Generate syslog messages at a specified rate
loggen [options]target [port]
NOTE: The loggen application is distributed with the syslog-ng system logging application, and is usually part of the syslog-ng package. The latest version of the syslog-ng application is available at \m[blue]the official syslog-ng website\m[]\s-2\u[1]\d\s+2.
This manual page is only an abstract; for the complete documentation of syslog-ng, see \m[blue]The syslog-ng Administrator Guide\m[]\s-2\u[2]\d\s+2.
The loggen application is 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: Average rate the messages were sent 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.
--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 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-connections <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 that when the --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 that when the --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
Output statistics only when the execution of loggen is finished. If not set, the statistics are displayed every second.
--rate <message/second> or -r <message/second>
The number of messages generated per second for every active connection. Default value: 1000
--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 -
Send the given sdata (e.g. "[test name=\"value\"]) in case of syslog-proto
.PP
--sdata <data-to-send> or -p <data-to-send>
Send the argument of the --sdata option as the SDATA part of IETF-syslog (RFC5424 formatted) messages. Use it together with the --syslog-proto option. For example: --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: 3
--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 as specified in RFC5424. By default, loggen uses the legacy BSD-syslog message format (as described in RFC3164). 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.
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.PP 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.PP Send a single message on TCP6 to the ::1 IPv6 address, port 1061: loggen --ipv6 --number 1 ::1 1061.PP Send a single message on UDP6 to the ::1 IPv6 address, port 1061: loggen --ipv6 --dgram --number 1 ::1 1061.PP Send a single message using a unix domain-socket: loggen --unix --stream --number 1 </path/to/socket>.PP Read messages from the standard input (stdio) and send them to the localhost: loggen 127.0.0.1 1061 --read-file -.SH "FILES"
/usr/bin/loggen
syslog-ng.conf(5)
\m[blue]The syslog-ng Administrator Guide\m[]\s-2\u[2]\d\s+2
If you experience any problems or need help with loggen or syslog-ng, visit the \m[blue]syslog-ng mailing list\m[]\s-2\u[3]\d\s+2
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This manual page was written by the BalaBit Documentation Team <[email protected]>.
The authors grant permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this manual page under the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 2 or newer (GPL v2+).
the official syslog-ng website
http://www.balabit.com/network-security/syslog-ng/
The syslog-ng Administrator Guide
http://www.balabit.com/support/documentation/
syslog-ng mailing list
https://lists.balabit.hu/mailman/listinfo/syslog-ng
visit the syslog-ng wiki
http://www.balabit.com/wiki/syslog-ng-faq
syslog-ng Insider Blog
http://insider.blogs.balabit.com