Syslog and Librato Integration

Input and output integration overview

The Syslog plugin enables the collection of syslog messages from various sources using standard networking protocols. This functionality is critical for environments where systems need to be monitored and logged efficiently.

The Librato plugin for Telegraf is designed to facilitate seamless integration with the Librato Metrics API, allowing for efficient metric reporting and monitoring.

Integration details

Syslog

The Syslog plugin for Telegraf captures syslog messages transmitted over various protocols such as TCP, UDP, and TLS. It supports both RFC 5424 (the newer syslog protocol) and the older RFC 3164 (BSD syslog protocol). This plugin operates as a service input, effectively starting a service that listens for incoming syslog messages. Unlike traditional plugins, service inputs may not function with standard interval settings or CLI options like --once. It includes options for setting network configurations, socket permissions, message handling, and connection handling. Furthermore, the integration with Rsyslog allows forwarding of logging messages, making it a powerful tool for collecting and relaying system logs in real-time, thus seamlessly integrating into monitoring and logging systems.

Librato

The Librato plugin enables Telegraf to send metrics to the Librato Metrics API. To authenticate, users must provide an api_user and api_token, which can be acquired from the Librato account settings. This integration allows for efficient monitoring and reporting of custom metrics within the Librato platform. The plugin also utilizes a source_tag option that can enrich the metrics with contextual information from Point Tags; however, it does not currently support sending associated Point Tags. It is essential to note that any point value sent that cannot be converted to a float64 type will be skipped, ensuring that only valid metrics are processed and sent to Librato. The plugin also supports secret-store options for managing sensitive authentication credentials securely, facilitating best practices in credential management.

Configuration

Syslog

[[inputs.syslog]]
  ## Protocol, address and port to host the syslog receiver.
  ## If no host is specified, then localhost is used.
  ## If no port is specified, 6514 is used (RFC5425#section-4.1).
  ##   ex: server = "tcp://localhost:6514"
  ##       server = "udp://:6514"
  ##       server = "unix:///var/run/telegraf-syslog.sock"
  ## When using tcp, consider using 'tcp4' or 'tcp6' to force the usage of IPv4
  ## or IPV6 respectively. There are cases, where when not specified, a system
  ## may force an IPv4 mapped IPv6 address.
  server = "tcp://127.0.0.1:6514"

  ## Permission for unix sockets (only available on unix sockets)
  ## This setting may not be respected by some platforms. To safely restrict
  ## permissions it is recommended to place the socket into a previously
  ## created directory with the desired permissions.
  ##   ex: socket_mode = "777"
  # socket_mode = ""

  ## Maximum number of concurrent connections (only available on stream sockets like TCP)
  ## Zero means unlimited.
  # max_connections = 0

  ## Read timeout (only available on stream sockets like TCP)
  ## Zero means unlimited.
  # read_timeout = "0s"

  ## Optional TLS configuration (only available on stream sockets like TCP)
  # tls_cert = "/etc/telegraf/cert.pem"
  # tls_key  = "/etc/telegraf/key.pem"
  ## Enables client authentication if set.
  # tls_allowed_cacerts = ["/etc/telegraf/clientca.pem"]

  ## Maximum socket buffer size (in bytes when no unit specified)
  ## For stream sockets, once the buffer fills up, the sender will start
  ## backing up. For datagram sockets, once the buffer fills up, metrics will
  ## start dropping. Defaults to the OS default.
  # read_buffer_size = "64KiB"

  ## Period between keep alive probes (only applies to TCP sockets)
  ## Zero disables keep alive probes. Defaults to the OS configuration.
  # keep_alive_period = "5m"

  ## Content encoding for message payloads
  ## Can be set to "gzip" for compressed payloads or "identity" for no encoding.
  # content_encoding = "identity"

