Windows Event logs (winevtlog)

The Windows Event logs (winevtlog) input plugin lets you read Windows Event logs with the API from winevt.h.

Configuration parameters

The plugin supports the following configuration parameters:

Key	Description	Default
Channels	A comma-separated list of channels to read from.	none
Interval_Sec	Optional. Set the polling interval for each channel.	1
Interval_NSec	Optional. Set the polling interval for each channel. (nanoseconds)	0
Read_Existing_Events	Optional. Whether to read existing events from head or tailing events at last on subscribing.	False
DB	Optional. Set the path to save the read offsets.	none
String_Inserts	Optional. Whether to include string inserts in output records.	True
Render_Event_As_XML	Optional. Whether to render the system part of an event as an XML string or not.	False
Ignore_Missing_Channels	Optional. Whether to ignore event channels not present in the event log, and continue running with subscribed channels.	False
Use_ANSI	Optional. Use ANSI encoding on eventlog messages. If you have issues receiving blank strings with old Windows versions (Server 2012 R2), setting this to True might solve the problem.	False
Event_Query	Specify XML query for filtering events.	*
Read_Limit_Per_Cycle	Specify read limit per cycle.	512KiB
Threaded	Indicates whether to run this input in its own thread.	false
Remote.Server	Specify server name of remote access for Windows EventLog.	none
Remote.Domain	Specify domain name of remote access for Windows EventLog.	none
Remote.Username	Specify user name of remote access for Windows EventLog.	none
Remote.Password	Specify password of remote access for Windows EventLog.	none

If db isn't set, the plugin will tail channels on each startup.

Configuration examples

Configuration file

Here is a minimum configuration example.

fluent-bit.yaml

pipeline:
  inputs:
    - name: winevtlog
      channels: Setup,Windows PowerShell
      interval_sec: 1
      db: winevtlog.sqlite

  outputs:
    - name: stdout
      match: '*'

fluent-bit.conf

[INPUT]
  Name         winevtlog
  Channels     Setup,Windows PowerShell
  Interval_Sec 1
  DB           winevtlog.sqlite

[OUTPUT]
  Name   stdout
  Match  *

Some Windows Event Log channels, like Security, require administrative privilege for reading. In this case, you must run Fluent Bit as an administrator.

The default value of Read_Limit_Per_Cycle is 512KiB.

512KiB(= 0x7ffff = 512 * 1024 * 1024) isn't equal to 512KB (= 512 * 1000 * 1000). To increase events per second on this plugin, specify larger value than 512KiB.

Query languages for Event_Query parameter

The Event_Query parameter can be used to specify the XML query for filtering Windows EventLog during collection. The supported query types are XPath and XML Query. For further details, refer to Microsoft's documentation.

Command line

If you want to do a test, you can run this plugin from the command line:

fluent-bit -i winevtlog -p 'channels=Setup' -p 'Read_Existing_Events=true' -o stdout

The winevtlog plugin will tail channels on each startup. If you want to confirm whether this plugin is working or not, specify the -p 'Read_Existing_Events=true' parameter.