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Syslog target for NLog

NLog Syslog is a custom target for NLog: http://nlog-project.org.

It can be used with version 4.5.4 and later of NLog and allows to send logging messages to a Syslog server.

Notice

Support is provided for the latest major version, but development will be based only on the latest version.

License

NLog Syslog is open source software, licensed under the terms of BSD license.

Please see the LICENSE file for further information.

Configuration

To use NLog Syslog simply download the NLog.Targets.Syslog NuGet package, then use as you would any NLog target.

Since this targets take advantage of .NET Task Parallel Library to work in an asynchronous and concurrent way, there is no need to use NLog AsyncWrapper.

Below is a sample NLog.config file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<nlog xmlns="http://www.nlog-project.org/schemas/NLog.xsd"
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
      xmlns:sl="http://www.nlog-project.org/schemas/NLog.Targets.Syslog.xsd">
  <targets>
    <target xsi:type="Syslog" name="cee-udp">
      <sl:layout xsi:type="SimpleLayout" text="@cee: {&quot;message&quot;: &quot;${message}&quot;}" />
      <sl:messageCreation>
        <sl:facility>Local4</sl:facility>
        <sl:rfc>Rfc5424</sl:rfc>
        <sl:rfc5424>
          <sl:hostname xsi:type="SimpleLayout" text="${machinename}" />
          <sl:appName xsi:type="SimpleLayout" text="DAEMON.MyAppName" />
          <sl:procId xsi:type="SimpleLayout" text="${processid}" />
          <sl:msgId xsi:type="SimpleLayout" text="${threadid}" />
          <sl:disableBom>true</sl:disableBom>
        </sl:rfc5424>
      </sl:messageCreation>
    </target>
  </targets>
  <rules>
    <logger name="*" minlevel="Debug" writeTo="cee-udp" />
  </rules>
</nlog>

Options

This NLog target supports the standard NLog layout directive to modify the log message body (Syslog packet elements are not affected).

It provides default values for all settings which can be overridden by means of the XML configuration, as shown above. A more detailed example is included in the test application.

Enforcement element

  • throttling - settings related to message throttling:
    • limit - the number of log entries, waiting to be processed, that triggers throttling (default: 65536; 0 means no limit)
    • strategy - None / DiscardOnFixedTimeout / DiscardOnPercentageTimeout / Discard / DeferForFixedTime / DeferForPercentageTime / Block (default: Discard)
    • delay - the milliseconds/percentage delay for a DiscardOnFixedTimeout / DiscardOnPercentageTimeout / Defer throttling strategy (default: 0)
  • messageProcessors - the amount of parallel message processors (default: 1; 0 means Environment.ProcessorCount)
  • splitOnNewLine - whether or not to split each log entry by newlines and send each line separately (default: false)
  • transliterate - false or true to transliterate strings from Unicode to ASCII when the RFC allows only ASCII characters for a field (default: false)
  • replaceInvalidCharacters - false or true to replace invalid values usually with a question mark (default: false)
  • truncateFieldsToMaxLength - false or true to truncate fields to the length specified in the RFC (default: false)
  • truncateMessageTo - a number specifying the max length allowed for the whole message (default: 0 i.e. do not truncate)

The maximum length of a message is detailed in many RFCs that can be summarized as follow:

MUST be supported SHOULD be supported MUST NOT exceed
RFC 3164 (UDP) 1024 B 1024 B 1024 B
RFC 6587 (TCP) 1024 B 1024 B 1024 B
RFC 5424 (TCP/UDP) 480 B 2048 B -
RFC 5426 (UDP/IPv4) 480 B 2048 B 65535 - 60 - 8 B 1
RFC 5426 (UDP/IPv6) 1180 B 2048 B 65535 - 40 - 8 B 1
RFC 5426 (UDP/IPv6) 1180 B 2048 B (2^32 - 1) - 40 - 8 B 1 2
RFC 5425 (TLS/IPv4) 2048 B 8192 B 65535 - 60 - 60 B 1
RFC 5425 (TLS/IPv6) 2048 B 8192 B 65535 - 40 - 60 B 1
RFC 5425 (TLS/IPv6) 2048 B 8192 B (2^32 - 1) - 40 - 60 B 1 2

1 IP payload - max IP header - max protocol header

2 Using jumbograms (limited by Int32.MaxValue = 2147483647, i.e. the maximum size for an array)

Message creation element

  • facility - facility name (default: Local1)
  • perLogLevelSeverity - the severity to be used for each log level:
    • fatal - Emergency / Alert / Critical / Error / Warning / Notice / Informational / Debug (default: Emergency)
    • error - Emergency / Alert / Critical / Error / Warning / Notice / Informational / Debug (default: Error)
    • warn - Emergency / Alert / Critical / Error / Warning / Notice / Informational / Debug (default: Warning)
    • info - Emergency / Alert / Critical / Error / Warning / Notice / Informational / Debug (default: Informational)
    • debug - Emergency / Alert / Critical / Error / Warning / Notice / Informational / Debug (default: Debug)
    • trace - Emergency / Alert / Critical / Error / Warning / Notice / Informational / Debug (default: Notice)
  • rfc - rfc3164 or rfc5424 (default: rfc5424)
  • rfc3164 - settings related to RFC 3164:
    • outputPri - true or false to output or not the PRI part (default: true, used for custom messages)
    • outputHeader - true or false to output or not the HEADER part (default: true, used for custom messages)
    • outputSpaceBeforeMsg - true or false to output or not the space before the MSG part (default: true, used for custom messages)
    • hostname (Layout) - the HOSTNAME field of the HEADER part (default: the hostname of the computer that is creating the message)
    • tag (Layout) - the TAG field of the MSG part (default: the name of the assembly that is creating the message)
  • rfc5424 - settings related to RFC 5424:
    • timestampFractionalDigits - the number of fractional digits for the TIMESTAMP field of the HEADER part (default: 6, max: 16 as per ISO 8601 but since .NET is limited to 7 the other digits will be zeroed)
    • hostname (Layout) - the HOSTNAME field of the HEADER part (default: the hostname of the computer that is creating the message)
    • appName (Layout) - the APPNAME field of the HEADER part (default: the name of the assembly that is creating the message)
    • procId (Layout) - the PROCID field of the HEADER part (default: -)
    • msgId (Layout) - the MSGID field of the HEADER part (default: -)
    • structuredData - the STRUCTURED-DATA part containing the SD-ELEMENTs each composed by an SD-ID (Layout) and optional SD-PARAM fields, i.e. the PARAM-NAME (Layout) and PARAM-VALUE (Layout) fields (default: -).
      The fromEventProperties attribute allows to use log event properties data enabling different STRUCTURED-DATA for each log message
    • disableBom - true or false to handle RSyslog issue 284 (default: false)

Message send element

  • protocol - udp or tcp (default: udp)
  • udp - settings related to UDP:
    • server - IP or hostname of the Syslog server (default: 127.0.0.1)
    • port - port the Syslog server is listening on (default: 514)
    • reconnectInterval - the time interval, in milliseconds, after which a connection is retried (default: 500)
  • tcp - settings related to TCP:
    • server - IP or hostname of the Syslog server (default: 127.0.0.1)
    • port - port the Syslog server is listening on (default: 514)
    • reconnectInterval - the time interval, in milliseconds, after which a connection is retried (default: 500)
    • keepAlive - settings related to keep-alive:
      • enabled - whether to use keep-alive or not (default: true)
      • retryCount - the number of unacknowledged keep-alive probes to send before considering the connection dead and terminating it (default: 10)
      • time - the number of seconds a connection will remain idle before the first keep-alive probe is sent (default: 5)
      • interval - the number of seconds a connection will wait for a keep-alive acknowledgement before sending another keepalive probe (default: 1)
    • tls - settings related to TLS:
      • enabled - whether to use TLS or not (TLS 1.2 only) (default false)
      • useClientCertificates - whether to use client certificates or not (default false)
      • certificateStoreLocation - the X.509 certificate store location (default CurrentUser)
      • certificateStoreName - the X.509 certificate store name (default My)
      • certificateFilterType - the type of filter to apply to the certificate collection (default FindBySubjectName)
      • certificateFilterValue - the value against which to filter the certificate collection
    • framing - nonTransparent or octectCounting (default: octectCounting)


