Fluent Bit is distributed as fluent-bit package for Windows and as a Windows container on Docker Hub. Fluent Bit has two flavours of Windows installers: a ZIP archive (for quick testing) and an EXE installer (for system installation).
Not all plugins are supported on Windows: the CMake configuration shows the default set of supported plugins.
Configuration
Make sure to provide a valid Windows configuration with the installation, a sample one is shown below:
Migration to Fluent Bit
From version 1.9, td-agent-bit is a deprecated package and was removed after 1.9.9. The correct package name to use now is fluent-bit.
Installation Packages
The latest stable version is 3.1.9. Each version is available via the following download URLs.
INSTALLERS
SHA256 CHECKSUMS
Note these are now using the Github Actions built versions, the legacy AppVeyor builds are still available (AMD 32/64 only) at releases.fluentbit.io but are deprecated.
MSI installers are also available:
To check the integrity, use Get-FileHash cmdlet on PowerShell.
Installing from ZIP archive
Download a ZIP archive from above. There are installers for 32-bit and 64-bit environments, so choose one suitable for your environment.
Then you need to expand the ZIP archive. You can do this by clicking "Extract All" on Explorer, or if you're using PowerShell, you can use Expand-Archive cmdlet.
The ZIP package contains the following set of files.
Now, launch cmd.exe or PowerShell on your machine, and execute fluent-bit.exe as follows.
If you see the following output, it's working fine!
To halt the process, press CTRL-C in the terminal.
Installing from EXE installer
Download an EXE installer from above. It has both 32-bit and 64-bit builds. Choose one which is suitable for you.
Double-click the EXE installer you've downloaded. The installation wizard will automatically start.
Click Next and proceed. By default, Fluent Bit is installed into C:\Program Files\fluent-bit\, so you should be able to launch fluent-bit as follows after installation.
Installer options
The Windows installer is built by [CPack using NSIS() and so supports the that all NSIS installers do for silent installation and the directory to install to.
To silently install to C:\fluent-bit directory here is an example:
The uninstaller automatically provided also supports a silent un-install using the same /S flag. This may be useful for provisioning with automation like Ansible, Puppet, etc.
Windows Service Support
Windows services are equivalent to "daemons" in UNIX (i.e. long-running background processes). Since v1.5.0, Fluent Bit has the native support for Windows Service.
Suppose you have the following installation layout:
To register Fluent Bit as a Windows service, you need to execute the following command on Command Prompt. Please be careful that a single space is required after binpath=.
Now Fluent Bit can be started and managed as a normal Windows service.
To halt the Fluent Bit service, just execute the "stop" command.
To start Fluent Bit automatically on boot, execute the following:
[FAQ] Fluent Bit fails to start up when installed under C:\Program Files
Quotations are required if file paths contain spaces. Here is an example:
[FAQ] How can I manage Fluent Bit service via PowerShell?
Instead of sc.exe, PowerShell can be used to manage Windows services.
Create a Fluent Bit service:
Start the service:
Query the service status:
Stop the service:
Remove the service (requires PowerShell 6.0 or later)
Compile from Source
If you need to create a custom executable, you can use the following procedure to compile Fluent Bit by yourself.
Preparation
First, you need Microsoft Visual C++ to compile Fluent Bit. You can install the minimum toolkit by the following command:
When asked which packages to install, choose "C++ Build Tools" (make sure that "C++ CMake tools for Windows" is selected too) and wait until the process finishes.
Also you need to install flex and bison. One way to install them on Windows is to use .
Add the path C:\WinFlexBison to your systems environment variable "Path". .
It is important to have installed OpenSSL binaries, at least the library files and headers.
Also you need to install to pull the source code from the repository.
Compilation
Open the start menu on Windows and type "Command Prompt for VS". From the result list select the one that corresponds to your target system ( x86 or x64).
Note: Check that the installed OpenSSL library files match the selected target. You can check the library files by using the dumpbin command with the /headers option .
Clone the source code of Fluent Bit.
Compile the source code.
Now you should be able to run Fluent Bit:
Packaging
To create a ZIP package, call cpack as follows:
[SERVICE]
# Flush
# =====
# set an interval of seconds before to flush records to a destination
flush 5
# Daemon
# ======
# instruct Fluent Bit to run in foreground or background mode.
daemon Off
# Log_Level
# =========
# Set the verbosity level of the service, values can be:
#
# - error
# - warning
# - info
# - debug
# - trace
#
# by default 'info' is set, that means it includes 'error' and 'warning'.
log_level info
# Parsers File
# ============
# specify an optional 'Parsers' configuration file
parsers_file parsers.conf
# Plugins File
# ============
# specify an optional 'Plugins' configuration file to load external plugins.
plugins_file plugins.conf
# HTTP Server
# ===========
# Enable/Disable the built-in HTTP Server for metrics
http_server Off
http_listen 0.0.0.0
http_port 2020
# Storage
# =======
# Fluent Bit can use memory and filesystem buffering based mechanisms
#
# - https://docs.fluentbit.io/manual/administration/buffering-and-storage
#
# storage metrics
# ---------------
# publish storage pipeline metrics in '/api/v1/storage'. The metrics are
# exported only if the 'http_server' option is enabled.
#
storage.metrics on
[INPUT]
Name winlog
Channels Setup,Windows PowerShell
Interval_Sec 1
[OUTPUT]
name stdout
match *
