Data Sources

The Scalyr service is designed to let you work with all of your monitoring data — not just logs or system metrics — in one place. This page lists all of the ways in which you can get data into Scalyr. Note that all options use secure encryption and realtime data streaming, so your data is always fresh and secure.

  • System metrics are automatically uploaded when you install the Scalyr Agent.
  • Log files are also covered in the Scalyr Agent installation instructions. You can upload web access logs, system logs, app server logs, and more.
  • If you use MySQL, PostgreSQL, Apache, or nginx, install the corresponding Scalyr Agent Plugin to gather performance and usage data.
  • The agent can also provide Process metrics (per-process resource usage). See the Linux Process Metrics page for instructions.
  • Heroku and AppHarbor users can import logs securely using a Logplex drain.
  • For Graphite based tools, the Scalyr Agent can masquerade as a Graphite server. See the Graphite Relay section for instructions.
  • To log structured data directly from .NET applications, you can also use Serilog in conjunction with the Scalyr sink.

Syslog

Due to the difficulties of securing Syslog across networks, Scalyr does not accept Syslog directly from customers. Instead, we recommend running an instance of the Scalyr Agent to accept Syslog traffic within your local network. The Scalyr Agent can be configured to act as a Syslog server, accepting connections from other hosts. You may either run an instance of the Scalyr Agent on each host (preferred) or one instance for all of your hosts.

To use the Scalyr Agent to collect your logs via Syslog, please:

  • Follow the agent installation instructions to install the Scalyr Agent on a host (or hosts) in your network.
  • Configure the Scalyr Agent as a Syslog server. Remember, if your Scalyr Agent will be accepting Syslog traffic from other hosts, you must set accept_remote_connections to true.
  • Configure your servers to send logs to the Scalyr Agent via Syslog. The exact configuration depends on your particular Linux distribution. For example, in Ubuntu, you need to edit the file in /etc/rsyslog.d/50-default.conf to include the following line:
*.warn                         @<ip of agent>:514

Where, <ip of agent> is replaced with the IP address of the host running the Scalyr Agent. This will forward all messages of warning severity level or higher to the Scalyr Agent. You will also need to execute sudo service rsyslog restart for the changes to take affect.

Heroku and AppHarbor

Importing logs from a Heroku application is quick and easy. Simply type the following command on a system where you have the Heroku Toolbelt installed:

heroku drains:add 'https://log.scalyr.com/api/logplex?host=APPNAME&token=(log in to view API tokens)' -a APPNAME

For APPNAME, use the name of your Heroku application. Note that APPNAME appears in two places in the command.

This creates a Heroku "log drain" telling Heroku to deliver log messages to Scalyr. You can list drains by typing heroku drains. To remove a drain, enter the same command you used to add it, but with drains:add changed to drains:remove.

If you're using AppHarbor, configure it to send logs via LogPlex to this URL:

https://log.scalyr.com/api/logplex?token=(log in to view API tokens)&host=AppHarbor&logfile=logplex&parser=AppHarbor

Your logs should begin appearing in Scalyr within seconds. Refresh the Overview page, and look for a server named "heroku".

Multiple applications

If you have multiple applications, you can include "host", "logfile", and/or "parser" parameters in the logplex URL. The first two parameters specify the hostname and log file name under whch your logs will appear on Scalyr's Overview page. The parser parameter identifies the log format; with Heroku, you can usually omit this parameter and accept the default ("heroku-logplex").

Graphite Relay

Graphite is an open-source system for storing and graphing timeseries data. The Scalyr Agent can masquerade as a Graphite server, acting as a relay to the Scalyr service. This allows you to use Scalyr with any tool that reports metrics using the Graphite network protocol.

To begin with, follow the agent installation instructions to install the Scalyr Agent. It's generally best to install the agent on each server you want to monitor, so that it can provide system metrics and log files, and so that the Graphite data will automatically be tagged as having come from that server.

Then go to the Graphite Monitor page for instructions on enabling Graphite support in the Scalyr Agent.

Data Representation

The Scalyr Agent converts Graphite and OpenTSDB measurements into the Scalyr data model. Consider the following Graphite value:

   requests.500.host1 1.03 123456789

This is converted into a Scalyr event with the following fields:

  path      = requests.500.host1
  value     = 1.03
  timestamp = 123456789
  path1     = requests
  path2     = 500
  path3     = host1

The first three fields are a direct representation of the Graphite data. The pathN fields break down the path into components, enabling flexible queries and aggregation. For instance, the search path1='requests' path3='host1' will match all requests on host1.

An OpenTSDB data point looks like this when sent over the network:

put mysql.bytes_received 1287333217 327810227706 schema=foo host=db1

and is transformed to:

  metric    = mysql.bytes_received
  timestamp = 1287333217
  value     = 327810227706
  schema    = foo
  host      = db1
  path1     = mysql
  path2     = bytes_received

Generating Graphs

A typical workflow for graphing involves using the Search view page to view Graphite or OpenTSDB data. In the Search box, specify a query using the fields described above. Some examples for Graphite data:

  $source='graphite' path = 'requests.500.host1'      (a single metric)
  $source='graphite' path1 = 'requests' path2=500     (requests.500.*)
  $source='graphite' path1 = 'requests' path3='host1' (requests.*.host1)

And examples for TSDB data:

  $source='tsdb' metric = 'mysql.bytes_received' host='db1'
  $source='tsdb' metric = 'mysql.bytes_received'

Once you have filtered for the data you wish to graph, see the Graphs overview page for instructions on how to access and utilize Graphs view.