Receiving data in NextStride LARS
Receiving data in NextStride LARS
Initial situation
LARS Server allows the collection and processing of data from a variety of tools. This leads to a wide range of options for monitoring of systems and applications as well as for analyzing logfiles in case of errors.
New technologies bring along new challenges
With the spreading of cloud technologies come new challenges in the collection as well as the centralized evaluation of log and metric data. A big amount of containers get started automatically in different data centers, which makes a centralized platform for monitoring and analysis indispensable.
Support for standard tools and protocols
For some time, tools to collect log and metric data like Fluentd or metricbeat have become industry standards. Data from these collectors can be integrated without much configuration effort using the interfaces provided by LARS server.
Fluentd and Fluent Bit for log collection
Logo fluentd
Fluentd (https://www.fluentd.org/) and Fluent Bit (https://fluentbit.io/) are widely used tools for collecting log data. They are resource-efficient and flexibly configurable, allowing them to not only be used within a container, but also as a Sidecar Container (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/patterns/sidecar). Read logs in JSON format can be sent to LARS server for processing with help of the integrated HTTPS forwarding plugin.
Lumberjack protocol for receiving data from Elastic Beats and Logstash
Logo logstash
LARS server supports receiving data in the Lumberjack format, which enables an easy connection of clients to Elastic Beats and Logstash. The collectors from the Elastic Beats family are able to collect system key figures (CPU, memory or disk usage, network throughput and much more) in addition to logs. They can also periodically check the availability of application services.
These additional metrics can be combined with logs in server-side reports to provide better insights into the monitored applicantions‘ runtime behavior.
LARS client for complex requirements
If a certain use case can not be covered using standard tools, LARS client comes into play. With plugins specially tailored to customer needs, even complex problems can be solved.
Clients that have subscribed to a LARS server can be centrally configured and updated which allows for an adaptation to changing requirements in no time.
Performance and security
Because the communication between single containers and with the logging solutions happens via network, security is crucial. LARS server endpoints allow for secure transmission of data through standard protocols such as TLS or SSH and also support receiving compressed data, which minimizes the load on the network.
Overview NextStride LARS
