elapsed

Milestone: 1

This is a community-contributed plugin! It does not ship with logstash by default, but it is easy to install! To use this, you must have installed the contrib plugins package.

elapsed filter

This filter tracks a pair of start/end events and calculates the elapsed time between them. The elapsed filter tracks a pair of start/end events and uses their timestamps to calculate the elapsed time between them.

The filter has been developed to track the execution time of processes and other long tasks.

The configuration looks like this:

filter {
  elapsed {
    start_tag => "start event tag"
    end_tag => "end event tag"
    unique_id_field => "id field name"
    timeout => seconds
    new_event_on_match => true/false
  }
}

The events managed by this filter must have some particular properties. The event describing the start of the task (the “start event”) must contain a tag equal to ‘start_tag’. On the other side, the event describing the end of the task (the “end event”) must contain a tag equal to ‘end_tag’. Both these two kinds of event need to own an ID field which identify uniquely that particular task. The name of this field is stored in ‘unique_id_field’.

You can use a Grok filter to prepare the events for the elapsed filter. An example of configuration can be:

filter {
  grok {
    match => ["message", "%{TIMESTAMP_ISO8601} START id: (?<task_id>.*)"]
    add_tag => [ "taskStarted" ]
  }

  grok {
    match => ["message", "%{TIMESTAMP_ISO8601} END id: (?<task_id>.*)"]
    add_tag => [ "taskTerminated"]
  }

  elapsed {
    start_tag => "taskStarted"
    end_tag => "taskTerminated"
    unique_id_field => "task_id"
  }
}

The elapsed filter collects all the “start events”. If two, or more, “start events” have the same ID, only the first one is recorded, the others are discarded.

When an “end event” matching a previously collected “start event” is received, there is a match. The configuration property ‘new_event_on_match’ tells where to insert the elapsed information: they can be added to the “end event” or a new “match event” can be created. Both events store the following information: - the tags “elapsed” and “elapsed.match” - the field “elapsed.time” with the difference, in seconds, between the two events timestamps - an ID filed with the task ID - the field “elapsed.timestamp_start” with the timestamp of the “start event”

If the “end event” does not arrive before “timeout” seconds, the “start event” is discarded and an “expired event” is generated. This event contains: - the tags “elapsed” and “elapsed.expired_error” - a field called “elapsed.time” with the age, in seconds, of the “start event” - an ID filed with the task ID - the field “elapsed.timestamp_start” with the timestamp of the “start event”

Synopsis

This is what it might look like in your config file:
filter {
  elapsed {
    add_field => ... # hash (optional), default: {}
    add_tag => ... # array (optional), default: []
    end_tag => ... # string (required)
    new_event_on_match => ... # boolean (optional), default: false
    remove_field => ... # array (optional), default: []
    remove_tag => ... # array (optional), default: []
    start_tag => ... # string (required)
    timeout => ... # number (optional), default: 1800
    unique_id_field => ... # string (required)
  }
}

Details

add_field

  • Value type is hash
  • Default value is {}

If this filter is successful, add any arbitrary fields to this event. Field names can be dynamic and include parts of the event using the %{field} Example:

filter {
  elapsed {
    add_field => { "foo_%{somefield}" => "Hello world, from %{host}" }
  }
}

# You can also add multiple fields at once:

filter {
  elapsed {
    add_field => { 
      "foo_%{somefield}" => "Hello world, from %{host}"
      "new_field" => "new_static_value"
    }
  }
}

If the event has field “somefield” == “hello” this filter, on success, would add field “foo_hello” if it is present, with the value above and the %{host} piece replaced with that value from the event. The second example would also add a hardcoded field.

add_tag

  • Value type is array
  • Default value is []

If this filter is successful, add arbitrary tags to the event. Tags can be dynamic and include parts of the event using the %{field} syntax. Example:

filter {
  elapsed {
    add_tag => [ "foo_%{somefield}" ]
  }
}

# You can also add multiple tags at once:
filter {
  elapsed {
    add_tag => [ "foo_%{somefield}", "taggedy_tag"]
  }
}

If the event has field “somefield” == “hello” this filter, on success, would add a tag “foo_hello” (and the second example would of course add a “taggedy_tag” tag).

end_tag (required setting)

  • Value type is string
  • There is no default value for this setting.

The name of the tag identifying the “end event”

exclude_tags DEPRECATED

  • DEPRECATED WARNING: This config item is deprecated. It may be removed in a further version.
  • Value type is array
  • Default value is []

Only handle events without all/any (controlled by exclude_any config option) of these tags. Optional.

new_event_on_match

  • Value type is boolean
  • Default value is false

This property manage what to do when an “end event” matches a “start event”. If it’s set to ‘false’ (default value), the elapsed information are added to the “end event”; if it’s set to ‘true’ a new “match event” is created.

remove_field

  • Value type is array
  • Default value is []

If this filter is successful, remove arbitrary fields from this event. Fields names can be dynamic and include parts of the event using the %{field} Example:

filter {
  elapsed {
    remove_field => [ "foo_%{somefield}" ]
  }
}

# You can also remove multiple fields at once:

filter {
  elapsed {
    remove_field => [ "foo_%{somefield}" "my_extraneous_field" ]
  }
}

If the event has field “somefield” == “hello” this filter, on success, would remove the field with name “foo_hello” if it is present. The second example would remove an additional, non-dynamic field.

remove_tag

  • Value type is array
  • Default value is []

If this filter is successful, remove arbitrary tags from the event. Tags can be dynamic and include parts of the event using the %{field} syntax. Example:

filter {
  elapsed {
    remove_tag => [ "foo_%{somefield}" ]
  }
}

# You can also remove multiple tags at once:

filter {
  elapsed {
    remove_tag => [ "foo_%{somefield}", "sad_unwanted_tag"]
  }
}

If the event has field “somefield” == “hello” this filter, on success, would remove the tag “foo_hello” if it is present. The second example would remove a sad, unwanted tag as well.

start_tag (required setting)

  • Value type is string
  • There is no default value for this setting.

The name of the tag identifying the “start event”

tags DEPRECATED

  • DEPRECATED WARNING: This config item is deprecated. It may be removed in a further version.
  • Value type is array
  • Default value is []

Only handle events with all/any (controlled by include_any config option) of these tags. Optional.

timeout

  • Value type is number
  • Default value is 1800

The amount of seconds after an “end event” can be considered lost. The corresponding “start event” is discarded and an “expired event” is generated. The default value is 30 minutes (1800 seconds).

type DEPRECATED

  • DEPRECATED WARNING: This config item is deprecated. It may be removed in a further version.
  • Value type is string
  • Default value is ""

Note that all of the specified routing options (type,tags.exclude_tags,include_fields,exclude_fields) must be met in order for the event to be handled by the filter. The type to act on. If a type is given, then this filter will only act on messages with the same type. See any input plugin’s “type” attribute for more. Optional.

unique_id_field (required setting)

  • Value type is string
  • There is no default value for this setting.

The name of the field containing the task ID. This value must uniquely identify the task in the system, otherwise it’s impossible to match the couple of events.


This is documentation from lib/logstash/filters/elapsed.rb