riemann() destination options

The riemann() driver sends metrics or events to a Riemann monitoring system.

The riemann() destination has the following options:

attributes()

Description: The attributes() option adds extra metadata to the Riemann event, that can be displayed on the Riemann dashboard. To specify the metadata to add, use the syntax of the value-pairs() option. For details on using value-pairs(), see Structuring macros, metadata, and other value-pairs.

description()

Description: The value to add as the description field of the Riemann event.

disk-buffer()

Description: This option enables putting outgoing messages into the disk buffer of the destination to avoid message loss in case of a system failure on the destination side. It has the following options:

capacity-bytes()

Description: This is a required option. The maximum size of the disk-buffer in bytes. The minimum value is 1048576 bytes. If you set a smaller value, the minimum value will be used automatically. It replaces the old log-disk-fifo-size() option.

In AxoSyslog version 4.2 and earlier, this option was called disk-buf-size().

compaction()

Description: If set to yes, AxoSyslog prunes the unused space in the LogMessage representation, making the disk queue size smaller at the cost of some CPU time. Setting the compaction() argument to yes is recommended when numerous name-value pairs are unset during processing, or when the same names are set multiple times.

dir()

Description: Defines the folder where the disk-buffer files are stored.

flow-control-window-bytes()

Description: Use this option if the option reliable() is set to yes. This option contains the size of the messages in bytes that is used in the memory part of the disk buffer. It replaces the old log-fifo-size() option. It does not inherit the value of the global log-fifo-size() option, even if it is provided. Note that this option will be ignored if the option reliable() is set to no.

In AxoSyslog version 4.2 and earlier, this option was called mem-buf-size().

flow-control-window-size()

Description: Use this option if the option reliable() is set to no. This option contains the number of messages stored in overflow queue. It replaces the old log-fifo-size() option. It inherits the value of the global log-fifo-size() option if provided. If it is not provided, the default value is 10000 messages. Note that this option will be ignored if the option reliable() is set to yes.

In AxoSyslog version 4.2 and earlier, this option was called mem-buf-length().

front-cache-size()

Description: The number of messages stored in the output buffer of the destination. Note that if you change the value of this option and the disk-buffer already exists, the change will take effect when the disk-buffer becomes empty.

Options reliable() and capacity-bytes() are required options.

In AxoSyslog version 4.2 and earlier, this option was called qout-size().

prealloc()

Description:

By default, AxoSyslog doesn’t reserve the disk space for the disk-buffer file, since in a properly configured and sized environment the disk-buffer is practically empty, so a large preallocated disk-buffer file is just a waste of disk space. But a preallocated buffer can prevent other data from using the intended buffer space (and elicit a warning from the OS if disk space is low), preventing message loss if the buffer is actually needed. To avoid this problem, when using AxoSyslog 4.0 or later, you can preallocate the space for your disk-buffer files by setting prealloc(yes).

In addition to making sure that the required disk space is available when needed, preallocated disk-buffer files provide radically better (3-4x) performance as well: in case of an outage the amount of messages stored in the disk-buffer is continuously growing, and using large continuous files is faster, than constantly waiting on a file to change its size.

If you are running AxoSyslog on a dedicated host (always recommended for any high-volume settings), use prealloc(yes).

Available in AxoSyslog 4.0 and later.

reliable()

Description: If set to yes, AxoSyslog cannot lose logs in case of reload/restart, unreachable destination or AxoSyslog crash. This solution provides a slower, but reliable disk-buffer option. It is created and initialized at startup and gradually grows as new messages arrive. If set to no, the normal disk-buffer will be used. This provides a faster, but less reliable disk-buffer option.

truncate-size-ratio()

Description: Limits the truncation of the disk-buffer file. Truncating the disk-buffer file can slow down the disk IO operations, but it saves disk space. By default, AxoSyslog version 4.0 and later doesn’t truncate disk-buffer files by default (truncate-size-ratio(1)). Earlier versions freed the disk-space when at least 10% of the disk-buffer file could be freed (truncate-size-ratio(0.1)).

AxoSyslog only truncates the file if the possible disk gain is more than truncate-size-ratio() times capacity-bytes().

• Smaller values free disk space quicker.
• Larger ratios result in better performance.

If you want to avoid performance fluctuations:

• use truncate-size-ratio(1) (never truncate), or
• use prealloc(yes) to reserve the entire size of the disk-buffer on disk.

Example: Examples for using disk-buffer()

In the following case reliable disk-buffer() is used.

   destination d_demo {
        network(
            "127.0.0.1"
            port(3333)
            disk-buffer(
                flow-control-window-bytes(10000)
                capacity-bytes(2000000)
                reliable(yes)
                dir("/tmp/disk-buffer")
            )
        );
    };

In the following case normal disk-buffer() is used.

   destination d_demo {
        network(
            "127.0.0.1"
            port(3333)
               disk-buffer(
                flow-control-window-size(10000)
                capacity-bytes(2000000)
                reliable(no)
                dir("/tmp/disk-buffer")
            )
        );
    };

event-time()

Description: Instead of the arrival time into Riemann, AxoSyslog can also send its own timestamp value.

