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Learn about loki.source.syslog
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general-availability
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loki.source.syslog

loki.source.syslog

loki.source.syslog listens for syslog messages over TCP or UDP connections and forwards them to other loki.* components. The messages must be compliant with the RFC5424 syslog protocol or the RFC3164 BSD syslog protocol. For a detailed example, refer to the Monitor RFC5424-compliant syslog messages with Grafana Alloy scenario.

{{< admonition type="note" >}} If your messages aren't RFC5424 compliant, you can use raw syslog format in combination with the loki.process component.

Please note, that the raw syslog format is an experimental feature. {{< /admonition >}}

The component starts a new syslog listener for each of the given config blocks and fans out incoming entries to the list of receivers in forward_to.

You can specify multiple loki.source.syslog components by giving them different labels.

Usage

loki.source.syslog "<LABEL>" {
  listener {
    address = "<LISTEN_ADDRESS>"
  }
  ...

  forward_to = <RECEIVER_LIST>
}

Arguments

You can use the following arguments with loki.source.syslog:

Name Type Description Default Required
forward_to list(LogsReceiver) List of receivers to send log entries to. yes
relabel_rules RelabelRules Relabeling rules to apply on log entries. {} no

The relabel_rules field can make use of the rules export value from a loki.relabel component to apply one or more relabeling rules to log entries before they're forwarded to the list of receivers in forward_to.

loki.source.syslog applies the following labels to log entries from the client information if possible.

  • __syslog_connection_ip_address
  • __syslog_connection_hostname

loki.source.syslog applies the following labels to log entries if they have been parsed from the syslog message.

  • __syslog_message_severity
  • __syslog_message_facility
  • __syslog_message_hostname
  • __syslog_message_app_name
  • __syslog_message_proc_id
  • __syslog_message_msg_id

If there is RFC5424 compliant structured data in the parsed message, it will be applied to the log entry as a label with prefix __syslog_message_sd_. For example, if the structured data provided is [example@99999 test="value"], the log entry will have the label __syslog_message_sd_example_99999_test with a value of value.

Before passing log entries to the next component in the pipeline, the syslog source will remove any labels with a __ prefix. To retain the __syslog_ labels on the log entries, you must use rules in the relabel_rules argument to move them to labels that do not have a __ prefix. The following relabel example retains all __syslog_ labels on the log entry when the entries are passed to the next component in the pipeline.

loki.relabel "syslog" {
  rule {
    action = "labelmap"
    regex = "__syslog_(.+)"
  }
}

Blocks

You can use the following blocks with loki.source.syslog:

Name Description Required
listener Configures a listener for Syslog messages. no
listener > raw_format_options Configures raw syslog format behavior. no
listener > tls_config Configures TLS settings for connecting to the endpoint for TCP connections. no

The > symbol indicates deeper levels of nesting. For example, listener > tls_config refers to a tls_config block defined inside a listener block.

listener

The listener block defines the listen address and protocol where the listener expects syslog messages to be sent to, as well as its behavior when receiving messages.

The following arguments can be used to configure a listener. Only the address field is required and any omitted fields take their default values.

Name Type Description Default Required
address string The <host:port> address to listen to for syslog messages. yes
idle_timeout duration The idle timeout for TCP connections. "120s" no
label_structured_data bool Whether to translate syslog structured data to Loki labels. false no
labels map(string) The labels to associate with each received syslog record. {} no
max_message_length int The maximum limit to the length of syslog messages. 8192 no
protocol string The protocol to listen to for syslog messages. Must be either tcp or udp. "tcp" no
rfc3164_default_to_current_year bool Whether to default the incoming timestamp of an rfc3164 message to the current year. false no
syslog_format string The format for incoming messages. See supported formats. "rfc5424" no
use_incoming_timestamp bool Whether to set the timestamp to the incoming syslog record timestamp. false no
use_rfc5424_message bool Whether to forward the full RFC5424-formatted syslog message. false no

By default, the component assigns the log entry timestamp as the time it was processed.

