CentOS System Log Files

Ship system log files from CentOS to Logstash

Follow the steps below to send your observability data to Logit.io

Logs

Configure Filebeat to ship logs from Centos Systems to Logstash and Elasticsearch.

Install Integration

Please click on the Install Integration button to configure your stack for this source.

Install Filebeat

To get started you will need to install filebeat. To do this you have two main options:

  • Choose the AMD / Intel file (x86_64) or
  • Choose the ARM file (aarch64)

You can tell if you have a PC with an ARM CPU architecture by opening the Terminal application and running the arch command. If it displays arm64 you have ARM architecture.

To successfully install filebeat you will need to have root access.

If you have an x86_64 system download and install filebeat using the following commands:

curl -L -O https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/beats/filebeat/filebeat-8.15.2-x86_64.rpm
sudo rpm -vi filebeat-8.15.2-x86_64.rpm    

If you have an aarch64 system download and install filebeat using the following commands:

curl -L -O https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/beats/filebeat/filebeat-8.15.2-aarch64.rpm
sudo rpm -vi filebeat-8.15.2-aarch64.rpm

Enable The System Module

There are several built in filebeat modules you can use. You will need to enable the system module.

Change directory to the location where filebeat was extracted and run the following commands:

sudo filebeat modules list
sudo filebeat modules enable system

Navigate to the modules.d folder, copy the snippet below and replace the contents of the system.yml module file:

# Module: system
# Docs: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/8.12.2/filebeat-module-system.html
 
- module: system
  # Syslog
  syslog:
    enabled: true
 
    # Set custom paths for the log files. If left empty,
    # Filebeat will choose the paths depending on your OS.
    #var.paths:
 
  # Authorization logs
  auth:
    enabled: true
 
    # Set custom paths for the log files. If left empty,
    # Filebeat will choose the paths depending on your OS.
    #var.paths:

Update your configuration file

The configuration file below is pre-configured to send data to your Logit.io Stack via Logstash.

Copy the configuration file below and overwrite the contents of filebeat.yml (this file can be found in the folder where you installed Filebeat in the first step).

Filebeat modules offer the quickest way to begin working with standard log formats. If you opt to configure Filebeat manually rather than utilizing modules, you'll do so by listing inputs in the filebeat.inputs section of filebeat.yml. These inputs detail how Filebeat discovers and handles input data.

filebeat.yml
###################### Logit.io Filebeat Configuration ########################
# ============================== Filebeat inputs ==============================
filebeat.inputs:
- type: filestream
  enabled: true
  id: my_unique_id
  paths:
    # REQUIRED CHANGE TO YOUR LOGS PATH
    - /var/log/*.log
  fields:
    type: logfile
    
# ============================== Filebeat modules ==============================
filebeat.config.modules:
  path: ${path.config}/modules.d/*.yml
  reload.enabled: false
  #reload.period: 10s
 
# ================================= Processors =================================
processors:
  - add_host_metadata:
      when.not.contains.tags: forwarded
  - add_cloud_metadata: ~
  - add_docker_metadata: ~
  - add_kubernetes_metadata: ~
 
# ================================== Outputs ===================================
# ------------------------------ Logstash Output -------------------------------
output.logstash:
  hosts: ["@logstash.host:@logstash.sslPort"]
  loadbalance: true
  ssl.enabled: true

Validate Configuration

sudo ./filebeat -e -c filebeat.yml --strict.perms=false

If the yml file is invalid, filebeat will print an error loading config file error message with details on how to correct the problem. If you have issues starting filebeat see "How To Diagnose No Data In Stack" below to troubleshoot.

Start filebeat

To start Filebeat, run:

sudo chown root filebeat.yml 
sudo chown root modules.d/system.yml
sudo chown root module/system/syslog/manifest.yml
sudo chown root module/system/auth/manifest.yml
sudo ./filebeat -e

You'll be running filebeat as root, so you need to change ownership of the configuration file and any configurations enabled in the modules.d directory, or run filebeat with --strict.perms=false as shown above.

Read more about how to change ownership (opens in a new tab).

Launch OpenSearch Dashboards to View Your Data

Launch OpenSearch Dashboards

How to diagnose no data in Stack

If you don't see data appearing in your stack after following this integration, take a look at the troubleshooting guide for steps to diagnose and resolve the problem or contact our support team and we'll be happy to assist.

(Optional) Update Logstash Pipelines

All Logit.io stacks come pre-configured with popular Logstash Pipelines. We would recommend that you add system specific filters if you don't already have them, to ensure enhanced dashboards and modules work correctly.

