Install by .msi Installer (Windows)
The recommended way to install Fluentd on Windows is to use MSI installers of
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
.
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).
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
andin_windows_eventlog2
.
Currently, calyptia-fluentd is on v1 only.
calyptia-fluentd
v1 packages Fluentd 1.12.x (or later).

td-agent installation wizard
> winget install td-agent
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>
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
.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
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.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.> net start fluentdwinsvc
The Fluentd Windows Service service is starting..
The Fluentd Windows Service service was started successfully.
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.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
Please download and install the
.msi
file from here: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).%20(3)%20(3)%20(3)%20(6)%20(2).png?alt=media)
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
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'
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.> net start fluentdwinsvc
The Fluentd Windows Service service is starting..
The Fluentd Windows Service service was started successfully.
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.Open
Td-agent Command Prompt
and use fluent-gem
command:> fluent-gem install fluent-plugin-xyz --version=1.2.3
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
.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 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.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>
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
.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.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.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.> net start fluentdwinsvc
The Fluentd Windows Service service is starting..
The Fluentd Windows Service service was started successfully.
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.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
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
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.
Last modified 8mo ago