- syslog-ng - lists.balabit.hu

Running multiple syslog-ng instances on the same host (RHEL6 CO6 SL6)
by Evan Rempel 20 Jan '19

20 Jan '19

In my environment we want to have isolation between the standard OS based syslog-ng service and the central syslog-ng collector service, which of course is running on a host that already has an OS based syslog-ng process running on it. Running muliple syslog-ng daemons under systemd is not so difficult. Copy the system service file and systemd automatically registers a .d folder for custom configurations, however, there is nothing automatic about the System V init mechanism used in the RHEL6 based systems. Don't worry because they syslog-ng init script from the copr yum repository (https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/czanik) starting at 3.19 has already thought of this and made multiple instances as automatic as they can be. Quick steps to create a second syslog-ng instance: 1. Decide on the new name extension (shown here is yourName) 2. Copy the included init script cp /etc/init.d/syslog-ng /etc/init.d/syslog-ng-yourName 3. Change the SYSLOGNG_SUFFIX value in your new init script to the value "-yourName". You need the leading hyphen because your added -yourName to the init file name. 4. Copy and customize the included customization file cp /etc/sysconfig/syslog-ng /etc/sysconfig/syslog-ng-yourName By default all of the configuration and runtime files will default to file names including the -yourName suffix, so very little if any customization should be needed. 5. Create a new syslog-ng configuration file for your new instance vi /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng-yourName 6. Enable the auto-start of your new instance chkconfig --add syslog-ng-yourName 7. Start your instance /sbin/service syslog-ng-yourName start Thanks again to all of the people adding value to an already great product!

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Issues with sql driver
by N. Max Pierson 18 Jan '19

18 Jan '19

Hi List, I have 2 questions about the sql driver. First, I am trying to get messages into sql using the sql driver but I get an error when I try and restart syslog-ng when I enable the log statement with the sql destination. The syslog-ng --syntax-only command runs without any issues but systemd throws and error that it cannot restart the service but doesn't give a clear reason. My config is below, doesn't anyone know where in a log I can see why it won't restart?? source s_network { udp(ip(0.0.0.0) port(514)); }; destination d_mysql { sql(type(mysql) host("127.0.0.1") username("syslog-ng") password("password") database("syslog") table("messages_${HOST}") columns("date", "host", "message") values("${R_DATE}", "${HOST}", "${MESSAGE}") indexes("date", "host") ); }; log { source(s_network); destination(d_mysql); }; My second question is can you use a template with the sql destination driver? I need to reformat some Cisco Nexus logs because of how it formats the date (looks to be non RFC compliant) and if so, can someone give me a sample of config with the template in the sql destination driver? I cannot seem to find in the docs if this is even possible much less and example of how to do it. TIA, Max

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Insider 2019-01: central server; survey; SNMP; Slack; Conferences & Webinars
by Czanik, Péter 17 Jan '19

17 Jan '19

Dear syslog-ng users, This is the 72nd issue of syslog-ng Insider, a monthly newsletter that brings you syslog-ng-related news. NEWS Creating a central syslog server -------------------------------- Your home network might already contain some devices or systems like a home server, a WiFi router, a media player, or home automation system. Creating a central syslog server to store system logs or syslogs of these systems is considered a best practice. Learn, how to get started: https://balagetech.hu/en/2019/01/14/creating-a-central-syslog-server/ Looking for your feedback about syslog-ng ----------------------------------------- Help us set the direction for syslog-ng by providing your valuable feedback through this short, 9-question survey. Your input will be of great value in determining which features and capabilities to focus our efforts on, going forward. While this survey can be completed anonymously, we would appreciate if you would share your email address, in case we would need to clarify your response and input. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZHJ9MHP SNMP traps to Splunk -------------------- As we learned at the Splunk .conf18 in October, forwarding SNMP traps to Splunk can be a challenging task. Luckily, using syslog-ng can simplify it for us. All we need to make sure about is that snmptrapd logs traps to a file. The syslog-ng application can read and parse that file and forward the traps to Splunk HEC (HTTP Event Collector). https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/using-syslog-ng-to-forward… Send your log messages to Slack ------------------------------- One of the many ways members of a team collaborate is to use Slack. >From syslog-ng version 3.19, you can send log messages to Slack. You can receive critical log messages in real-time in your Slack client on your mobile or desktop. Learn how to set up alerting to Slack in just a few minutes. https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/send-your-log-messages-to-… CONFERENCES * FOSDEM talk: Extending syslog-ng in Python ( https://fosdem.org/2019/schedule/track/python/ ) You can also discuss syslog-ng with me at the following events: * https://devconf.info/cz * https://wiki.centos.org/Events/Dojo/Brussels2019 * https://cfgmgmtcamp.eu/ WEBINARS Coming up: * Send logs using the Advanced Log Transport Protocol (ALTP): https://www.syslog-ng.com/event/send-logs-using-the-advanced-log-transport-… You can also watch our past webinars: * Log ingestion to Splunk HEC: https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/16207/338190 * High performance log streaming to HDFS with syslog-ng: https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/16207/335943 Your feedback and news, or tips about the next issue are welcome. To read this newsletter online, visit: https://syslog-ng.com/blog/ Peter Czanik (CzP) <peter.czanik(a)balabit.com> Balabit (a OneIdentity company) / syslog-ng upstream https://syslog-ng.com/community/ https://twitter.com/PCzanik

