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Use JSON to Configure Sources

Installed Collector and Hosted Collector sources can be configured by using UTF-8 encoded JSON files. Installed Collectors can use JSON files to configure its Sources when using Local Configuration File Management. You can also configure Sources for Hosted and Installed Collectors with the Collector Management API.

info

JSON files need to be UTF-8 encoded following RFC 8259.

See the following topics for additional information:

Defining a Source JSON file

When registering a Collector, you can define a source JSON file using the sources or syncSources parameter in your user.properties or sumo.conf configuration file. These parameters are used the first time a collector is set up.

ParameterTypeDescription
sourcesStringSets the JSON file describing sources to configure on registration. To make changes to collector sources after the Collector has been configured, you can use the Collector Management API or the Sumo web application.
syncSourcesStringSets the JSON file describing sources to configure on registration, which will be continuously monitored and synchronized with the Collector's configuration.

For more information on setting the syncSources parameter, see Local Configuration File Management

Using JSON to configure multiple Sources

You can use JSON to configure multiple sources in either of the following ways:

  • Create a single JSON file with the configuration information for all the sources (sources.json).
  • Create individual JSON files, one for each source, and then combine them in a single folder. You then configure the source folder instead of the individual sources.
note

The maximum number of Sources allowed on a Collector is 1,000.

See Options for specifying sources in local configuration file(s) for more information.

Types of Sources

Each source can have its own unique fields in addition to the generic fields listed in the previous table. The next table lists the valid field types. The sections that follow list the unique parameters for each and the associated JSON examples.

Installed Collectors

Log Sources

Field TypeType Value
Local File SourceLocalFile
Remote File SourceRemoteFileV2
Local Windows Event Log SourceLocalWindowsEventLog
Remote Windows Event Log SourceRemoteWindowsEventLog
Local Windows Performance SourceLocalWindowsPerfMon
Remote Windows Performance SourceRemoteWindowsPerfMon
Windows Active Directory Inventory SourceActiveDirectory
Syslog SourceSyslog
Script SourceScript
Docker Log SourceDockerLog

Metrics Sources

Field TypeType Value
Host Metrics SourceSystemStats
Streaming Metrics SourceStreamingMetrics
Docker Stats SourceDockerStats

Hosted Collectors

Log Sources

Field TypeType Value
Akamai SIEM API SourceUniversal
Amazon S3 SourcePolling
AWS S3 Archive SourcePolling
AWS CloudFront SourcePolling
AWS CloudTrail SourcePolling
AWS Elastic Load Balancing SourcePolling
AWS Kinesis Firehose for Logs SourceHTTP
AWS S3 Audit SourcePolling
AWS Metadata (Tag) SourcePolling
Azure Event Hubs SourceUniversal
Carbon Black Cloud SourceUniversal
Carbon Black Inventory SourceUniversal
Cloud Syslog SourceCloudsyslog
Cisco AMP SourceUniversal
Cisco Meraki SourceUniversal
Crowdstrike FDR SourceUniversal
CrowdStrike SourceUniversal
CSE AWS EC2 Inventory SourceUniversal
Cybereason SourceUniversal
Duo SourceUniversal
Google Cloud Platform SourceHTTP
HTTP SourceHTTP
Microsoft Graph Security API SourceUniversal
Mimecast SourceUniversal
Netskope SourceUniversal
Okta SourceUniversal
Palo Alto Cortex XDRUniversal
Proofpoint On Demand SourceUniversal
Proofpoint TAP SourceUniversal
Salesforce SourceUniversal
Sophos Central SourceUniversal
Tenable SourceUniversal

Metrics Sources

Field TypeType Value
AWS CloudWatch SourcePolling
AWS Kinesis Firehose for Metrics SourceHTTP

Common parameters for log source types

The following parameters are used for log Sources except for Syslog. Syslog Sources do not support Multiline Detection, which means the common parameters multilineProcessingEnableduseAutolineMatching and manualPrefixRegexp are not applicable. If you provide these in the configuration they will be ignored.