Edit Pipelines

Edit your Logstash Pipelines by choosing Stack > Settings > Logstash Pipelines.

if [fileset][module] == "system" {
  if [fileset][name] == "auth" {
    grok {
      match => { "message" => ["%{SYSLOGTIMESTAMP:[system][auth][timestamp]} %{SYSLOGHOST:[system][auth][hostname]} sshd(?:\[%{POSINT:[system][auth][pid]}\])?: %{DATA:[system][auth][ssh][event]} %{DATA:[system][auth][ssh][method]} for (invalid user )?%{DATA:[system][auth][user]} from %{IPORHOST:[system][auth][ssh][ip]} port %{NUMBER:[system][auth][ssh][port]} ssh2(: %{GREEDYDATA:[system][auth][ssh][signature]})?",
                "%{SYSLOGTIMESTAMP:[system][auth][timestamp]} %{SYSLOGHOST:[system][auth][hostname]} sshd(?:\[%{POSINT:[system][auth][pid]}\])?: %{DATA:[system][auth][ssh][event]} user %{DATA:[system][auth][user]} from %{IPORHOST:[system][auth][ssh][ip]}",
                "%{SYSLOGTIMESTAMP:[system][auth][timestamp]} %{SYSLOGHOST:[system][auth][hostname]} sshd(?:\[%{POSINT:[system][auth][pid]}\])?: Did not receive identification string from %{IPORHOST:[system][auth][ssh][dropped_ip]}",
                "%{SYSLOGTIMESTAMP:[system][auth][timestamp]} %{SYSLOGHOST:[system][auth][hostname]} sudo(?:\[%{POSINT:[system][auth][pid]}\])?: \s*%{DATA:[system][auth][user]} :( %{DATA:[system][auth][sudo][error]} ;)? TTY=%{DATA:[system][auth][sudo][tty]} ; PWD=%{DATA:[system][auth][sudo][pwd]} ; USER=%{DATA:[system][auth][sudo][user]} ; COMMAND=%{GREEDYDATA:[system][auth][sudo][command]}",
                "%{SYSLOGTIMESTAMP:[system][auth][timestamp]} %{SYSLOGHOST:[system][auth][hostname]} groupadd(?:\[%{POSINT:[system][auth][pid]}\])?: new group: name=%{DATA:system.auth.groupadd.name}, GID=%{NUMBER:system.auth.groupadd.gid}",
                "%{SYSLOGTIMESTAMP:[system][auth][timestamp]} %{SYSLOGHOST:[system][auth][hostname]} useradd(?:\[%{POSINT:[system][auth][pid]}\])?: new user: name=%{DATA:[system][auth][user][add][name]}, UID=%{NUMBER:[system][auth][user][add][uid]}, GID=%{NUMBER:[system][auth][user][add][gid]}, home=%{DATA:[system][auth][user][add][home]}, shell=%{DATA:[system][auth][user][add][shell]}$",
                "%{SYSLOGTIMESTAMP:[system][auth][timestamp]} %{SYSLOGHOST:[system][auth][hostname]} %{DATA:[system][auth][program]}(?:\[%{POSINT:[system][auth][pid]}\])?: %{GREEDYMULTILINE:[system][auth][message]}"] }
      pattern_definitions => {
        "GREEDYMULTILINE"=> "(.|\n)*"
      }
      remove_field => "message"
    }
    date {
      match => [ "[system][auth][timestamp]", "MMM  d HH:mm:ss", "MMM dd HH:mm:ss" ]
    }
    geoip {
      source => "[system][auth][ssh][ip]"
      target => "[system][auth][ssh][geoip]"
    }
  }
  else if [fileset][name] == "syslog" {
    grok {
      match => { "message" => ["%{SYSLOGTIMESTAMP:[system][syslog][timestamp]} %{SYSLOGHOST:[system][syslog][hostname]} %{DATA:[system][syslog][program]}(?:\[%{POSINT:[system][syslog][pid]}\])?: %{GREEDYMULTILINE:[system][syslog][message]}"] }
      pattern_definitions => { "GREEDYMULTILINE" => "(.|\n)*" }
      remove_field => "message"
    }
    date {
      match => [ "[system][syslog][timestamp]", "MMM  d HH:mm:ss", "MMM dd HH:mm:ss" ]
    }
  }
}

Metrics

Configure Telegraf to ship your system metrics to Logit.io.

Install Integration

Please click on the Install Integration button to configure your stack for this source.

Install Telegraf

This integration allows you to configure a Telegraf agent to send your metrics to Logit.io.

