How To Install syslog-ng on Ubuntu 20.04

In this tutorial we learn how to install syslog-ng on Ubuntu 20.04. syslog-ng is Enhanced system logging daemon (metapackage)

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install syslog-ng on Ubuntu 20.04.

What is syslog-ng

syslog-ng is:

syslog-ng is an enhanced log daemon, supporting a wide range of input and output methods: syslog, unstructured text, message queues, databases (SQL and NoSQL alike) and more.

Key features:

  • receive and send RFC3164 and RFC5424 style syslog messages
  • work with any kind of unstructured data
  • receive and send JSON formatted messages
  • classify and structure logs with builtin parsers (csv-parser(), db-parser(), etc.)
  • normalize, crunch and process logs as they flow through the system
  • hand on messages for further processing using message queues (like AMQP), files or databases (like PostgreSQL or MongoDB).

This package is a metapackage, depending on the rest of syslog-ng, including all available plugins. It can be safely removed, if only parts of syslog-ng need to be installed.

There are three methods to install syslog-ng on Ubuntu 20.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install syslog-ng Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install syslog-ng using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install syslog-ng

Install syslog-ng Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install syslog-ng using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install syslog-ng

Install syslog-ng Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install syslog-ng using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install syslog-ng

How To Uninstall syslog-ng on Ubuntu 20.04

To uninstall only the syslog-ng package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove syslog-ng

Uninstall syslog-ng And Its Dependencies

To uninstall syslog-ng and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 20.04, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove syslog-ng

Remove syslog-ng Configurations and Data

To remove syslog-ng configuration and data from Ubuntu 20.04 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge syslog-ng

Remove syslog-ng configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove syslog-ng configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge syslog-ng

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install syslog-ng package on Ubuntu 20.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.