This can be useful if Riemann is inaccessible for a while, and the messages are collected in the disk buffer until Riemann is accessible again. In this case, it would be difficult to differentiate between messages based on the arrival time only, because this would mean that there would be hundreds of messages with the same arrival time. This issue can be solved by using this option.

The event-time() option takes an optional parameter specifying whether the time format is in seconds or microseconds. For example:

   event-time("$(* $UNIXTIME 1000000)" microseconds)
    event-time("12345678" microseconds)
    event-time("12345678" seconds)
    event-time("12345678")

In case the parameter is omitted, AxoSyslog defaults to the seconds version. In case the event-time() option is omitted altogether, AxoSyslog defaults to the seconds version with $UNIXTIME.

Note that the time format parameter requires:

• riemann-c-client 1.10.0 or newer

  In older versions of riemann-c-client, the microseconds option is not available.

  In case your distribution does not contain a recent enough version of riemann-c-client and you wish to use microseconds, install a new version from .

  If you installed the new version in a custom location (instead of the default one), make sure that you append the directory of the pkg-config file (.pc file) to the environment variable export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=....

  After calling configure, you should see the following message in the case of successful installation:

      [...]
       Riemann destination (module): yes, microseconds: yes
      [...]
  

• Riemann 2.13 or newer

  Older versions of Riemann cannot handle microseconds. No error will be indicated, however, the time of the event will be set to the timestamp when the message arrived to Riemann.

Example: Example event-time() option

   destination d_riemann {
       riemann(
       server("127.0.0.1")
       port(5555)
       event-time("${UNIXTIME}")
       [...]
       );
    };

batch-bytes()

Description: Sets the maximum size of payload in a batch. If the size of the messages reaches this value, AxoSyslog sends the batch to the destination even if the number of messages is less than the value of the batch-lines() option.

Note that if the batch-timeout() option is enabled and the queue becomes empty, AxoSyslog flushes the messages only if batch-timeout() expires, or the batch reaches the limit set in batch-bytes().

Available in AxoSyslog version 3.19 and later.

batch-lines()

Description: Specifies how many lines are flushed to a destination in one batch. The AxoSyslog application waits for this number of lines to accumulate and sends them off in a single batch. Increasing this number increases throughput as more messages are sent in a single batch, but also increases message latency.

For example, if you set batch-lines() to 100, AxoSyslog waits for 100 messages.

If the batch-timeout() option is disabled, the AxoSyslog application flushes the messages if it has sent batch-lines() number of messages, or the queue became empty. If you stop or reload AxoSyslog or in case of network sources, the connection with the client is closed, AxoSyslog automatically sends the unsent messages to the destination.

Note that if the batch-timeout() option is enabled and the queue becomes empty, AxoSyslog flushes the messages only if batch-timeout() expires, or the batch reaches the limit set in batch-lines().

For optimal performance, make sure that the AxoSyslog source that feeds messages to this destination is configured properly: the value of the log-iw-size() option of the source must be higher than the batch-lines()*workers() of the destination. Otherwise, the size of the batches cannot reach the batch-lines() limit.

batch-timeout()

Description: Specifies the time AxoSyslog waits for lines to accumulate in the output buffer. The AxoSyslog application sends batches to the destinations evenly. The timer starts when the first message arrives to the buffer, so if only few messages arrive, AxoSyslog sends messages to the destination at most once every batch-timeout() milliseconds.

If an error occurs while sending the messages to the server, AxoSyslog will try to resend every message from the batch. If it does not succeed (you can set the number of retry attempts in the retries() option), AxoSyslog drops every message in the batch.

hook-commands()

Description: This option makes it possible to execute external programs when the relevant driver is initialized or torn down. The hook-commands() can be used with all source and destination drivers with the exception of the usertty() and internal() drivers.

Using hook-commands() when AxoSyslog starts or stops

To execute an external program when AxoSyslog starts or stops, use the following options:

startup()

Description: Defines the external program that is executed as AxoSyslog starts.

shutdown()

Description: Defines the external program that is executed as AxoSyslog stops.

Using the hook-commands() when AxoSyslog reloads

To execute an external program when the AxoSyslog configuration is initiated or torn down, for example, on startup/shutdown or during a AxoSyslog reload, use the following options:

setup()

Description: Defines an external program that is executed when the AxoSyslog configuration is initiated, for example, on startup or during a AxoSyslog reload.

teardown()

Description: Defines an external program that is executed when the AxoSyslog configuration is stopped or torn down, for example, on shutdown or during a AxoSyslog reload.

Example: Using the hook-commands() with a network source

In the following example, the hook-commands() is used with the network() driver and it opens an iptables port automatically as AxoSyslog is started/stopped.

