# Observe

Observe employs the **http** output plugin, allowing you to flush your records [into Observe](https://docs.observeinc.com/en/latest/content/data-ingestion/forwarders/fluentbit.html).

For now the functionality is pretty basic and it issues a POST request with the data records in [MessagePack](http://msgpack.org) (or JSON) format.

The following are the specific HTTP parameters to employ:

## Configuration Parameters

| Key          | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                           | default                                  |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| host         | IP address or hostname of Observe's data collection endpoint. $(OBSERVE\_CUSTOMER) is your [Customer ID](https://docs.observeinc.com/en/latest/content/common-topics/HelpfulHints.html?highlight=customer%20id#customer-id)           | OBSERVE\_CUSTOMER.collect.observeinc.com |
| port         | TCP port of to employ when sending to Observe                                                                                                                                                                                         | 443                                      |
| tls          | Specify to use tls                                                                                                                                                                                                                    | on                                       |
| uri          | Specify the HTTP URI for the Observe's data ingest                                                                                                                                                                                    | /v1/http/fluentbit                       |
| format       | The data format to be used in the HTTP request body                                                                                                                                                                                   | msgpack                                  |
| header       | The specific header that provides the Observe token needed to authorize sending data [into a datastream](https://docs.observeinc.com/en/latest/content/data-ingestion/datastreams.html?highlight=ingest%20token#create-a-datastream). | Authorization Bearer ${OBSERVE\_TOKEN}   |
| header       | The specific header to instructs Observe how to decode incoming payloads                                                                                                                                                              | X-Observe-Decoder fluent                 |
| compress     | Set payload compression mechanism. Option available is 'gzip'                                                                                                                                                                         | gzip                                     |
| tls.ca\_file | **For use with Windows**: provide path to root cert                                                                                                                                                                                   |                                          |
| workers      | The number of [workers](https://docs.fluentbit.io/manual/3.1/administration/multithreading#outputs) to perform flush operations for this output.                                                                                      | `0`                                      |

### Configuration File

In your main configuration file, append the following *Input* & *Output* sections:

```
[OUTPUT]
    name         http
    match        *
    host         my-observe-customer-id.collect.observeinc.com
    port         443
    tls          on

    uri          /v1/http/fluentbit

    format       msgpack
    header       Authorization     Bearer ${OBSERVE_TOKEN}
    header       X-Observe-Decoder fluent
    compress     gzip

    # For Windows: provide path to root cert
    #tls.ca_file  C:\fluent-bit\isrgrootx1.pem

```