Test bench

  1. [HOST] Download VirtualBox and Vagrant and install them

  2. [HOST] Create a Vagrantfile

    Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "ubuntu/trusty64"
  config.ssh.host = "127.0.0.1"
  config.ssh.username = "vagrant"
  config.ssh.password = "vagrant"
  config.vm.network :forwarded_port, id: 'ssh', guest: 22, host: 2222, auto_correct: false
  config.vm.network :forwarded_port, guest: 514, host: 1514, protocol: "tcp", auto_correct: false
  config.vm.network :forwarded_port, guest: 514, host: 1514, protocol: "udp", auto_correct: false
end

  3. [HOST] Start the VM

    vagrant up

  4. [HOST] Connect to the VM with SSH on port 2222

  5. [GUEST] Switch to the root user

    su

  6. [GUEST] Uncomment the following /etc/rsyslog.conf lines:

    #$ModLoad imudp
#$UDPServerRun 514

    #$ModLoad imtcp
#$InputTCPServerRun 514

  7. [GUEST] Add the following /etc/rsyslog.d/50-default.conf line under the user.* one (prefixing a path with the minus sign omits flushing after every log event)

    local4.*                        /var/log/local4.log

  8. [GUEST] Restart Syslog service

    service rsyslog restart

  9. [HOST] Restart the VM

    vagrant reload

  10. [GUEST] Make sure RSyslog is running

    ps -A | grep rsyslog

  11. [GUEST] Check RSyslog configuration

    rsyslogd -N1

  12. [GUEST] Check Linux system log for RSyslog errors

    cat /var/log/syslog | grep rsyslog

  13. [GUEST] Perform a local test

    logger --server 127.0.0.1 --port 514 --priority local4.error "TCP local test"
logger --server 127.0.0.1 --port 514 --priority local4.warning --udp "UDP local test"
tail -3 /var/log/syslog
tail -3 /var/log/local4.log

  14. [GUEST] Prepare for a remote test

    tail -f /var/log/syslog

    OR

    tcpdump port 514 -vv

  15. [HOST] Perform a remote test

    telnet 127.0.0.1 1514

  16. [HOST] Perform a remote test with the NLog target (configuring it to use the Local4 facility)



Syslog message format

Messages are built using the format defined in RFC 3164 or RFC 5424. They are then sent using one of the protocols defined in RFC 5426 or RFC 6587 or RFC 5425.

RFC 3164

There are no set requirements on the contents of the Syslog message: the payload of any Syslog message must be considered to be a valid Syslog message. It is, however, recommended for the Syslog message to have all the parts described here.

Conventions

  • SPACE: the ASCII value dec 32 / hex 20
  • PRINTUSASCII: ASCII values in the range dec [33, 126] / hex [21, 7E]

Message parts

A Syslog message is at least 1 and at most 1024 characters long and the only allowed characters are SPACE or PRINTUSASCII

SYSLOG MESSAGE = PRI HEADER SPACE MSG

PRI = < PRIVAL >
    PRIVAL = FACILITY * 8 + SEVERITY
        FACILITY
            A number between 0 and 23
        SEVERITY
            A number between 0 and 7

HEADER = TIMESTAMP space HOSTNAME (only SPACE or PRINTUSASCII allowed)
    TIMESTAMP
        "Mmm dd hh:mm:ss" using a local timezone
        Space-padding in dd, zero-padding in hh, mm and ss
    HOSTNAME
        Hostname or IPv4 address or IPv6 address of the sender machine

MSG = TAG CONTENT
    TAG
        Name of the sender program or process
        An alphanumeric string not exceeding 32 characters
    CONTENT
        Detailed information of the event
        A non-alphanumeric character followed by SPACE or PRINTUSASCII characters

Examples

  • <34>Oct 11 00:14:05 mymachine su: 'su root' failed for lonvick on /dev/pts/8
  • <13>Feb 5 17:32:18 10.0.0.99 myTag Use the BFG!

