Exploring Input Plugins

An input plugin is used to get data from a source or multiple sources and to feed data into Logstash. It acts as the first section, which is required in the Logstash configuration file. Some of the input plugins are described in the following sections.

stdin

The stdin is a fairly simple plugin, which reads the data from a standard input. It reads the data we enter in the console, which then acts as an input to Logstash. This is mostly used to validate whether the installation of Logstash is done properly and whether we are able to access Logstash.

The basic configuration for stdin is as follows:

stdin { 
} 

In this plugin, no additional settings are mandatory. If we use the preceding configuration, whatever we write in the console will be taken as input, without any additional parameters.

The additional configuration settings are as follows:

• add_field: This is used to add a field to the incoming data.

• codec: This is used to decode the incoming data and to interpret...