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Elastic Docs ›Logstash Reference [8.12] ›Output plugins

Logstash output plugin

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Logstash output plugin

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For other versions, see the Versioned plugin docs.

Getting Help

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For questions about the plugin, open a topic in the Discuss forums. For bugs or feature requests, open an issue in Github. For the list of Elastic supported plugins, please consult the Elastic Support Matrix.

Description

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Send events to a Logstash input plugin in a pipeline that may be in another process or on another host. You must have a TCP route to the port (defaults to 9800) on an interface that the downstream input is bound to.

Sending events to any destination other than a logstash-input plugin is neither advised nor supported. We will maintain cross-compatibility with any two supported versions of output/input pair and reserve the right to change details such as protocol and encoding.

Minimum Configuration

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SSL Enabled SSL Disabled 
output {
  logstash {
    hosts => "10.0.0.123:9801"
  }
}
 
output {
  logstash {
    hosts => "10.0.0.123:9801"
    ssl_enabled
         => false
  }
}

Configuration Concepts

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Configure this output plugin to connect to a Logstash input plugin by specifying its hosts. Depending on the downstream plugin’s configuration, you may need to also configure the target port, SSL, and/or credentials.

Security: SSL Trust

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When communicating over SSL, this plugin establishes trust of the server it connects to before transmitting credentials or events.

It does so by ensuring that the responding server presents a currently-valid certificate with identity claims matching host it is connecting to, signed by a trusted signing authority, along with proof-of-possession of the associated private key material.

The system trust store is used by default. You can provide an alternate source of trust with ONE OF:

Security: SSL Identity

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If the downstream input plugin is configured to request or require client authentication, you can configure this plugin to provide its proof-of-identity with ONE OF:

Security: Credentials

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If the downstream logstash-input plugin is configured to require username and password, you will need to configure this output with a matching username and password.

when SSL is disabled, data and credentials will be transmitted in clear-text.

Logstash Output Configuration Options

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This plugin supports the following configuration options plus the Common Options described later.

Setting Input type Required

hosts

list of string

Yes

password

password

No

ssl_enabled

boolean

No

ssl_certificate

path

No

ssl_certificate_authorities

list of path

No

ssl_key

path

No

ssl_keystore_path

path

No

ssl_keystore_password

password

No

ssl_truststore_path

path

No

ssl_truststore_password

password

No

ssl_verification_mode

string, one of ["full", "none"]

No

username

string

No

Also see Common Options for a list of options supported by all output plugins.

 

hosts

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  • Value type is list of string
  • There is no default value for this setting.

  • Constraints:

    • When using IPv6, IP address must be in an enclosed in brackets.
    • When a port is not provided, the default 9800 is used.

The addresses of one or more downstream `input`s to connect to.

Host can be any of IPv4, IPv6 (in enclosed bracket) or host name, examples:

  • "127.0.0.1"
  • "127.0.0.1:9801"
  • "ds.example.com"
  • "ds.example.com:9802"
  • "[::1]"
  • "[::1]:9803"
  • "[2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334]"
  • "[2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334]:9804"

Plugin balances incoming load among the hosts. For more information, visit Logstash integration plugin Load Balancing section.

When connecting, communication to downstream input Logstash is secured with SSL unless configured otherwise.

Disabling SSL is dangerous

The security of this plugin relies on SSL to avoid leaking credentials and to avoid running illegitimate ingest pipeline definitions.

when using SSL, the server that responds must present a certificated with identity claim matching this host name or ip address.

password

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  • Value type is password
  • There is no default value for this setting.
  • Required when username is configured.

Password for password-based authentication.

When the downstream input plugin is configured with a username and password, you must also configure upstream outputs with a matching username/password pair.

ssl_enabled

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  • Value type is boolean
  • Default value is true

Logstash-to-Logstash communication is secured by default. When the downstream input plugin disables SSL, it must also be disabled here.

You can disable SSL with +ssl_enabled => false+. When disabled, setting any ssl_* configuration causes configuration failure.

ssl_certificate

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  • Value type is path
  • There is no default value for this setting.
  • When present, ssl_key is also required.
  • Cannot be combined with configurations that disable SSL.

Path to a PEM-encoded certificate or certificate chain with which to identify this plugin to connecting downstream input.

ssl_certificate_authorities

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  • Value type is a path
  • There is no default value for this setting.
  • Cannot be combined with configurations that disable SSL.
  • Cannot be combined with +ssl_verification_mode => none+.

One or more PEM-encoded files defining certificate authorities for use in downstream input authentication. This setting can be used to override the system trust store for verifying the SSL certificate presented by downstream input.

ssl_key

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  • Value type is path
  • There is no default value for this setting.
  • Required when connection identity is configured with ssl_certificate
  • Cannot be combined with configurations that disable SSL.

A path to an PEM-encoded unencrypted PKCS8 SSL certificate key.

ssl_keystore_path

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  • Value type is path
  • There is no default value for this setting.
  • When present, ssl_keystore_password is also required.
  • Cannot be combined with configurations that disable SSL.

A path to a JKS- or PKCS12-formatted keystore with which to identify this plugin to the downstream input. The provided identity will be used if the downstream input enables SSL client authentication.

ssl_keystore_password

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  • Value type is password
  • There is no default value for this setting.
  • Required when connection identity is configured with ssl_keystore_path
  • Cannot be combined with configurations that disable SSL.

Password for the ssl_keystore_path

ssl_truststore_path

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A path to a JKS- or PKCS12-formatted truststore with which to validate the identity claims of the downstream input. The provided identity will be used if the downstream input enables SSL client authentication.

ssl_truststore_password

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  • Value type is password
  • There is no default value for this setting.
  • Required when connection identity is configured with ssl_truststore_path
  • Cannot be combined with configurations that disable SSL.

Password for the ssl_truststore_path

ssl_verification_mode

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  • Value type is string

  • The supported modes are:

    • full: verifies that a certificate provided by the client has an identity claim matching hosts, is signed by a trusted authority (CA), is within its valid date range, and that the client has possession of the associated key.
    • none: performs no validation of the presented certificate
  • The default value is full.
  • Cannot be combined with configurations that disable SSL.

When communicating over SSL, this setting controls how the downstream input’s certificate is verified.

username

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  • Value type is string
  • There is no default value for this setting.
  • When present, password is also required.

Username for password-based authentication.

When the downstream input plugin is configured with a username and password, you must also configure upstream outputs with a matching username/password pair.

when SSL is disabled, credentials will be transmitted in clear-text.

Common Options

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The following configuration options are supported by all output plugins:

Setting Input type Required

enable_metric

boolean

No

id

string

No

enable_metric

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  • Value type is boolean
  • Default value is true

Disable or enable metric logging for this specific plugin instance. By default we record all the metrics we can, but you can disable metrics collection for a specific plugin.

id

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  • Value type is string
  • There is no default value for this setting.

Add a unique ID to the plugin configuration. If no ID is specified, Logstash will generate one. It is strongly recommended to set this ID in your configuration. This is particularly useful when you have two or more plugins of the same type. For example, if you have 2 logstash outputs. Adding a named ID in this case will help in monitoring Logstash when using the monitoring APIs.

output {
  logstash {
    id => "my_plugin_id"
  }
}

Variable substitution in the id field only supports environment variables and does not support the use of values from the secret store.

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