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Rewrite regex not working entirely
by N. Max Pierson 17 Jan '19

17 Jan '19

Hi List, I am using version 3.5 and it seems as though regex (posix or pcre) doesn't work completely. Take the example string below (which is the message part of the syslog). Jan 15 15:50:57 CST: %DAEMON-3-SYSTEM_MSG: NTP Receive dropping message: Received NTP control mode packet. Drop count:147972 - ntpd[15029] I am trying to match the date at the beginning of the message and remove it. When I use \w, \s, \d, etc, they do not match anything. If I match on a character classes it works fine (ex [a-z]+ or [0-9]+). Here is my statement for the rewrite rule. rewrite r_nexus{ subst("^[a-z]+ [0-9]+ [0-9]+:[0-9]+:[0-9]+ [a-z]+: ", "", value("MESSAGE"), type("posix"), flags("ignore-case"), condition(filter(f_nexus))); }; The above seems to get me what I want but are the character matches not supposed to work in syslog-ng version 3.5?? Regards, Max

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visualizing firewall logs
by Czanik, Péter 15 Jan '19

15 Jan '19

Hi, It was almost two years ago, when I first published how to visualize firewall logs on a map and create a movie out of the results. By that time talking to many syslog-ng users the consensus was, that it has no practical value. It is an eye candy. It can only be used to attract C-level guys attentions towards security. Tow years later I see people asking me about log visualization a lot more often. Did anything change? Is it already more than an eye candy? I posted an Twitter poll about the topic: https://twitter.com/PCzanik/status/1084804811713929216 Let me know your opinion with a vote, and if you have the time also with an explanation here or on Twitter. Bye, Peter Czanik (CzP) <peter.czanik(a)balabit.com> Balabit (a OneIdentity company) / syslog-ng upstream https://syslog-ng.com/community/ https://twitter.com/PCzanik

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Syslog-ng newbie.
by Jason Long 30 Dec '18

30 Dec '18

Hello.I want to send Nginx log via syslog-ng to a server that Elasticsearch and Kibana installed on it. I'm a beginner and searched in Google but can't find a good tutorial. I want to know on Nginx server with syslog-ng installed is below config enough? options { chain_hostnames(off); flush_lines(0); use_dns(no); use_fqdn(no); owner("root"); group("adm"); perm(0640); stats_freq(0); bad_hostname("^gconfd$");};source s_myfile { file("/var/log/nginx/access.log" follow_freq(1) flags(no-parse));};log { source(s_myfile); }; I'm thankful if anyone share advice. Thank you.

