Configuring a Logging agent for Linux Ubuntu or Debian

The logging agent is responsible for collecting and forwarding logs to your IBM Log Analysis instance. After you provision an instance of IBM® Log Analysis, you must configure a logging agent for each log source that you want to monitor.

As of 28 March 2024 the IBM Log Analysis and IBM Cloud Activity Tracker services are deprecated and will no longer be supported as of 30 March 2025. Customers will need to migrate to IBM Cloud Logs, which replaces these two services, prior to 30 March 2025. For information about IBM Cloud Logs, see the IBM Cloud Logs documentation.

These instructions are for Ubuntu or Debian Linux systems but can be used for other Linux systems.

To configure your Ubuntu server to send logs to your IBM Log Analysis instance, you must install a logging-agent. The logging agent reads log files from /var/log, and forwards the log data to your logging instance.

Configuring the Logging agent V1

To configure your Ubuntu server to forward logs to your logging instance, complete the following steps from an Ubuntu terminal:

Install the logging agent. Run the following commands:

echo "deb https://assets.logdna.com stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/logdna.list

wget -O- https://assets.logdna.com/logdna.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install logdna-agent < "/dev/null"

Set the ingestion key that the logging agent must use to forward logs to the IBM Log Analysis instance.
```
sudo logdna-agent -k INGESTION_KEY
```
Where INGESTION_KEY contains the ingestion key active for the IBM Log Analysis instance where you are configuring to forward logs.

Set the authentication endpoint. The logging agent uses this host to authenticate and get the token to forward logs.

Commands by region
Location	Command
`Chennai (in-che)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s export LOGDNA_APIHOST=api.in-che.logging.cloud.ibm.com`
`Dallas (us-south)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s export LOGDNA_APIHOST=api.us-south.logging.cloud.ibm.com`
`Frankfurt (eu-de)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s export LOGDNA_APIHOST=api.eu-de.logging.cloud.ibm.com`
`London (eu-gb)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s export LOGDNA_APIHOST=api.eu-gb.logging.cloud.ibm.com`
`Tokyo (jp-tok)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s export LOGDNA_APIHOST=api.jp-tok.logging.cloud.ibm.com`
`Sydney (au-syd)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s export LOGDNA_APIHOST=api.au-syd.logging.cloud.ibm.com`
`Washington (us-east)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s export LOGDNA_APIHOST=api.us-east.logging.cloud.ibm.com`

Set the ingestion endpoint. Choose the public or the private endpoint in a location.

Commands by region
Location	Command (By using public endpoints)	Command (By using private endpoints)
`Chennai (in-che)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.in-che.logging.cloud.ibm.com`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.private.in-che.logging.cloud.ibm.com` `export LDLOGHOST=logs.private.in-che.logging.cloud.ibm.com`
`Dallas (us-south)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.us-south.logging.cloud.ibm.com`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.private.us-south.logging.cloud.ibm.com` `export LDLOGHOST=logs.private.us-south.logging.cloud.ibm.com`
`Frankfurt (eu-de)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.eu-de.logging.cloud.ibm.com`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.private.eu-de.logging.cloud.ibm.com` `export LDLOGHOST=logs.private.eu-de.logging.cloud.ibm.com`
`London (eu-gb)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.eu-gb.logging.cloud.ibm.com`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.private.eu-gb.logging.cloud.ibm.com` `export LDLOGHOST=logs.private.eu-gb.logging.cloud.ibm.com`
`Tokyo (jp-tok)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.jp-tok.logging.cloud.ibm.com`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.private.jp-tok.logging.cloud.ibm.com` `export LDLOGHOST=logs.private.jp-tok.logging.cloud.ibm.com`
`Sydney (au-syd)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.au-syd.logging.cloud.ibm.com`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.private.au-syd.logging.cloud.ibm.com` `export LDLOGHOST=logs.private.au-syd.logging.cloud.ibm.com`
`Washington (us-east)`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.us-east.logging.cloud.ibm.com`	`sudo logdna-agent -s LOGDNA_LOGHOST=logs.private.us-east.logging.cloud.ibm.com` `export LDLOGHOST=logs.private.us-east.logging.cloud.ibm.com`

Define more log paths to be monitored. Run the following command:
```
sudo logdna-agent -d /path/to/log/folders
```
By default, /var/log is monitored.
Optionally, configure the logging agent to tag your hosts.
Start the logging agent.
```
sudo /etc/init.d/logdna-agent start
```