ParameterTypeRequired?DefaultDescriptionAccess
sourceTypeStringYesType the correct type of Source.not modifiable
nameStringYesType a desired name of the Source. The name must be unique per Collector. This value is assigned to the built-in metadata field _source and can be a maximum of 128 characters.modifiable
descriptionStringNonullType a description of the Source.modifiable
fieldsJSON ObjectNonullJSON map of key-value fields (metadata) to apply to the Collector or Source.modifiable
hostNameStringNonullType a host name of the Source. This value is assigned to the built-in metadata field _sourceHost. The hostname can be a maximum of 128 characters.
Not supported with Windows Local Event Source and Windows Local Performance Source.
modifiable
categoryStringNonullType a category of the source. This value is assigned to the built-in metadata field _sourceCategory. See best practices for details.modifiable

Timestamp Processing

ParameterTypeRequired?DefaultDescriptionAccess
automaticDateParsingBooleanNotrueDetermines if timestamp information is parsed or not. Type true to enable automatic parsing of dates (the default setting); type false to disable. If disabled, no timestamp information is parsed at all.modifiable
timeZoneStringNonullType the time zone you'd like the source to use in TZ database format. Example:"America/Los_Angeles". See time zone format for details.modifiable
forceTimeZoneBooleanNofalseType true to force the Source to use a specific time zone, otherwise type false to use the time zone found in the logs. The default setting is false.modifiable
defaultDateFormatStringNonull(Deprecated) The default format for dates used in your logs. For more information about timestamp options, see Timestamps, Time Zones, Time Ranges, and Date Formats. See the replacement object, defaultDateFormats, below.modifiable
defaultDateFormatsObject arrayNonullDefine formats for the dates present in your log messages. You can specify a locator regex to identify where timestamps appear in log lines.
The defaultDateFormats object has two elements:
format (required)—Specify the date format.
locator (optional)—A regular expression that specifies the location of the timestamp in your log lines. For example, \[time=(.*)\]
For an example, see Timestamp example, below. For more information about timestamp options, see Timestamps, Time Zones, Time Ranges, and Date Formats
modifiable

Multiline Processing

ParameterTypeRequired?DefaultDescriptionAccess
multilineProcessingEnabledBooleanNotrueType true to enable; type false to disable. The default setting is true. Consider setting to false to avoid unnecessary processing if you are collecting single message per line files (for example, Linux system.log). If you're working with multiline messages (for example, log4J or exception stack traces), keep this setting enabled.modifiable
useAutolineMatchingBooleanNotrueType true to enable if you'd like message boundaries to be inferred automatically; type false to prevent message boundaries from being automatically inferred (equivalent to the Infer Boundaries option in the UI). The default setting is true.modifiable
manualPrefixRegexpStringNonullWhen using useAutolineMatching=false, type a regular expression that matches the first line of the message to manually create the boundary. Note that any special characters in the regex, such as backslashes or double quotes, must be escaped. For example, this expression:
^\[\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}\s+\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}\.\d{3}\].*
should be escaped like this:
^\\[\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2}\\s+\\d{2}:\\d{2}:\\d{2}\\.\\d{3}\\].*
modifiable

Processing Rules

ParameterTypeRequired?DefaultDescriptionAccess
filtersStringarrayNo[ ]If you'd like to add a filter to the Source, type the name of the filter (Exclude, Include, Mask, Hash, or Forward. Review the Rules and Limitations for filters and see Creating processing rules using JSON.

