How to install Logstash on NetBSD

Logstash is an open-source, data processing pipeline tool that is used to collect, process, and move data from various sources to various destinations. In this tutorial, we'll guide you through the process of installing Logstash on NetBSD.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that you have a user account with administrative privileges and access to the internet.

Step 1 – Installing Java

Logstash requires Java to be installed on your system. You can install OpenJDK, a popular and free implementation of the Java platform, using the following command:

$ sudo pkg_add openjdk11

To verify the installation, run the following command:

$ java -version

This should display something like:

openjdk version "11.0.11" 2021-04-20 LTS
OpenJDK Runtime Environment Zulu11.48+21-CA (build 11.0.11+9-LTS, mixed mode)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM Zulu11.48+21-CA (build 11.0.11+9-LTS, mixed mode)

Step 2 – Installing Logstash

To install Logstash on NetBSD, follow these steps:

  1. Download the Logstash package from https://www.elastic.co/downloads/logstash.

  2. Extract the downloaded package:

$ tar -xzf logstash-7.15.2.tar.gz
  1. Move the extracted directory to /usr/local/:
$ sudo mv logstash-7.15.2 /usr/local/
  1. Create a symbolic link for logstash:
$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/logstash-7.15.2/ /usr/local/logstash

Configuring Logstash

The Logstash configuration is stored in the /usr/local/logstash/config directory. You can edit the configuration files using a text editor of your choice.

The main configuration file is logstash.yml. You can edit it using the following command:

$ sudo nano /usr/local/logstash/config/logstash.yml

Next, create a configuration file for Logstash, for example, myconfig.conf using any text editor of your choice:

$ sudo nano /usr/local/logstash/config/myconfig.conf

Add your input, filter, and output plugins to the configuration file. For example:

input {
  file {
    path => "/var/log/mylogfile.log"
  }
}

filter {
  grok {
    match => { "message" => "%{WORD:appName} %{WORD:loglevel}" }
  }
}

output {
  elasticsearch {
    hosts => ["http://localhost:9200"]
    index => "myapp-%{+YYYY.MM.dd}"
  }
}

Step 3 – Starting Logstash

You can start Logstash using the following command:

$ sudo /usr/local/logstash/bin/logstash -f /usr/local/logstash/config/myconfig.conf

This command starts the Logstash daemon and runs it with the myconfig.conf configuration.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have shown you how to install and configure Logstash on NetBSD. You can now use Logstash to collect, process, and move data from various sources to your desired destinations. Happy log parsing!

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