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Syslog-ng and NetSkope JSON logs
by Garcia, Julio (InfoSec) 21 Dec '18

21 Dec '18

Hi, I’m trying to get a valid json formatted log file. I’ve tried several options but none of them seem to work or parse out the data correctly. Here’s what the syslog-ng config looks like. @version:3.14 @include "scl.conf" # syslog-ng configuration file. # # See syslog-ng(8) and syslog-ng.conf(5) for more information. # # Note: it also sources additional configuration files (*.conf) # located in /etc/syslog-ng/conf.d/ ###################################### #Sources ###################################### source s_netskope { tcp(ip(0.0.0.0) port(51410)); }; ###################################### #Destinations ###################################### destination d_netskope { file("/data/log/syslog/netskope/$HOST/$YEAR-$MONTH-$DAY-netskope.log" create_dirs(yes)); }; ###################################### # Filters ###################################### ###################################### # Log ###################################### log { source( s_netskope); destination(d_netskope); }; options { flush_lines (0); time_reopen (10); log_fifo_size (1000); chain_hostnames (off); use_dns (no); use_fqdn (no); create_dirs (no); keep_hostname (yes); owner("user01"); group("user01"); dir-owner("user01"); dir-group("user01"); dir-perm(0755); perm(0755); }; Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you, Julio Garcia Pro, Information Security Engineer CoreLogic Direct (949) 214-1284 Mobile (714) 474-5254 julgarcia(a)corelogic.com<mailto:julgarcia@corelogic.com> corelogic.com<http://www.corelogic.com/> | Blog<http://www.corelogic.com/blog/default.aspx> LinkedIn<http://www.linkedin.com/company/corelogic> | Twitter<http://twitter.com/corelogicinc> | Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/CoreLogic> | Google+<https://plus.google.com/114618839782139347829> Our Vision: Deliver unique property-level insights that power the global real estate economy ****************************************************************************************** This message may contain confidential or proprietary information intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named above or may contain information that is legally privileged. If you are not the intended addressee, or the person responsible for delivering it to the intended addressee, you are hereby notified that reading, disseminating, distributing or copying this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message by mistake, please immediately notify us by replying to the message and delete the original message and any copies immediately thereafter. Thank you. ****************************************************************************************** CLLD

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Adding a background thread
by Naveen Revanna 21 Dec '18

21 Dec '18

Hello syslog-ng developers, I am planning to add a new thread of execution to syslog-ng. I am seeking inputs/expert advice for the same. Motivation: I had previously discussed a problem here where syslog-ng would hang if dns server is unreachable. The reason this was happening was that getaddrinfo() would take some time to timeout and all syslog-ng tasks would pile up resulting in delayed execution which would appear that syslog-ng has hung. I took the approach of using getaddrinfo_a() which would do the async resolution of the address. I have recently come to understand that getaddrinfo_a() finally calls getaddrinfo() in a separate pthread that it spawns. This is causing some issues resulting in a crash. The stacktrace is pointing to problem in glib allocators. Here is what I am thinking. I will call iv_thread() to create a new thread as part of the main process. All this thread does is execute a fixed task (which in my case is to just do address resolution). I am looking for inputs from you developers for pointers as to what would be a good place to spawn this thread. This thread would do very minimal stuff and hope not to have much complexity. Are there things that I should look out for if we have another thread of execution. Do any of you think it is bad idea and time consuming process to introduce a new thread to existing syslog-ng. I have some understanding of the code and have read a bit about ivykis and some of it's functions. All I'll be bothering you will be for your expertise and would be doing the development on my side. Sorry if I am bothering you in your time with family. Happy Holidays :) Thanks, Naveen.

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Cyxtera json file and syslog-ng
by Garcia, Julio (InfoSec) 20 Dec '18