The assumption in this example is that the LOGCHAIN chain is part of a larger ruleset that routes traffic to it. Whenever the AxoSyslog created rule is there, packets can flow, otherwise the port is closed.

   source {
       network(transport(udp)
        hook-commands(
              startup("iptables -I LOGCHAIN 1 -p udp --dport 514 -j ACCEPT")
              shutdown("iptables -D LOGCHAIN 1")
            )
         );
    };

host()

Description: The value to add as the host field of the Riemann event.

log-fifo-size()

Description: The number of messages that the output queue can store.

metric()

Description: The numeric value to add as the metric field of the Riemann event. If possible, include type-hinting as well, otherwise the Riemann server will interpret the value as a floating-point number. The following example specifies the SEQNUM macro as an integer.

   metric(int("$SEQNUM"))

port()

Description: The port number of the Riemann server.

retries()

Description: If AxoSyslog cannot send a message, it will try again until the number of attempts reaches retries().

If the number of attempts reaches retries(), AxoSyslog will wait for time-reopen() time, then tries sending the message again.

server()

Description: The hostname or IP address of the Riemann server.

service()

Description: The value to add as the service field of the Riemann event.

state()

Description: The value to add as the state field of the Riemann event.

tags()

Description: The list of tags to add as the tags field of the Riemann event. If not specified AxoSyslog automatically adds the tags already assigned to the message. If you set the tags() option, only the tags you specify will be added to the event.

throttle()

Description: Sets the maximum number of messages sent to the destination per second. Use this output-rate-limiting functionality only when using disk-buffer as well to avoid the risk of losing messages. Specifying 0 or a lower value sets the output limit to unlimited.

time-reopen()

Description: The time to wait in seconds before a dead connection is reestablished.

timeout()

Description: The value (in seconds) to wait for an operation to complete, and attempt to reconnect the Riemann server if exceeded. By default, the timeout is disabled.

ttl()

Description: The value (in seconds) to add as the ttl (time-to-live) field of the Riemann event.

type()

Description: The type of the network connection to the Riemann server: TCP, TLS, or UDP. For TLS connections, set the ca-file() option to authenticate the Riemann server, and the cert-file() and key-file() options if the Riemann server requires authentication from its clients.

Declaration 1:

   destination d_riemann {
        riemann(
            server("127.0.0.1")
            port(5672)
            type(
               "tls"
               ca-file("ca")
               cert-file("cert") 
               key-file("key")
            )
        );
    };

An alternative way to specify TLS options is to group them into a tls() block. This allows you to separate them and ensure better readability.

Declaration 2:

   destination d_riemann {
        riemann(
            server("127.0.0.1")
            port(5672)
            type("tls")
            tls(
                ca-file("ca")
                cert-file("cert") 
                key-file("key")
            )
        );
    };

Make sure that you specify TLS options either using type() or using the tls() block. Avoid mixing the two methods. In case you do specify TLS options in both ways, the one that comes later in the configuration file will take effect.

ca-file()

Description: Path to the CA certificate in PEM format that signed the certificate of the Riemann server. When establishing TLS connection, AxoSyslog verifies the certificate of the Riemann server using this CA.

Alternative 1

   type(
        "tls"
        ca-file("/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/riemann-cacert.pem")
        )

Alternative 2

   riemann(
        .
        .
        type("tls")
     tls(
                ca-file("/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/riemann-cacert.pem")
        )

This option was called cacert() up until (and including) AxoSyslog version 3.12.

cert-file()

Description: Path to the a certificate file in PEM format. When establishing TLS connection, AxoSyslog authenticates on the Riemann server using this certificate and the matching private key set in the key-file() option.

Note that you have to set the cert-file() and key-file() options only if the Riemann server requires authentication from the clients.

Alternative 1:

   type(
        "tls"
     cert-file("/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/riemann-client-cert.pem")
        key-file("/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/riemann-client-cert.key")
        )

Alternative 2:

   riemann(
        .
        .
        type("tls")
            tls(
                  cert-file("/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/riemann-client-cert.pem")
                  key-file("/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/riemann-client-cert.key")
           )

This option was called cert() in AxoSyslog version 3.7.

key-file()

Description: Path to the private key of the certificate file set in the cert-file() option. When establishing TLS connection, AxoSyslog authenticates on the Riemann server using this private key and the matching certificate set in the cert-file() option.

Note that you have to set the cert-file() and key-file() options only if the Riemann server requires authentication from the clients.

Alternative 1:

   type(
        "tls"
     cert-file("/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/riemann-client-cert.pem")
        key-file("/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/riemann-client-cert.key")
        )

Alternative 2:

   riemann(
        .
        .
        type("tls")
            tls(
                  cert-file("/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/riemann-client-cert.pem")
                  key-file("/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng/riemann-client-cert.key")
           )

This option was called key() in AxoSyslog version 3.7.