• Plugin version: v6.0.0
• Released on: 2024-12-18
• Changelog

For other versions, see theVersioned plugin docs.

For questions about the plugin, open a topic in theDiscuss forums. For bugs or feature requests, open an issue inGithub. For the list of Elastic supported plugins, please consult theElastic Support Matrix.

This Logstash input plugin allows you to call an HTTP API, decode the output of it into event(s), and send them on their merry way. The idea behind this plugins came from a need to read springboot metrics endpoint, instead of configuring jmx to monitor my java application memory/gc/ etc.

Reads from a list of urls and decodes the body of the response with a codec. The config should look like this:

input {  http_poller {    urls => {      test1 => "http://localhost:9200"      test2 => {        # Supports all options supported by ruby's Manticore HTTP client        method => get        user => "AzureDiamond"        password => "hunter2"        url => "http://localhost:9200/_cluster/health"        headers => {          Accept => "application/json"        }     }    }    request_timeout => 60    # Supports "cron", "every", "at" and "in" schedules by rufus scheduler    schedule => { cron => "* * * * * UTC"}    codec => "json"    # A hash of request metadata info (timing, response headers, etc.) will be sent here    metadata_target => "http_poller_metadata"  }}output {  stdout {    codec => rubydebug  }}

Using the HTTP poller with custom a custom CA or self signed cert.

If you have a self signed cert you will need to convert your server’s certificate to a valid#.jks or.p12 file. An easy way to do it is to run the following one-liner, substituting your server’s URL for the placeholderMYURL andMYPORT.

openssl s_client -showcerts -connect MYURL:MYPORT </dev/null 2>/dev/null|openssl x509 -outform PEM > downloaded_cert.pem; keytool -import -alias test -file downloaded_cert.pem -keystore downloaded_truststore.jks

The above snippet will create two filesdownloaded_cert.pem anddownloaded_truststore.jks. You will be prompted to set a password for thejks file during this process. To configure logstash use a config like the one that follows.

http_poller {  urls => {    myurl => "https://myhostname:1234"  }  truststore => "/path/to/downloaded_truststore.jks"  truststore_password => "mypassword"  schedule => { cron => "* * * * * UTC"}}

This input will add metadata about the HTTP connection itself to each event.

When ECS compatibility is disabled, metadata was added to a variety of non-standard top-level fields, which has the potential to create confusion and schema conflicts downstream.

With ECS Compatibility Mode, we can ensure a pipeline maintains access to this metadata throughout the event’s lifecycle without polluting the top-level namespace.

Here’s how ECS compatibility mode affects output.

This plugin supports the following configuration options plus theCommon options described later.

Also seeCommon options for a list of options supported by all input plugins.

• Value type isnumber
• Default value is1

How many times should the client retry a failing URL. We highly recommend NOT setting this value to zero if keepalive is enabled. Some servers incorrectly end keepalives early requiring a retry! Note: ifretry_non_idempotent is set only GET, HEAD, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS, and TRACE requests will be retried.

• Value type isnumber
• Default value is10

Timeout (in seconds) to wait for a connection to be established. Default is10s

• Value type isboolean
• Default value istrue

Enable cookie support. With this enabled the client will persist cookies across requests as a normal web browser would. Enabled by default

• Value type isstring

• Supported values are:

  • disabled: unstructured data added at root level
  • v1: useserror,url andhttp fields that are compatible with Elastic Common Schema

Controls this plugin’s compatibility with theElastic Common Schema (ECS). SeeEvent Metadata and the Elastic Common Schema (ECS) for detailed information.

