What is Logstash?
Logstash is an open source, server-side data processing pipeline that ingests data from a multitude of sources simultaneously, transforms it, and then sends it to your favorite "stash."
It is typically used as part of the ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) for logging use cases. Logstash ingest data from various input sources, executes different transformations and enhancements on the data, and then ships the data to various supported output destinations.
Some of the popular features and capabilities of Logstash include:
- Ingests data from a multitude of inputs like files, databases, APIs, Kafka, S3 etc.
- Transforms and structures data through filtering, decoding, geolocation etc.
- Aggregates and stores important data for future retrieval and analysis.
- Flexible pipeline configuration through a multitude of input, filter, and output plugins.
- Ships processed data to various outputs e.g, Elasticsearch, external databases etc.
- Idempotent support to prevent data loss and ensure stability.
- Easy to scale horizontally to manage growth in data.
In summary, Logstash is a popular open source choice for ingesting data from multiple sources, processing it, transforming it, enriching it, and shipping it to various destinations for further analysis and visualization.