The labels map is applied to every message that the component reads.

All header fields from the parsed RFC5424 messages are brought in as internal labels, prefixed with __syslog_.

If label_structured_data is set, structured data in the syslog header is also translated to internal labels in the form of __syslog_message_sd_<ID>_<KEY>. For example, a structured data entry of [example@99999 test="yes"] becomes the label __syslog_message_sd_example_99999_test with the value "yes".

The rfc3164_default_to_current_year argument is only relevant when use_incoming_timestamp is also set to true. rfc3164 message timestamps don't contain a year, and this component's default behavior is to mimic Promtail behavior and leave the year as 0. Setting rfc3164_default_to_current_year to true sets the year of the incoming timestamp to the current year using the local time of the {{< param "PRODUCT_NAME" >}} instance.

{{< admonition type="note" >}} The rfc3164_default_to_current_year, use_incoming_timestamp and use_rfc5424_message fields cannot be used when syslog_format is set to raw. {{< /admonition >}}

Supported formats

  • rfc3164 A legacy syslog format, also known as BSD syslog. Example: <34>Oct 11 22:14:15 my-server-01 sshd[1234]: Failed password for root from 192.168.1.10 port 22 ssh2
  • rfc5424 A modern, structured syslog format. Uses ISO 8601 for timestamps. Example: <165>1 2025-12-18T00:33:00Z web01 nginx - - [audit@123 id="456"] Login failed.
  • raw Disables log line parsing. This format allows receiving non-RFC5424 compliant logs, such as CEF. Raw logs can be forwarded to loki.process component for parsing.

{{< admonition type="note" >}} The raw format is an experimental feature. Experimental features are subject to frequent breaking changes, and may be removed with no equivalent replacement. To enable and use an experimental feature, you must set the stability.level flag to experimental. {{< /admonition >}}

raw_format_options

{{< docs/shared lookup="stability/experimental_feature.md" source="alloy" version="<ALLOY_VERSION>" >}}

The raw_format_options block configures the raw syslog format behavior.

{{< admonition type="note" >}} This block can only be used when you set syslog_format to raw. {{< /admonition >}}

The following argument is supported:

Name Type Description Default Required
use_null_terminator_delimiter bool Use null-terminator (\0) instead of line break (\n) to split log lines. false no

tls_config

{{< docs/shared lookup="reference/components/tls-config-block.md" source="alloy" version="<ALLOY_VERSION>" >}}

Exported fields

loki.source.syslog doesn't export any fields.

Component health

loki.source.syslog is only reported as unhealthy if given an invalid configuration.

Debug information

loki.source.syslog exposes some debug information per syslog listener:

  • Whether the listener is running.
  • The listen address.
  • The labels that the listener applies to incoming log entries.

Debug metrics

  • loki_source_syslog_empty_messages_total (counter): Total number of empty messages received from the syslog component.
  • loki_source_syslog_entries_total (counter): Total number of successful entries sent to the syslog component.
  • loki_source_syslog_parsing_errors_total (counter): Total number of parsing errors while receiving syslog messages.

Example

This example listens for syslog messages in valid RFC5424 format over TCP and UDP in the specified ports and forwards them to a loki.write component.

loki.source.syslog "local" {
  listener {
    address  = "127.0.0.1:51893"
    labels   = { component = "loki.source.syslog", protocol = "tcp" }
  }

  listener {
    address  = "127.0.0.1:51898"
    protocol = "udp"
    labels   = { component = "loki.source.syslog", protocol = "udp"}
  }

  forward_to = [loki.write.local.receiver]
}

loki.write "local" {
  endpoint {
    url = "loki:3100/api/v1/push"
  }
}

Compatible components

loki.source.syslog can accept arguments from the following components:

{{< admonition type="note" >}} Connecting some components may not be sensible or components may require further configuration to make the connection work correctly. Refer to the linked documentation for more details. {{< /admonition >}}