Example output:

Sample output: ECS disabled

{    "http_poller_data" => {        "@version" => "1",        "@timestamp" => 2021-01-01T00:43:22.388Z,        "status" => "UP"    },    "@version" => "1",    "@timestamp" => 2021-01-01T00:43:22.389Z,}

Sample output: ECS enabled

{    "http_poller_data" => {        "status" => "UP",        "@version" => "1",        "event" => {            "original" => "{\"status\":\"UP\"}"        },        "@timestamp" => 2021-01-01T00:40:59.558Z    },    "@version" => "1",    "@timestamp" => 2021-01-01T00:40:59.559Z}

Sample error output: ECS enabled

{    "@timestamp" => 2021-07-09T09:53:48.721Z,    "@version" => "1",    "host" => {        "hostname" => "MacBook-Pro"    },    "http" => {        "request" => {            "method" => "get"        }    },    "event" => {        "duration" => 259019    },    "error" => {        "stack_trace" => nil,        "message" => "Connection refused (Connection refused)"    },    "url" => {        "full" => "http://localhost:8080/actuator/health"    },    "tags" => [        [0] "_http_request_failure"    ]}

• Value type isboolean
• Default value istrue

Should redirects be followed? Defaults totrue

• Value type isboolean
• Default value istrue

Turn this on to enable HTTP keepalive support. We highly recommend settingautomatic_retries to at least one with this to fix interactions with broken keepalive implementations.

• Value type isstring
• Default value is"@metadata"

If you’d like to work with the request/response metadata. Set this value to the name of the field you’d like to store a nested hash of metadata.

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

Password to be used in conjunction withuser for HTTP authentication.

• Value type isnumber
• Default value is50

Max number of concurrent connections. Defaults to50

• Value type isnumber
• Default value is25

Max number of concurrent connections to a single host. Defaults to25

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

If you’d like to use an HTTP proxy . This supports multiple configuration syntaxes:

1. Proxy host in form:http://proxy.org:1234
2. Proxy host in form:{host => "proxy.org", port => 80, scheme => 'http', user => 'username@host', password => 'password'}
3. Proxy host in form:{url => 'http://proxy.org:1234', user => 'username@host', password => 'password'}

• Value type isnumber
• Default value is60

Timeout (in seconds) for the entire request.

• Value type isboolean
• Default value isfalse

Ifautomatic_retries is enabled this will cause non-idempotent HTTP verbs (such as POST) to be retried.

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

Schedule of when to periodically poll from the urls Format: A hash with + key: "cron" | "every" | "in" | "at" + value: string Examples: a) { "every" ⇒ "1h" } b) { "cron" ⇒ "* * * * * UTC" } See: rufus/scheduler for details about different schedule options and value string format

• Value type isnumber
• Default value is10

Timeout (in seconds) to wait for data on the socket. Default is10s

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

SSL certificate to use to authenticate the client. This certificate should be an OpenSSL-style X.509 certificate file.

• Value type is a list ofpath
• There is no default value for this setting

The .cer or .pem CA files to validate the server’s certificate.

• Value type is a list ofstring
• There is no default value for this setting

The list of cipher suites to use, listed by priorities. Supported cipher suites vary depending on the Java and protocol versions.

• Value type isboolean
• Default value istrue

Enable SSL/TLS secured communication. It must betrue for otherssl_ options to take effect.

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

OpenSSL-style RSA private key that corresponds to thessl_certificate.

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

Set the keystore password

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

The keystore used to present a certificate to the server. It can be either.jks or.p12

• Value can be any of:jks,pkcs12
• If not provided, the value will be inferred from the keystore filename.

The format of the keystore file. It must be eitherjks orpkcs12.

• Value type isstring
• Allowed values are:'TLSv1.1','TLSv1.2','TLSv1.3'
• Default depends on the JDK being used. With up-to-date Logstash, the default is['TLSv1.2', 'TLSv1.3'].'TLSv1.1' is not considered secure and is only provided for legacy applications.

List of allowed SSL/TLS versions to use when establishing a connection to the HTTP endpoint.

For Java 8'TLSv1.3' is supported only since8u262 (AdoptOpenJDK), but requires that you set theLS_JAVA_OPTS="-Djdk.tls.client.protocols=TLSv1.3" system property in Logstash.

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

Set the truststore password

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

The truststore to validate the server’s certificate. It can be either.jks or.p12.

• Value can be any of:jks,pkcs12
• If not provided, the value will be inferred from the truststore filename.

The format of the truststore file. It must be eitherjks orpkcs12.

• Value type isstring
• Supported values are:full,none
• Default value isfull

Controls the verification of server certificates. Thefull option verifies that the provided certificate is signed by a trusted authority (CA) and also that the server’s hostname (or IP address) matches the names identified within the certificate.

Thenone setting performs no verification of the server’s certificate. This mode disables many of the security benefits of SSL/TLS and should only be used after cautious consideration. It is primarily intended as a temporary diagnostic mechanism when attempting to resolve TLS errors. Usingnone in production environments is strongly discouraged.

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

Define the target field for placing the received data. If this setting is omitted, the data will be stored at the root (top level) of the event.

• This is a required setting.
• Value type ishash
• There is no default value for this setting.

A Hash of urls in this format :"name" => "url". The name and the url will be passed in the outputted event.

The values in urls can be either:

• a string url (which will be issued as an HTTP GET).

• a sub-hash containing many useful keys provided by the Manticore backend:

  • url: the String url
  • method: (optional) the HTTP method to use (defaults to GET)
  • user: (optional) the HTTP Basic Auth user. The user must be under an auth sub-hash for Manticore, but this plugin also accepts it either way.
  • password: (optional) the HTTP Basic Auth password. The password must be under an auth sub-hash for Manticore, but this plugin accepts it either way.
  • headers: a hash containing key-value pairs of headers.
  • body: a string (supported only on POST and PUT requests)
  • possibly other options mentioned in theManticore docs. Note that Manticore options that are not explicitly documented above are not thoroughly tested and therefore liable to break in unexpected ways if we replace the backend.

Notes:

• Passwords specified as a part ofurls are prone to exposure in plugin log output. The plugin does not declare them as passwords, and therefore doesn’t wrap them in leak-reducing wrappers as we do elsewhere.
• We don’t guarantee that boolean-type options like Manticore’sfollow_redirects are supported correctly. The stringstrue orfalse may get passed through, and in ruby any string is "truthy."
• Our implementation of this plugin precludes the ability to specify auth[:eager] as anything other than true

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

Username to use with HTTP authentication for ALL requests. Note that you can also set this per-URL. If you set this you must also set thepassword option.

• Value type isnumber
• Default value is200

How long to wait before checking for a stale connection to determine if a keepalive request is needed. Consider setting this value lower than the default, possibly to 0, if you get connection errors regularly.

This client is based on Apache Commons' HTTP implementation. Here’s how theApache Commons documentation describes this option: "Defines period of inactivity in milliseconds after which persistent connections must be re-validated prior to being leased to the consumer. Non-positive value passed to this method disables connection validation. This check helps detect connections that have become stale (half-closed) while kept inactive in the pool."

These configuration options are supported by all input plugins:

• Value type ishash
• Default value is{}

Add a field to an event

• Value type iscodec
• Default value is"json"

The codec used for input data. Input codecs are a convenient method for decoding your data before it enters the input, without needing a separate filter in your Logstash pipeline.

• Value type isboolean
• Default value istrue

Disable or enable metric logging for this specific plugin instance by default we record all the metrics we can, but you can disable metrics collection for a specific plugin.

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

Add a uniqueID to the plugin configuration. If no ID is specified, Logstash will generate one. It is strongly recommended to set this ID in your configuration. This is particularly useful when you have two or more plugins of the same type, for example, if you have 2 http_poller inputs. Adding a named ID in this case will help in monitoring Logstash when using the monitoring APIs.

input {  http_poller {    id => "my_plugin_id"  }}

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

Add any number of arbitrary tags to your event.

This can help with processing later.

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

Add atype field to all events handled by this input.

Types are used mainly for filter activation.

The type is stored as part of the event itself, so you can also use the type to search for it in Kibana.

If you try to set a type on an event that already has one (for example when you send an event from a shipper to an indexer) then a new input will not override the existing type. A type set at the shipper stays with that event for its life even when sent to another Logstash server.