[syslog-ng] Insider 2020-12: web interfaces; Grafana Loki; Amazon Linux 2;

[Peter Czanik (pczanik)]

Dear syslog-ng users,

This is the 87th issue of syslog-ng Insider, a monthly newsletter that brings you syslog-ng-related news.

NEWS


Web interfaces for your syslog server – an overview
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This is the 2020 edition of my most read blog entry about syslog-ng web-based graphical user interfaces (web GUIs). Many things have changed in the past few years. In 2011, only a single logging as a service solution was available, while nowadays, I regularly run into others. Also, while some software disappeared, the number of logging-related GUIs is growing. This is why in this post, I will mostly focus on generic log management and open source instead of highly specialized software, like SIEMs.
https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/web-interfaces-for-your-syslog-server-an-overview

Sending logs from syslog-ng to Grafana Loki
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Loki is one of the latest applications that lets you aggregate and query log messages, and of course to visualize logs using Grafana. It does not index the contents of log messages, only the labels associated with logs. This way, processing and storing log messages requires less resources, making Loki more cost-effective. Promtail, the log collector component of Loki, can collect log messages using the new, RFC5424 syslog protocol. This is where syslog-ng can send its log messages.
>From this blog, you can learn a minimal Loki & Promtail setup. We will send logs from syslog-ng, and as a first step, will check them with logcli, a command line utility for Loki. Once it works, we will also install Grafana in a container and query Loki from there.
https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/sending-logs-from-syslog-ng-to-grafana-loki

Installing syslog-ng in Amazon Linux 2, including Graviton2
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Amazon Linux 2 is just one of many Linux distributions and other operating systems running in AWS. As Amazon Linux 2 is a close relative of RHEL 7 / CentOS 7, the user experience is also very close to these operating systems. All you need to learn is an extra command for enabling EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux). Best of all: the very same commands work both on x86 and Graviton2 (Arm/Aarch64) instances.
https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/installing-syslog-ng-in-amazon-linux-2-including-graviton2

WEBINARS

* Using syslog-ng with Google Pub/Sub: https://www.syslog-ng.com/event/using-syslogng-with-google-pubsub-8145754/
* You can browse recordings of past webinars at https://www.syslog-ng.com/events/

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 at oneidentity.com>
Balabit (a OneIdentity company) / syslog-ng upstream
https://syslog-ng.com/community/
https://twitter.com/PCzanik