  ## Maximum size of decoded packet (in bytes when no unit specified)
  # max_decompression_size = "500MB"

  ## Framing technique used for messages transport
  ## Available settings are:
  ##   octet-counting  -- see RFC5425#section-4.3.1 and RFC6587#section-3.4.1
  ##   non-transparent -- see RFC6587#section-3.4.2
  # framing = "octet-counting"

  ## The trailer to be expected in case of non-transparent framing (default = "LF").
  ## Must be one of "LF", or "NUL".
  # trailer = "LF"

  ## Whether to parse in best effort mode or not (default = false).
  ## By default best effort parsing is off.
  # best_effort = false

  ## The RFC standard to use for message parsing
  ## By default RFC5424 is used. RFC3164 only supports UDP transport (no streaming support)
  ## Must be one of "RFC5424", or "RFC3164".
  # syslog_standard = "RFC5424"

  ## Character to prepend to SD-PARAMs (default = "_").
  ## A syslog message can contain multiple parameters and multiple identifiers within structured data section.
  ## Eg., [id1 name1="val1" name2="val2"][id2 name1="val1" nameA="valA"]
  ## For each combination a field is created.
  ## Its name is created concatenating identifier, sdparam_separator, and parameter name.
  # sdparam_separator = "_"

Librato

[[outputs.librato]]
  ## Librato API Docs
  ## http://dev.librato.com/v1/metrics-authentication
  ## Librato API user
  api_user = "[email protected]" # required.
  ## Librato API token
  api_token = "my-secret-token" # required.
  ## Debug
  # debug = false
  ## Connection timeout.
  # timeout = "5s"
  ## Output source Template (same as graphite buckets)
  ## see https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/blob/master/docs/DATA_FORMATS_OUTPUT.md#graphite
  ## This template is used in librato's source (not metric's name)
  template = "host"

Input and output integration examples

Syslog

1. Centralized Log Management: Use the Syslog plugin to aggregate log messages from multiple servers into a central logging system. This setup can help in monitoring overall system health, troubleshooting issues effectively, and maintaining audit trails by collecting syslog data from different sources.

2. Real-Time Alerting: Integrate the Syslog plugin with alerting tools to trigger real-time notifications when specific log patterns or errors are detected. For example, if a critical system error appears in the logs, an alert can be sent to the operations team, minimizing downtime and performing proactive maintenance.

3. Security Monitoring: Leverage the Syslog plugin for security monitoring by capturing logs from firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and other security devices. This logging capability enhances security visibility and helps in investigating potentially malicious activities by analyzing the captured syslog data.

4. Application Performance Tracking: Utilize the Syslog plugin to monitor application performance by collecting logs from various applications. This integration helps in analyzing the application’s behavior and performance trends, thus aiding in optimizing application processes and ensuring smoother operation.

Librato

1. Real-time Application Monitoring: Utilize Librato to collect performance metrics from a web application in real-time. This setup involves sending response times, error rates, and user interactions to Librato, allowing developers to monitor the application’s health and performance metrics closely. By analyzing these metrics, teams can quickly identify and address performance bottlenecks or application failures before they impact end users.

2. Infrastructure Metrics Aggregation: Leverage this plugin to gather and send metrics from various infrastructure components, such as servers or containers, to Librato for centralized monitoring. Configuring the plugin to send CPU, memory usage, and disk I/O metrics enables system administrators to have a comprehensive view of infrastructure performance, assisting in capacity planning and resource optimization strategies.

3. Custom Metrics for Business Operations: Feed business-specific metrics, such as sales transactions or user sign-ups, to the Librato service using this plugin. By tracking these custom metrics, businesses can gain insights into their operational performance and make data-driven decisions to enhance their strategies, marketing efforts, or product development initiatives.

4. Anomaly Detection in Metrics: Implement monitoring tools that utilize machine learning for anomaly detection. By continuously sending real-time metrics to Librato, teams can analyze trends and automatically flag unusual behavior, such as sudden spikes in latency or unusual traffic patterns, enabling timely intervention and troubleshooting.

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