Serilog.Sinks.Http - A Serilog sink sending log events over HTTP

Package - Serilog.Sinks.Http | Platforms - .NET 4.5, .NET Standard 1.3, .NET Standard 2.0

Table of contents

• Super simple to use
• Typical use case
• Install via NuGet
• Credit

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Super simple to use

In the following example, the sink will POST log events to www.mylogs.com over HTTP.

ILogger log = new LoggerConfiguration()
  .MinimumLevel.Verbose()
  .WriteTo.Http("www.mylogs.com")
  .CreateLogger();

log.Information("Logging {@Heartbeat} from {Computer}", heartbeat, computer);

Used in conjunction with Serilog.Settings.Configuration the same sink can be configured in the following way:

{
  "Serilog": {
    "MinimumLevel": "Verbose",
    "WriteTo": [
      {
        "Name": "Http",
        "Args": {
          "requestUri": "www.mylogs.com"
        } 
      }
    ]
  }
}

The sink can also be configured to be durable, i.e. log events are persisted on disk before sending them over the network, thus protecting against data loss after a system or process restart. For more information read the wiki.

The sink is batching multiple log events into a single request, and the following hypothetical payload is sent over the network as JSON.

{
  "events": [
    {
      "Timestamp": "2016-11-03T00:09:11.4899425+01:00",
      "Level": "Information",
      "MessageTemplate": "Logging {@Heartbeat} from {Computer}",
      "RenderedMessage": "Logging { UserName: \"Mike\", UserDomainName: \"Home\" } from \"Workstation\"",
      "Properties": {
        "Heartbeat": {
          "UserName": "Mike",
          "UserDomainName": "Home"
        },
        "Computer": "Workstation"
      }
    },
    {
      "Timestamp": "2016-11-03T00:09:12.4905685+01:00",
      "Level": "Information",
      "MessageTemplate": "Logging {@Heartbeat} from {Computer}",
      "RenderedMessage": "Logging { UserName: \"Mike\", UserDomainName: \"Home\" } from \"Workstation\"",
      "Properties": {
        "Heartbeat": {
          "UserName": "Mike",
          "UserDomainName": "Home"
        },
        "Computer": "Workstation"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Typical use case

Producing log events is only half the story. Unless you are consuming them in a matter that benefits you in development or production, there is really no need to produce them in the first place.

Integration with Elastic Stack (formerly know as ELK, an acronym for Elasticsearch, Logstash and Kibana) is powerful beyond belief, but there are many alternatives to get the log events into Elasticsearch.

Send log events to Elasticsearch

The log events can be sent directly to Elasticsearch using Serilog.Sinks.Elasticsearch. In this case you've solved your problem without using this sink, and all is well in the world.

Send log events to Logstash

If you would like to send the log events to Logstash for further processing instead of sending them directly to Elasticsearch, this sink in combination with the Logstash HTTP input plugin is the perfect match for you. It is a much better solution than having to install Filebeat on all your instances, mainly because it involves fewer moving parts.

For a complete reference application of Serilog sending log events to Logstash, please see serilog-sinks-http-elastic-stack.

Install via NuGet

If you want to include the HTTP sink in your project, you can install it directly from NuGet.

To install the sink, run the following command in the Package Manager Console:

PM> Install-Package Serilog.Sinks.Http

Credit

Thank you JetBrains for your important initiative to support the open source community with free licenses to your products.