What is Logstash?

Logstash is a popular open-source data processing pipeline developed by Elastic. It is designed to collect, process, and forward events and logs from various sources to a centralized location for analysis and monitoring. Logstash is a key component of the Elastic Stack (ELK), which also includes Elasticsearch, Kibana, and Beats. Its primary function is to ingest data from multiple sources, transform and process it into a standardized format, and then forward it to various destinations for analysis and storage.

Main Features of Logstash

Some of the key features of Logstash include:

• Input plugins for collecting data from various sources such as logs, metrics, and APIs
• Filter plugins for processing and transforming data into a standardized format
• Output plugins for forwarding data to various destinations such as Elasticsearch, Kafka, and Redis
• Support for multiple data formats including JSON, CSV, and XML

Installation Guide

Prerequisites

Before installing Logstash, you will need to have the following prerequisites:

• Java 8 or later installed on your system
• A compatible operating system such as Windows, Linux, or macOS
• Enough disk space and memory to run Logstash

Step-by-Step Installation

Here are the steps to install Logstash:

1. Download the Logstash installation package from the Elastic website
2. Extract the package to a directory on your system
3. Open a command prompt or terminal and navigate to the Logstash directory
4. Run the command `bin/logstash -e