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Install Docker Desktop for MacOS

Refer to the “MacOS” section in your Docker documentation to set up your Docker Desktop for MacOS.

Perform your initial SC4S configuration

You can run SC4S using either docker-compose or the docker run command in the command line. This topic focuses solely on using docker-compose.

  1. Create a directory on the server for local configurations and disk buffering. Make it available to all administrators, for example: /opt/sc4s/.

  2. Create a docker-compose.yml file in your new directory, based on the provided template. By default, the latest container is automatically downloaded at each restart. As a best practice, consult this topic at the time of any new upgrade to check for any changes in the latest template. 

    version: "3.7"
services:
  sc4s:
    deploy:
      replicas: 2
      restart_policy:
        condition: on-failure
    image: ghcr.io/splunk/splunk-connect-for-syslog/container3:latest
    ports:
       - target: 514
         published: 514
         protocol: tcp
       - target: 514
         published: 514
         protocol: udp
       - target: 601
         published: 601
         protocol: tcp
       - target: 6514
         published: 6514
         protocol: tcp
    env_file:
      - /opt/sc4s/env_file
    volumes:
      - /opt/sc4s/local:/etc/syslog-ng/conf.d/local:z
      - splunk-sc4s-var:/var/lib/syslog-ng
# Uncomment the following line if local disk archiving is desired
#     - /opt/sc4s/archive:/var/lib/syslog-ng/archive:z
# Map location of TLS custom TLS
#     - /opt/sc4s/tls:/etc/syslog-ng/tls:z

volumes:
  splunk-sc4s-var:

  3. In Docker Desktop, set the /opt/sc4s folder as shared.

  4. Create a local volume that will contain the disk buffer files in the event of a communication failure to the upstream destinations. This volume also keeps track of the state of syslog-ng between restarts, and in particular the state of the disk buffer. Be sure to account for disk space requirements for the Docker volume. This volume is located in /var/lib/docker/volumes/ and could grow significantly if there is an extended outage to the SC4S destinations. See SC4S disk buffer configuration for more information. 

    sudo docker volume create splunk-sc4s-var

  5. Create the subdirectories: /opt/sc4s/local, /opt/sc4s/archive, and /opt/sc4s/tls. Make sure these directories match the volume mounts specified indocker-compose.yml.

  6. Create a file named /opt/sc4s/env_file.

SC4S_DEST_SPLUNK_HEC_DEFAULT_URL=https://your.splunk.instance:8088
SC4S_DEST_SPLUNK_HEC_DEFAULT_TOKEN=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
#Uncomment the following line if using untrusted SSL certificates
#SC4S_DEST_SPLUNK_HEC_DEFAULT_TLS_VERIFY=no
6. Update the following environment variables and values in /opt/sc4s/env_file:

  • Update SC4S_DEST_SPLUNK_HEC_DEFAULT_URL and SC4S_DEST_SPLUNK_HEC_DEFAULT_TOKEN to reflect the values for your environment. Do not configure HEC Acknowledgement when you deploy the HEC token on the Splunk side; syslog-ng http destination does not support this feature.

  • The default number of SC4S_DEST_SPLUNK_HEC_<ID>_WORKERS is 10. Consult the community if you feel the number of workers (threads) should deviate from this.

  • Splunk Connect for Syslog defaults to secure configurations. If you are not using trusted SSL certificates, be sure to uncomment the last line.

Create unique dedicated listening ports

Each listening port on the container must be mapped to a listening port on the host. Make sure to update the docker-compose.yml file when adding listening ports for new data sources.

To configure unique ports:

  1. Modify the /opt/sc4s/env_file file to include the port-specific environment variables. See the Sources documentation to identify the specific environment variables that are mapped to each data source vendor and technology.
  2. Modify the Docker Compose file that starts the SC4S container so that it reflects the additional listening ports you have created. You can amend the Docker Compose file with additional target stanzas in the ports section of the file (after the default ports). For example, the following additional target and published lines provide for 21 additional technology-specific UDP and TCP ports:
       - target: 5000-5020
         published: 5000-5020
         protocol: tcp
       - target: 5000-5020
         published: 5000-5020
         protocol: udp
  1. Restart SC4S using the command in the “Start/Restart SC4S” section in this topic.

For more information about configuration refer to Docker and Podman basic configurations and detailed configuration.

Start/Restart SC4S

From the catalog where you created compose file, execute:

docker-compose up
Otherwise use docker-compose with -f flag pointing to the compose file 
docker-compose up -f /path/to/compose/file/docker-compose.yml

Stop SC4S

Execute:

docker-compose down
or 

docker-compose down -f /path/to/compose/file/docker-compose.yml

Verify Proper Operation

SC4S performs automatic checks to ensure that the container starts properly and that the syntax of the underlying syslog-ng configuration is correct. Once these checks are complete, verify that SC4S is properly communicating with Splunk:

index=* sourcetype=sc4s:events "starting up"

When the startup process proceeds normally, you should see an event similar to the following:

syslog-ng starting up; version='3.28.1'

If you do not see this, try the following steps to troubleshoot:

  1. Check to see that the URL, token, and TLS/SSL settings are correct, and that the appropriate firewall ports are open (8088 or 443).
  2. Check to see that the proper indexes are created in Splunk, and that the token has access to them.
  3. Ensure the proper operation of the load balancer if used.
  4. Check the SC4S startup process running:
docker logs <container_name>

You should see events similar to those below in the output:

syslog-ng checking config
sc4s version=v1.36.0
starting syslog-ng

If you do not see the output above, proceed to the “Troubleshoot sc4s server” and “Troubleshoot resources” sections for more detailed information.