itzg/logstash repository overview

This image bundles the latest (1.5.x) version of Logstash with the ability to groom its own Elasticsearch indices.

⁠Basic Usage

To start a Logstash container, setup a directory on your host with one or more Logstash pipeline configurations files, called $HOST_CONF here, and run

docker run -d -v $HOST_CONF:/conf itzg/logstash

⁠Accessing host logs

Logstash is much more useful when it is actually processing...logs. Logs inside the container are non-existent, but you can attach the host machine's /var/log directory via the container's /logs volume:

docker run ... -v /var/log:/logs ...

Keep in mind you will need to configure file inputs with a base path of /logs, such as

file {
  path => ['/logs/syslog']
  type => 'syslog'
}

⁠Receiving input from collectd

To allow for incoming collectd⁠ content, UDP port 25826 is exposed and can be mapped onto the host using:

docker run ... -p 25826:25826/udp

Regardless of the host port, be sure to configure the logstash input to bind at port 25826, such as

udp {
  port => 25826
  codec => collectd { }
  buffer_size => 1452
}