When collection should begin

ParameterTypeRequired?DefaultDescriptionAccess
cutoffTimestampLongNo0 (collects all data)Can be specified instead of cutoffRelativeTime to only collect data more recent than this timestamp, specified as milliseconds since epoch (13 digit). You can use this site to convert to epoch time: http://www.epochconverter.com/
Times in the future are supported. For a Local File Source, this cutoff applies to the "modified" time of the file, not the time of the individual log lines. For example, if you have a file that contains logs with timestamps spanning an entire week and set the cutoffTimestamp to two days ago, all of the logs from the entire week will be ingested since the file itself was modified more recent than the cutoffTimestamp. A processing rule could be used to filter logs that match unneeded log messages.
Review timestamp considerations to understand how Sumo interprets and processes timestamps.
modifiable
cutoffRelativeTimeStringNoCan be specified instead of cutoffTimestamp to provide a relative offset with respect to the current time.
time can be either months (M), weeks (w), days (d), hours (h), or minutes (m). Use 0m to indicate the current time.Times in the future are not supported.
Example: use -1h, -1d, or -1w to collect data that's less than one hour, one day, or one week old, respectively.
For a Local File Source, this cutoff applies to the "modified" time of the file, not the time of the individual log lines. For example, if you have a file that contains logs with timestamps spanning an entire week and set the cutoffRelativeTime to two days ago, all of the logs from the entire week will be ingested since the file itself was modified more recent than the cutoffRelativeTime. A processing rule could be used to filter logs that match unneeded log messages.
Review timestamp considerations to understand how Sumo interprets and processes timestamps.
not modifiable

Non-configurable parameters

The following parameters are automatically configured by the Sumo Logic Service. Don't include them in the sources JSON file, except for when making API requests. When making an API request you will need to provide the id  parameter in the JSON file.

  • id
  • alive - This parameter is updated based on if Sumo receives a heartbeat message every 15 seconds. A heartbeat checks for successful connectivity. If no successful heartbeat message is received after 30 minutes this becomes false.
  • status

Time zone format

In a JSON source configuration, a string for the timeZone setting does not follow the same format as the time zone setting shown in Sumo Logic. The JSON timeZone property uses the underlying TZ database time zone format instead of (GMT+11:00) style values.

Example:

"timeZone": "America/Los_Angeles",

You can find a list of time zone environment variables in this Wikipedia article.  

Timestamp example

The following is a Timestamp example in JSON with two default date formats, yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss and yyMMdd HH:mm:ss:

{
"source": {
"name": "test",
"defaultDateFormats": [{
"format": "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss",
"locator": "time=(.*),"
}, {
"format": "yyMMdd HH:mm:ss"
}]
}
}

Creating processing rules using JSON

You can include processing (filtering) rules when using JSON to configure sources. A filter specifies rules about which messages are sent to Sumo Logic.

  • Exclude. Removes messages before ingestion to Sumo Logic. Think of Exclude as a "denylist" filter. For more information, see Include and Exclude Rules.
  • Include. Sends only the data you explicitly define to Sumo Logic. Think of Include as an "allowlist" filter. For more information, see Include and Exclude Rules.
  • Hash. Replaces a message with a unique, randomly-generated code to protect sensitive or proprietary information, such as credit card numbers or user names. By hashing this type of data you can still track it, even though it's fully hidden. For more information, see Hash Rules.
  • Mask. Replaces an expression with a mask string that you can customize; especially useful for protecting passwords or other data you wouldn't normally track. For more information, see Mask Rules.
  • Forward. Sends matching log messages to a data forwarding destination. For more information, see Example: data forwarding rule below.
ParameterTypeRequired?DescriptionAccess
nameStringYesA name for the rule.Modifiable
filterTypeYesThe filter type. Must be one of the following: Exclude, Include, Hash, Mask, or Forward.Modifiable
regexpStringYesA regular expression used to define the filter. If filterType = Mask or Hash, this regular expression must have at least one matching group, specifying the regions to be replaced by a mask or hash.
For multiline messages, add single line modifiers (?s) to the beginning and end of the expression to support matching your string regardless of where it occurs in the message. For example: (?s).*secur.*(?s)
Syslog UDP messages may contain a trailing newline character, which will require the above regular expression to properly match your string.
Modifiable
maskStringYeswhenfilterType = "Mask"
transparentForwardingBooleanNoSyslog forwarding by default prepends a timestamp and hostname to messages to ensure they comply with RFC 3164. If your syslog messages already comply, you can disable this feature by specifying this parameter as false.Modifiable

Example: exclude filter

The following is an example of a filter to exclude messages containing a specified keyword.

