loggen --- Generate syslog messages at a specified rate

SYNOPSIS

loggen [options]

target [port]

DESCRIPTION

NOTE: The loggen application is distributed with the syslog-ng OSE system logging application, and is usually part of the syslog-ng OSE package. The latest version of the syslog-ng OSE application is available at the syslog-ng OSE page.

This manual page is only an abstract.

The loggen application is a tool to test and stress-test your syslog server and the connection to the server. It can send syslog messages to the server at a specified rate using a number of connection types and protocols, including TCP, UDP, and unix domain sockets. The messages can be generated automatically (repeating the PADDstring over and over), or read from a file or the standard input.

When loggen finishes sending the messages, it displays the following statistics:

  • average rate: The average rate of the sent messages in messages/second.

  • count: The total number of messages sent.

  • time: The time required to send the messages in seconds.

  • average message size: The average size of the sent messages in bytes.

  • bandwidth: The average bandwidth used for sending the messages in kilobytes/second.

OPTIONS

--active-connections <number-of-connections> Number of connections loggen will use to send messages to the destination. This option is usable only when using TCP or TLS connections to the destination. Default value: 1 The loggen utility waits until every connection is established before starting to send messages. See also the --idle-connections option.

--csv or -C Send the statistics of the sent messages to stdout as CSV. This can be used for plotting the message rate.

--dgram or -D Use datagram socket (UDP or unix-dgram) to send the messages to the target. Requires the –inet option as well.

--dont-parse or -d Do not parse the lines read from the input files, send them as received.

--help or -h Display a brief help message.

--idle-connection <number-of-connections> Number of idle connections loggen will establish to the destination. Note that loggen will not send any messages on idle connections, but the connection is kept open using keep-alive messages. This option is usable only when using TCP or TLS connections to the destination. See also the –active-connections option. Default value: 0

--inet or -i Use the TCP (by default) or UDP (when used together with the --dgram option) protocol to send the messages to the target.

--interval <seconds> or -I <seconds> The number of seconds loggen will run. Default value: 10

NOTE: When `--interval` and `--number` are used together, loggen will
send messages until the period set in `--interval` expires or the
amount of messages set in `--number` is reached, whichever happens
first.

--ipv6 or -6 Specify the destination using its IPv6 address. Note that the destination must have a real IPv6 address.

--loop-reading or -l Read the file specified in --read-file option in loop: loggen will start reading from the beginning of the file when it reaches the end of the file.

--number <number-of-messages> or -n <number-of-messages> Number of messages to generate.

NOTE: When `--interval` and `--number` are used together, loggen will
send messages until the period set in `--interval` expires or the
amount of messages set in `--number` is reached, whichever happens
first.

--no-framing or -F Do not use the framing of the IETF-syslog protocol style, even if the --syslog-proto option is set.

--quiet or -Q Display statistics only when loggen is finished. If not set, the statistics are displayed every second.

--permanent or -T Keep sending logs indefinitely, without time limit.

--rate <message/second> or -r <message/second> The number of messages generated per second for every active connection. Default value: 1000

If you want to change the message rate while loggen is running, send
SIGUSR1 to double the message rate, or SIGUSR2 to halve it:

kill `-USR1 <loggen-pid>kill` `-USR2 <loggen-pid>`

--read-file <filename> or -R <filename> Read the messages from a file and send them to the target. See also the --skip-tokens option. Specify - as the input file to read messages from the standard input (stdio). Note that when reading messages from the standard input, loggen can only use a single thread. The -R -parameters must be placed at end of command, like: loggen 127.0.0.1 1061 --read-file -

--sdata <data-to-send> or -p <data-to-send> Send the argument of the --sdata option as the SDATA part of IETF-syslog (RFC-5424 formatted) messages. Use it together with the --syslog-proto option.

For example: 

```config
--sdata "[test name=\"value\"]
```

--size <message-size> or -s <message-size> The size of a syslog message in bytes. Default value: 256. Minimum value: 127 bytes, maximum value: 8192 bytes.

--skip-tokens <number> Skip the specified number of space-separated tokens (words) at the beginning of every line. For example, if the messages in the file look like foo bar message, –skip-tokens 2 skips the foo bar part of the line, and sends only the message part. Works only when used together with the –read-file parameter. Default value: 0

--stream or -S Use a stream socket (TCP or unix-stream) to send the messages to the target.

--syslog-proto or -P Use the new IETF-syslog message format. By default, loggen uses the legacy BSD-syslog message format. See also the --no-framing option.

--unix </path/to/socket> or -x </path/to/socket> Use a UNIX domain socket to send the messages to the target.

--use-ssl or -U Use an SSL-encrypted channel to send the messages to the target. Note that it is not possible to check the certificate of the target, or to perform mutual authentication.

--version or -V Display version number of syslog-ng.

EXAMPLES:

The following command generates 100 messages per second for ten minutes, and sends them to port 2010 of the localhost via TCP. Each message is 300 bytes long.

loggen --size 300 --rate 100 --interval 600 127.0.0.1 2010

The following command is similar to the one above, but uses the UDP protocol.

loggen --inet --dgram --size 300 --rate 100 --interval 600 127.0.0.1 2010

Send a single message on TCP6 to the ::1 IPv6 address, port 1061:

loggen --ipv6 --number 1 ::1 1061

Send a single message on UDP6 to the ::1 IPv6 address, port 1061:

loggen --ipv6 --dgram --number 1 ::1 1061

Send a single message using a unix domain-socket:

loggen --unix --stream --number 1 </path/to/socket>

Read messages from the standard input (stdio) and send them to the localhost:

loggen 127.0.0.1 1061 --read-file -

FILES

/opt/syslog-ng/bin/loggen

NOTE: If you experience any problems or need help with syslog-ng OSE, see the syslog-ng OSE Administration Guide[1], or visit the syslog-ng OSE mailing list[2]. For news and notifications about syslog-ng OSE, visit the syslog-ng OSE blogs[3].

AUTHOR

This manual page was generated from the syslog-ng OSE Administration Guide[1], which was written by several contributors to whom we’d like to extend our sincere thanks.

NOTES

[1] syslog-ng OSE Administration Guide https://syslog-ng.github.io/admin-guide/README

[2] syslog-ng OSE mailing list https://lists.balabit.hu/mailman/listinfo/syslog-ng

[3] syslog-ng OSE blogs https://syslog-ng.com/blog/

Updated: