This topic gives an overview of the Fluent Bit package, which you can install in Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) workload clusters to provide log forwarding services for the cluster.

Fluent Bit is a fast, lightweight log processor and forwarder that lets you collect application data and logs from different sources, unify them, and send them to multiple destinations.

You can use Fluent Bit as a log forwarder for logs from a TKG cluster. You need to have a logging management server deployed for storing and analyzing logs. You can use one of the supported logging servers.

• Syslog
• HTTP
• Elastic Search
• Kafka
• Splunk

See Install Fluent Bit in Workload Clusters Deployed by a Standalone Management Cluster.

Fluent Bit Components, Configuration, Data Values

The following sections describe Fluent Bit components and show how you can configure the Fluent Bit package.

Fluent Bit Components

The Fluent Bit package installs on the cluster the container listed in the table. For more information, see https://fluentbit.io/. The package pulls the container from the VMware public registry specified in Package Repository.

Fluent Bit Data Values

The following example can be used for an HTTP logging endpoint.

...
    ---
    namespace: fluentbit-logging
    tkg:
      instance_name: "<TKG_INSTANCE_NAME>"
      cluster_name: "<CLUSTER_NAME>"
    fluentbit:
      pspNames: "vmware-system-restricted"
      output_plugin: "http"
      http:
        host: "<HTTP_HOST>"
        port: "<HTTP_PORT>"
        uri: "<URI>"
        header_key_value: "<HEADER_KEY_VALUE>"
        format: "json"

The following example can be used for Elastic Search.

...
    ---
    namespace: fluentbit-logging
    tkg:
      instance_name: "<TKG_INSTANCE_NAME>"
      cluster_name: "<CLUSTER_NAME>"
    fluentbit:
      pspNames: "vmware-system-restricted"
      output_plugin: "elasticsearch"
      elasticsearch:
        host: "<ELASTIC_SEARCH_HOST>"
        port: "<ELASTIC_SEARCH_PORT>"

The following example can be used for Kafka.

...
    ---
    namespace: fluentbit-logging
    tkg:
      instance_name: "<TKG_INSTANCE_NAME>"
      cluster_name: "<CLUSTER_NAME>"
    fluentbit:
      pspNames: "vmware-system-restricted"
      output_plugin: "kafka"
      kafka:
        broker_service_name: "<BROKER_SERVICE_NAME>"
        topic_name: "<TOPIC_NAME>"

The following example can be used for Splunk.

...
    ---
    namespace: fluentbit-logging
    tkg:
      instance_name: "<TKG_INSTANCE_NAME>"
      cluster_name: "<CLUSTER_NAME>"
    fluentbit:
      pspNames: "vmware-system-restricted"
      output_plugin: "splunk"
      splunk:
        host: "<SPLUNK_HOST>"
        port: "<SPLUNK_PORT>"
        token: "<SPLUNK_TOKEN>"

Fluent Bit Configuration Parameters (Standalone MC)

The table below lists configuration parameters of the Fluent Bit package and describes their default values. You can set the following configuration values in your fluent-bit-data-values.yaml file created in Deploy Fluent Bit on a Cluster.