This year I started publishing a syslog-ng tutorial series both on my blog and on YouTube: https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/syslog-ng-tutorial-toc/ And while the series was praised as the best possible introduction to syslog-ng, viewers also mentioned that one interesting element is missing from it: namely, it does not tell users how to develop a syslog-ng configuration. So, in this blog, learn how to develop a syslog-ng configuration from the ground up! I will explain not just the end result, but also the process and the steps to take to develop a configuration.

Last year, one of the returning questions I received was how to learn syslog-ng. My answer was that read the first few chapters of the documentation, read my blogs related to your use case, and then read a few relevant parts from the rest of the documentation. Our documentation is praised by users, but it is still a reference documentation. I was asked if a less detailed, more to the point, preferably video tutorial is available.

Version 4 of syslog-ng is now available. The good news is that it is fully backwards compatible. If the version string in your configuration is set to a 3.X version, it will work as expected even after updating to version 4. Of course you might run into corner cases, but I had no problems even with complex configurations. Today, we learn about updating syslog-ng, and some of the new features of syslog-ng 4.

One of the most popular destinations in syslog-ng is Elasticsearch (and OpenSearch, Zinc, Humio, etc.). The 12th part of my syslog-ng #tutorial shows you how to send log messages to Elasticsearch. You can watch the video on YouTube: and the complete playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoBNbOHNb0i5Pags2JY6-6wH2noLaSiTb Or you can read the rest the tutorial as a blog at: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/syslog-ng-101-part-12-elasticsearch-and-opensearch-zinc-humio-etc syslog-ng logo

This is the eleventh part of my syslog-ng tutorial. Last time, we learned about message parsing using syslog-ng. Today, we learn about enriching log messages. You can watch the video on YouTube: and the complete playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoBNbOHNb0i5Pags2JY6-6wH2noLaSiTb Or you can read the rest the tutorial as a blog at: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/syslog-ng-101-part-11-enriching-log-messages syslog-ng logo

This is the tenth part of my syslog-ng tutorial. Last time, we learned about syslog-ng filters. Today, we learn about message parsing using syslog-ng. You can watch the video on YouTube: and the complete playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoBNbOHNb0i5Pags2JY6-6wH2noLaSiTb Or you can read the rest the tutorial as a blog at: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/syslog-ng-101-part-10-parsing syslog-ng logo

This is the ninth part of my syslog-ng tutorial. Last time, we learned about macros and templates. Today, we learn about syslog-ng filters. At the end of the session, we will see a more complex filter and a template function. You can watch the video on YouTube: and the complete playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoBNbOHNb0i5Pags2JY6-6wH2noLaSiTb Or you can read the rest the tutorial as a blog at: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/syslog-ng-101-part-9-filters syslog-ng logo

This is the eighth part of my syslog-ng tutorial. Last time, we learned about network logging. Today, we learn about syslog-ng macros and templates. At the end of the session, we will know how to do a simple log rotation using macros. You can watch the video on YouTube: and the complete playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoBNbOHNb0i5Pags2JY6-6wH2noLaSiTb Or you can read the rest the tutorial as a blog at: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/syslog-ng-101-part-8-macros-and-templates syslog-ng logo

This is the seventh part of my syslog-ng tutorial. Last time, we learned about syslog-ng destinations and the log path. Today, we learn about syslog-ng network logging. At the end of the session, we will send test messages to a syslog-ng network source. You can watch the video on YouTube: Or you can read the rest the tutorial as a blog at: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/syslog-ng-101-part-7-networking syslog-ng logo

This is the sixth part of my syslog-ng tutorial. Last time, we learned about syslog-ng source definitions and how to check the syslog-ng version. Today, we learn about syslog-ng destinations and the log path. At the end of the session, we will also perform a quick syntax check. You can watch the video on YouTube: Or you can read the rest the tutorial as a blog at: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/syslog-ng-101-part-6-destinations-and-log-path syslog-ng logo

This is the fifth part of my syslog-ng tutorial. Last time we had an overview of the syslog-ng configuration and had our first steps working with syslog-ng. Today we learn about syslog-ng source definitions and how to check the syslog-ng version and its enabled features. You can watch the video on YouTube: Or you can read the rest the tutorial as a blog at: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/syslog-ng-101-part-5-sources syslog-ng logo

This is the fourth part of my syslog-ng tutorial. I hope that since the previous part of my tutorial, you successfully installed syslog-ng. In this part we will finally work with syslog-ng, not just learn about the theoretical background. We will do basic configuration and testing. You can watch the video on YouTube: Or you can read the rest the tutorial as a blog at: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/syslog-ng-101-part-4-configuration-and-testing syslog-ng logo

Welcome to the third part of my syslog-ng tutorial. Today we cover the various syslog-ng editions (open source, commercial and appliance), and where to get them from. The focus of this tutorial series is the Open Source Edition (OSE), but to avoid confusion, I also briefly introduce the other two. You can watch the video on YouTube: Or you can read the rest of my blog at: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/syslog-ng-101-part-3-syslog-ng-editions-and-where-to-get-them-from This is a boring, but important part, do not skip it!

Welcome to the second part of my syslog-ng tutorial series. In this part, we cover some of the basic concepts behind syslog-ng. Last time we defined syslog-ng as an enhanced logging daemon with a strong focus on portability and high-performance central log collection. Let us pull this sentence apart, as all words are here for a reason. The original syslog implementation was pretty simple: it collected log messages from applications and sorted them to various files.

Welcome to the first part of my syslog-ng tutorial series. In this part, I give you a quick introduction what to expect from this series and try to define what syslog-ng is. I plan to release parts of my tutorial around every week. Of course, the Christmas holidays and the upcoming conference season may cause some delays. Each part will be released as a blog accompanied by a video. It is up to you, which version you follow.