Installing Logstash on Ubuntu 20.04

Logstash is an open-source data processing pipeline tool that allows you to collect, transform, and ship data from various sources to your desired destinations. It is part of the Elastic Stack, which also includes Elasticsearch for search and analytics, and Kibana for visualization.

Prerequisites

Before installing Logstash, make sure you have the following:

• An Ubuntu 20.04 server
• Java Development Kit (JDK) 8 or later installed

Step 1: Install Java

Logstash requires Java to run. You can install OpenJDK using the following command:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openjdk-11-jdk

Step 2: Download and Install Logstash

Download and install Logstash with the following steps:

wget -qO - https://artifacts.elastic.co/GPG-KEY-elasticsearch | sudo apt-key add -

echo "deb https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/7.x/apt stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/logstash.list

sudo apt update

sudo apt install logstash

1. Retrieve the GPG key used for signing the Logstash packages:
2. Add the Logstash repository:
3. Update the package list:
4. Install Logstash:

Step 3: Configure Logstash

Logstash configurations are stored in the /etc/logstash/conf.d directory. You can create a new configuration file with a .conf extension, for example:

sudo nano /etc/logstash/conf.d/myconfig.conf

Edit the configuration file to define your input, filter, and output plugins. Here's an example that listens for logs sent via syslog and outputs them to Elasticsearch:

  input {
    syslog {
      port => 514
    }
  }
  
  filter {
    # Add your filter plugins here
  }
  
  output {
    elasticsearch {
      hosts => ["localhost:9200"]
    }
  }
  

Step 4: Start and Enable Logstash

Start and enable the Logstash service using the following commands:

sudo systemctl start logstash
sudo systemctl enable logstash

Conclusion

You have successfully installed Logstash on Ubuntu 20.04. You can now configure Logstash to process your data and send it to your desired destinations. For more advanced configurations, refer to the official Logstash documentation.