20 Dec '18

Hi, I’m currently sending Cyxtera json logs to our syslog-ng server via syslog-ng but for some reason I’m not able to get all of the data to parse out correctly. It’s being parsed out with _json. I was at some point able to get the message in json form but all the data was within a MESSAGE bracket. This is where I’m at now. Looks like it parses correctly but it’s all under _json. Is there a way to remove that and keep everything else? This is what my syslog-ng looks like. @version:3.14 @include "scl.conf" # syslog-ng configuration file. # # See syslog-ng(8) and syslog-ng.conf(5) for more information. # # Note: it also sources additional configuration files (*.conf) # located in /etc/syslog-ng/conf.d/ ###################################### #Sources ###################################### source s_cyxtera { tcp(port(51404) flags(no-parse)); }; ###################################### #Destinations ###################################### destination d_cyxtera { file("/data/log/syslog/cyxtera/$HOST/$YEAR-$MONTH-$DAY-cyxtera.log" template("$(format-json --scope dot-nv-pairs)\n")); }; ###################################### # Parser ###################################### parser p_json { json-parser (prefix(".json.")); }; ###################################### # Log ###################################### log { source( s_cyxtera); parser(p_json); destination(d_cyxtera); }; options { flush_lines (0); time_reopen (10); log_fifo_size (1000); chain_hostnames (off); use_dns (no); use_fqdn (no); create_dirs (no); keep_hostname (yes); owner("usr01"); group("usr01"); dir-owner("user01"); dir-group("user01"); dir-perm(0755); perm(0755); }; This is how the data is showing up in splunk. I had to clear some info but these are the main keys showing up. I have to expand _json: to get everything inside the key. I want it where I don’t have the _json and everything else shows as their individual key. Hope this makes sense. I know I’m using some of the wrong terminology. [cid:image001.png@01D49851.505CD0E0] Thank you, Julio Garcia Pro, Information Security Engineer CoreLogic Direct (949) 214-1284 Mobile (714) 474-5254 julgarcia(a)corelogic.com<mailto:julgarcia@corelogic.com> corelogic.com<http://www.corelogic.com/> | Blog<http://www.corelogic.com/blog/default.aspx> LinkedIn<http://www.linkedin.com/company/corelogic> | Twitter<http://twitter.com/corelogicinc> | Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/CoreLogic> | Google+<https://plus.google.com/114618839782139347829> Our Vision: Deliver unique property-level insights that power the global real estate economy ****************************************************************************************** This message may contain confidential or proprietary information intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named above or may contain information that is legally privileged. If you are not the intended addressee, or the person responsible for delivering it to the intended addressee, you are hereby notified that reading, disseminating, distributing or copying this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message by mistake, please immediately notify us by replying to the message and delete the original message and any copies immediately thereafter. Thank you. ****************************************************************************************** CLLD

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ISODATE Macro not working when message contains non-ascii chars
by Jose Angel Santiago 20 Dec '18

20 Dec '18

Hi, I'm using syslog-ng 3.18.1, and I'm having some issues due to my special use case. Unfortunately my syslog-ng agent reads some binary files which are piped through the log file I'm processing and sending it to elasticsearch. When this happens, the elastic bulk post fail (So I'am affected by this issue https://github.com/balabit/syslog-ng/issues/1993) I've debugged it and the problem was that message generated when applying the template is empty. This is my network destination: destination d_syslog_tcp { network( "syslog-relay.node" port(7601) template("${ISODATE} ${HOST} ${CONTAINER-IP} ${MESSAGE}\n") template-escape(no) disk-buffer( mem-buf-size(200M) disk-buf-size(500M) reliable(yes) dir("/var/syslog-ng") ) ); }; I've opened a netcat server as syslog-relay.node and piped a small binary file through the stdout file which I'm using as source, and this what the relay receives: 2018-12-17T15:35:57+00:00 agent-4 192.168.54.17 � 2018-12-17T15:35:57+00:00 agent-4 192.168.54.17 3F 2018-12-17T15:35:57+00:00 agent-4 192.168.54.17 $ 2018-12-17T15:35:57+00:00 agent-4 192.168.54.17 4) As you can see, fourth message has no timestamp, hostname or ip address, it only contains "$"char, so when this message is sent to elastic, I've got a mapperException since it tries to validate the received timestamp. I know I can customize elastic so it doesn't fail in case a wrong timestamp is received, but the point is that syslog-ng seems to fail when templating the message, doesn't it? Also it would be great if syslog-ng had any mechanism to filter all those binary messages, I've already tried with filter expression, excluding all non-printable chars, but the issue still happens. Regards. -- | Jose Angel Santiago [image: Logo_signature2.png] <http://www.stratio.com/> Vía de las dos Castillas, 33, Ática 4, 3ª Planta 28224 Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain +34 918 286 473 | www.stratio.com <https://twitter.com/stratiobd> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/stratiobd> <https://www.youtube.com/c/StratioBD>

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