Choose the installation method for your operating system:

When you paste the command below into Powershell it will download the Telegraf zip file. Once that is complete, press Enter again and the zip file will be extracted into C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf\telegraf-1.34.1.

wget https://dl.influxdata.com/telegraf/releases/telegraf-1.34.1_windows_amd64.zip -UseBasicParsing -OutFile telegraf-1.34.1_windows_amd64.zip 
Expand-Archive .\telegraf-1.34.1_windows_amd64.zip -DestinationPath 'C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf'

or in Powershell 7 use:

# Download the Telegraf ZIP file
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://dl.influxdata.com/telegraf/releases/telegraf-1.34.1_windows_amd64.zip" `
                -OutFile "telegraf-1.34.1_windows_amd64.zip" `
                -UseBasicParsing
 
# Extract the contents of the ZIP file
Expand-Archive -Path ".\telegraf-1.34.1_windows_amd64.zip" `
            -DestinationPath "C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf"

Configure the plugin

The default telegraf.conf configuration file is thousands of lines long so, for simplicity, we will create a new configuration file for this guide. Create a new text file and copy the configuration details below into it and save it as telegraf-demo.conf in the directory where Telegraf has been installed.

The configuration below will scrape a selection of system metrics from the machine you have installed Telegraf on and these will be sent to your Logit.io stack. Metrics include CPU, memory and disk usage and system metrics such as system load and uptime.

# Read metrics about cpu usage
[[inputs.cpu]]
  ## Whether to report per-cpu stats or not
  percpu = true
  ## Whether to report total system cpu stats or not
  totalcpu = true
  ## If true collect raw cpu time metrics
  collect_cpu_time = true
  ## If true compute and report the sum of all non-idle cpu states
  report_active = true
 
# Read metrics about memory usage
[[inputs.mem]]
 
# Read metrics about system load & uptime
[[inputs.system]]
  namepass = ["system"]
 
# Read metrics about disk usage by mount point
[[inputs.disk]]
  ## By default, telegraf gather stats for all mountpoints.
  ## Setting mountpoints will restrict the stats to the specified mountpoints.
  # mount_points = ["/"]
 
  ## Ignore some mountpoints by filesystem type. For example (dev)tmpfs (usually
  ## present on /run, /var/run, /dev/shm or /dev).
  ignore_fs = ["tmpfs", "devtmpfs"]
 
[[outputs.http]]
  url = "https://@metricsUsername:@metricsPassword@@metrics_id-vm.logit.io:@vmAgentPort/api/v1/write"
  data_format = "prometheusremotewrite"
 
  [outputs.http.headers]
    Content-Type = "application/x-protobuf"
    Content-Encoding = "snappy"

Start Telegraf

From the location where Telegraf was installed (C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf\telegraf-1.34.1) run the program providing the chosen configuration file as a parameter:

.\telegraf.exe --config telegraf.conf

Once Telegraf is running you should see output similar to the following, which confirms the inputs, output and basic configuration the application has been started with:

Powershell Telegraf information

Launch Metrics to View Data

Click the 'Launch Metrics' button below to open the infrastructure metrics visualizer.

Launch Grafana

Now, as a simple demonstration we will use Grafana to view some metrics data that is being sent to your Logit.io stack.

Once Grafana has been opened, click on the Explore option in the left-hand menu: Grafana Explore

Under the Metric header you will see 'Select metric'. Open the drop-down menu and scroll to and select 'mem_available':

Grafana Select Metric

Click on the blue Run query button near the top-right of the screen:

Grafana Run Query

You will now see the metric data displayed and if you click on the blue Run query button this will be updated. You can set this to automatically update by clicking on the arrow on the blue button and chosing the interval at which you want the data to be updated.

When you want to stop Telegraf sending metric data press Ctrl + C in the terminal app / Powershell.

To learn more about Grafana Dashboard click here.

CentOS Overview

CentOS is a Linux distribution & computing platform that is often compared with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

The main difference between the two is that CentOS lacks the high level of technical support that is supplied as part of the RHEL package.

CentOS is built off of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux's open source code base, explaining their commonalities and relative compatibility.

Due to this similarity their library versions are identical. This means that binaries that work on RHEL will work on CentOS. If you're using their administration tools you might notice incompatibilities between the two distributions as minor patches are updated at different rates.Large patches & major releases for CentOS are released sporadically & infrequently compared to other Linux distributions (such as Ubuntu & Debian).

CentOS users are typically individuals & businesses that don't require strong levels of support, certification & training to use this enterprise class Linux distribution successfully.

Our built in CentOS log file analyser (opens in a new tab) is included in our log management platform (opens in a new tab) and is built upon the open source tools Elasticsearch, Logstash & Kibana to ease the processing of large amounts of Linux server data for troubleshooting & root cause analysis.

Logit.io can be used to centralise your Linux log data & alerts (opens in a new tab) on errors to monitor your operating system (OS). The platform can also be used to view logs (opens in a new tab) within Kibana for detailed visualisations & reporting.

If you need any assistance with analysing your CentOS logs we're here to help. Feel free to reach out by contacting the Logit.io support team via live chat & we'll be happy to help you get started.