> Start-Service fluentdwinsvc
Note that using fluentdwinsvc is needed to start Fluentd service from the command-line. fluentdwinsvc is the service name and it should be passed to net.exe or Start-Service Cmdlet.
The log file will be located at C:/opt/td-agent/td-agent.log as we specified in Step 3.
Step 6: Install Plugins
Open Td-agent Command Prompt and use td-agent-gem command:
C:\opt\td-agent> td-agent-gem install fluent-plugin-xyz --version=1.2.3
td-agent v3
Step 1: Install td-agent
Please download and install the .msi file from here:
​Download​
Step 2: Run td-agent from Command Prompt
First, please prepare your config file located at C:/opt/td-agent/etc/td-agent/td-agent.conf. The config below is the simplest example to output any incoming records to td-agent's log file:
<source>
  @type forward
</source>
<match test.**>
  @type stdout
</match>
After you have installed the .msi package, you will see the program called Td-agent Command Prompt installed. Please double click this icon in the Windows menu (below is how it looks like on Windows Server 2012).
Td-agent Command Prompt
In the prompt, please execute the command below to launch td-agent process:
> fluentd -c etc\td-agent\td-agent.conf
Then, please launch another Td-agent Command Prompt and type the command below to send a record to td-agent process:
> echo {"message":"hello"} | fluent-cat test.event
It's working properly if td-agent process outputs:
test.event: {"k", "v"}
Td-agent Windows Prompt
Step 3: Register td-agent to Windows Service
Next, register td-agent as a Windows Service to permanently run as a server process. Open Td-agent Command Prompt with administrative privileges, and type these commands:
> fluentd --reg-winsvc i
> fluentd --reg-winsvc-fluentdopt '-c C:/opt/td-agent/etc/td-agent/td-agent.conf -o C:/opt/td-agent/td-agent.log'
NOTE: Making td-agent service start automatically requires additional command-line parameters:
> fluentd --reg-winsvc i --reg-winsvc-auto-start --reg-winsvc-delay-start
> fluentd --reg-winsvc-fluentdopt '-c C:/opt/td-agent/etc/td-agent/td-agent.conf -o C:/opt/td-agent/td-agent.log'
Step 4: Run td-agent as a Windows Service
Using GUI
Go to Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Services, and you should see Fluentd Windows Service listed there.
Double click on Fluentd Window Service and click Start to execute it as a Windows Service.
Using net.exe
> net start fluentdwinsvc
The Fluentd Windows Service service is starting..
The Fluentd Windows Service service was started successfully.
Using Powershell Cmdlet
PS> Start-Service fluentdwinsvc
Note that fluentdwinsvc is the Fluentd service name and it should be passed to net.exe or Start-Service Cmdlet to start.
The log file will be located at C:/opt/td-agent/td-agent.log as specified in Step 3 earlier.
Step 4: Install Plugins
Open Td-agent Command Prompt and use fluent-gem command:
> fluent-gem install fluent-plugin-xyz --version=1.2.3
Tips
Manage privileges in td-agent 3.8.1 or later/td-agent 4.1.0 or later
You need admin privilege to execute td-agent-gem command. For upgrade users since 3.8.0 or earlier/td-agent 4.0.1 or earlier, explicitly remove privileges for NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users from c:\opt\td-agent.
This change is for fixing CVE-2020-28169.
Uninstall td-agent v3 being registered to Windows Service
When you uninstall td-agent v3, you should take care to see if it is registered to Windows Service, since td-agent v3 doesn't automatically unregister itself. If it is registered, you must unregister it manually before uninstalling it.
NOTE: If you uninstall td-agent v3 without unregistering it, the service remains after uninstalling and causes the v4 installation to fail. You need to reinstall td-agent v3 and unregister the service with the following steps.
You can check if it is registered with the following Powershell command:
PS> Get-Service fluentdwinsvc
You can unregister td-agent v3 with the following steps:
Stop the service with the following Powershell command:
PS> Stop-Service fluentdwinsvc
Open Td-agent Command Prompt with administrative privileges and type the following command:
> fluentd --reg-winsvc u
calyptia-fluentd v1
Step 1: Install calyptia-fluentd
Download the latest MSI installer from the download page. Run the installer and follow the wizard.
calyptia-fluentd installation wizard
Note: Calyptia-Fluentd is a drop-in-replacement agent of other Fluentd stable distribution. Currently, we use the same Windows Service name which is fluentdwinsvc. This is because when you already installed other agent which register Windows Service as fluentdwinsvc, you must uninstall already installed Windows Service which uses fluentdwinsvc as service name.
Step 2: Set up calyptia-fluentd.conf
Open C:/opt/calyptia-fluentd/etc/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fluentd.conf with a text editor. Replace the configuration with the following content:
<source>
  @type windows_eventlog2
  @id windows_eventlog2
  channels application
  read_existing_events false
  tag winevt.raw
  rate_limit 200
  <storage>
    @type local
    persistent true
    path C:\opt\td-agent\winlog.json
  </storage>
</source>
​
<match winevt.raw>
  @type stdout
</match>
Step 3: Launch Calyptia-Fluentd Command Prompt
Open Windows Start menu, and search Calyptia-fluentd Command Prompt. In most environments, the program will be found right under the "Recently Added" section.
Calyptia-fluentd Command Prompt is basically cmd.exe, with a few PATH tweaks for calyptia-fluentd programs. Use this program whenever you need to interact with calyptia-fluentd.
Step 4: Run calyptia-fluentd
Type the following command into Calyptia-fluentd Command Prompt:
C:\opt\calyptia-fluentd> calyptia-fluentd
Now calyptia-fluentd starts listening to Windows Eventlog, and will print records to stdout after consuming Windows EventLog Events on Application channel.
Step 5: Run calyptia-fluentd as Windows service
As of first released version, calyptia-fluentd will register as a Windows service as fluentdwinsvc by the msi installer. Also, You can manage calyptia-fluentd service manually.
Using GUI
Please guide yourself to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools -> Services, and you'll see Fluentd Windows Service is listed.
Please double click Fluentd Window Service, and click Start button. Then the process will be executed as Windows Service.
Using net.exe
> net start fluentdwinsvc
The Fluentd Windows Service service is starting..
The Fluentd Windows Service service was started successfully.
Using Powershell Cmdlet
PS> Start-Service fluentdwinsvc
Note that using fluentdwinsvc is needed to start Fluentd service from the command-line. fluentdwinsvc is the service name and it should be passed to net.exe or Start-Service Cmdlet.
The log file will be located at C:/opt/calyptia-fluentd/calyptia-fleuntd.log as we specified in Step 3.
Step 6: Install Plugins
Open Calyptia-fluentd Command Prompt and use calyptia-fluentd-gem command as Administrator:
C:\opt\calyptia-fluentd> calyptia-fluentd-gem install fluent-plugin-xyz --version=1.2.3
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:
Basic Configuration
​Config File​
Application Logs
​Ruby​
​Java​
​Python​
​PHP​
​Perl​
​Node.js​
​Scala​
Examples
​Store Apache Log into Amazon S3​
​Store Apache Log into MongoDB​
​Data Collection into HDFS​
For further steps, follow these:
​ChangeLog of td-agent​
​Chef Cookbook​
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.