"filters":[{
"filterType":"Exclude",
"name":"filter_auditd",
"regexp":".*exe=\"\\/usr\\/sbin\\/crond\".*terminal=cron\\sres=success.*"
}],

When excluding messages based on a string that contains special characters, for example *("test")*,you will need to double-escape the special characters so they're valid within the JSON.

Filter name cannot exceed 32 characters.

Example message content to filter:

*("test")*

Standard Regex (this is the syntax if you create the filter using the UI):

\*\("test"\)\*

Filter syntax in JSON:

\\*\\(\"test\"\\)\\*

Filter example in JSON with double-escaped special characters:

{
"source": {
"name": "test",
"filters": [{
"filterType": "Exclude",
"name": "Filter keyword",
"regexp": "\\*\\(\"test\"\\)\\*"
}]
}
}

Example: mask filter

The following is an example of a filter to mask messages containing an authorization token.

Example message content to filter:

auth":"Basic cABC123vZDAwfvDldmlfZ568dWQ6vvhjER4dgyR33lP"

Standard Regex, this is the syntax if you create the filter using the UI:

auth"\s*:\s*"Basic\s*([^"]+)"

Filter syntax in JSON:

auth\"\\s*:\\s*\"Basic\\s*([^\"]+)\"

Filter example in JSON with double-escaped special characters:

"filters":[{
"filterType":"Mask",
"name":"masktoken",
"regexp":"auth\"\\s*:\\s*\"Basic\\s*([^\"]+)\"",
"mask":"##TOKEN##"
},

Example: data forwarding rule

In the JSON below for a source, the filters array specifies a data forwarding rule. Before you can configure a data forwarding rule in JSON, you must obtain the sinkId for the data forwarding data destination. For instructions, see Get sinkId for a data forwarding destination below.

{
"api.version": "v1",
"sources": [{
"sourceType": "Syslog",
"name": "example",
"port": 514,
"protocol": "TCP",
"encoding": "UTF-8",
"category": "example",
"useAutolineMatching": false,
"multilineProcessingEnabled": false,
"timeZone": "UTC",
"automaticDateParsing": true,
"forceTimeZone": false,
"defaultDateFormat": "dd/MMM/yyyy HH:mm:ss",
"filters": [{
"filterType": "Forward",
"name": "example",
"regexp": "(?s).*(?s)",
"sinkId": 22,
"transparentForwarding": false
}]
}]
}

Get sinkId for a data forwarding destination

To determine the sinkId for a data forwarding destination, you use the Sumo web app to create a test data forwarding rule. Sumo updates the JSON configuration for the source with the sinkId of the destination you select. Then you can view the JSON configuration for the source, make a note of the sinkId, and then delete the test processing rule.

These instruction assume you have already created a data forwarding destination.

  1. Follow the instructions in Configure processing rules for data forwarding to add a data forwarding rule to a source on an installed collector. As part of this process, you will select the data forwarding destination to which you want to forward data.
  2. To view the JSON configuration for the source you updated in the previous step:
    1. Select Manage Data > Collection > Collection
    2. Click the icon to the right of the source. The API usage information panel appears. Make a note of the sinkId in the filter section of the JSON.
      sink id
  3. Click the icon to the right of the Source. Make a note of the sinkId in the filter section of the JSON.
  4. Click Done to close the API usage information panel.
  5. Now that you have determined the sinkId for the data forwarding destination, delete the test rule.
    1. Select Manage Data > Collection > Collection.
    2. Navigate to the source to which you added the test rule.
    3. In the Processing Rules section of the page, click the delete icon to the right of the test rule.
      proc rule

Now that you have the sinkId for the data forwarding destination, you can define the filter array in the JSON for your source, following the example in Example: Data Forwarding Rule above.

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