UDP reliability improved in syslog-ng Debian packaging

UDP log collection is a legacy feature that does not provide any security or reliability, but is still in wide use. You can improve its reliability using eBPF on Linux in recent syslog-ng versions. Support for eBPF was added to Debian packages while preparing for the 4.11.0 syslog-ng release.

You can learn more about eBPF support in syslog-ng from the documentation or reading my blog at https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/syslog-ng-4-2-extra-udp-performance

Right now, packaging changes only affect the syslog-ng nightly Debian / Ubuntu packages and the syslog-ng nightly container image. You can learn more about how to use them in the syslog-ng README on GitHub at https://github.com/syslog-ng/syslog-ng/ Once the syslog-ng 4.11.0 release is available, using the stable syslog-ng packages will include improved UDP support as well.

Are you interested in improving TCP performance for a single or few high traffic connections? You are looking for the parallelize() option: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/accelerating-single-tcp-connections-in-syslog-ng-parallelize The good news is that the required changes are now available in ivykis upstream, so this feature is not limited to our builds anymore.

syslog-ng logo

Originally published at https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/udp-reliability-improved-in-syslog-ng-debian-packaging