RFC 5424

Conventions

  • (section): brackets are used to indicate that a section is optional
  • NILVALUE: the hyphen i.e. ASCII value dec 45 / hex 2D
  • SPACE: the ASCII value dec 32 / hex 20
  • PRINTUSASCII: ASCII values in the range dec [33, 126] / hex [21, 7E]
  • SAFEPRINTUSASCII: PRINTUSASCII except =, ], "

Message parts

A Syslog message is at most 480 to 2048 or more bytes

This is the detail of the format:

SYSLOG MESSAGE = HEADER SPACE STRUCTURED-DATA (SPACE MSG)

HEADER = PRI VERSION SPACE TIMESTAMP SPACE HOSTNAME SPACE APPNAME SPACE PROCID SPACE MSGID
    PRI = < PRIVAL >
        PRIVAL = FACILITY * 8 + SEVERITY
            FACILITY
                A number between 0 and 23
            SEVERITY
                A number between 0 and 7
        VERSION
            A nonzero digit followed by 0 to 2 digits (current version is 1)
        TIMESTAMP
            NILVALUE or RFC3339 timestamp with an optional 1 to 6 digits second fraction part
        HOSTNAME
            NILVALUE or 1 to 255 PRINTUSASCII
            The FQDN or IPv4 address or IPv6 address or hostname of the sender machine
        APPNAME
            NILVALUE or 1 to 48 PRINTUSASCII
            The device or application sending the Syslog message
        PROCID
            NILVALUE or 1 to 128 PRINTUSASCII
            A change indicates a discontinuity in Syslog reporting
            Often the process name or id or an identifier of the group the Syslog message belongs to
        MSGID
            NILVALUE or 1 to 32 PRINTUSASCII
            The type of message that should be the same for events with the same semantics

STRUCTURED-DATA = NILVALUE or one or more SD-ELEMENT
    SD-ELEMENT = [ SD-ID (one or more SPACE SD-PARAM) ]
        SD-ID
            At most 32 SAFEPRINTUSASCII specifying a unique identifier within STRUCTUREDDATA
            The identifier can be a CUSTOMID or IANAID:
                CUSTOMID = NAME @ PEN
                    NAME
                        SAFEPRINTUSASCII except @
                    PEN
                        A private enterprise number
                        Digits or digits separated by periods
                IANAID = timeQuality or origin or meta
                    timeQuality
                        Parameters are tzKnown, isSynced, syncAccuracy
                    origin
                        Parameters are ip, enterpriseId, software, swVersion
                    meta
                        Parameters are sequenceId, sysUpTime, language
        SD-PARAM = PARAM-NAME = " PARAM-VALUE "
            PARAM-NAME
                1 to 32 SAFEPRINTUSASCII
            PARAM-VALUE
                UTF8 STRING with ", \ and ] escaped as \", \\ and \]

MSG = MSGANY or MSGUTF8
    MSGANY
        Zero or more bytes
    MSGUTF8 = BOM UTF8STRING
        BOM
            The hex value EFBBBF
        UTF8STRING
            A UTF8 compliant string

Examples

  • <34>1 2003-10-11T22:14:15.003Z mymachine.example.com su - ID47 - BOM'su root' failed for lonvick on /dev/pts/8
  • <165>1 2003-08-24T05:14:15.000003-07:00 192.0.2.1 myproc 8710 - - %% It's time to make the do-nuts.
  • <165>1 2003-10-11T22:14:15.003Z mymachine.example.com evntslog - ID47 [exampleSDID@32473 iut="3" eventSource="Application" eventID="1011"] BOMAn application event log entry...
  • <165>1 2003-10-11T22:14:15.003Z mymachine.example.com evntslog - ID47 [exampleSDID@32473 iut="3" eventSource="Application" eventID="1011"][examplePriority@32473 class="high"]

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A Syslog server target for NLog

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