Install by .msi Installer (Windows)

The recommended way to install Fluentd on Windows is to use MSI installers of td-agent. The recommended version of td-agent is v4 packages Fluentd 1.11.x (or later).

td-agent v4

  1. Install td-agent.

Download the latest MSI installer from the download page. Run the installer and follow the wizard.

Alternatively td-agent can be installed with winget:

> winget install td-agent
  1. Set up td-agent.conf.

Open C:/opt/td-agent/etc/td-agent/td-agent.conf with a text editor. Replace the configuration with the following content:

<source>
@type windows_eventlog2
@id windows_eventlog2
channels application
read_existing_events false
tag winevt.raw
rate_limit 200
<storage>
@type local
persistent true
path C:\opt\td-agent\winlog.json
</storage>
</source>
<match winevt.raw>
@type stdout
</match>
  1. Launch Td-agent Command Prompt.

Open Windows Start menu, and search Td-agent Command Prompt. In most environments, the program will be found right under the "Recently Added" section.

Td-agent Command Prompt is basically cmd.exe, with a few PATH tweaks for td-agent programs. Use this program whenever you need to interact with td-agent.

  1. Run td-agent.

Type the following command into Td-agent Command Prompt:

C:\opt\td-agent> td-agent

Now td-agent starts listening to Windows Eventlog, and will print records to stdout as they occur.

td agent4 prompt
  1. Run td-agent as Windows service.

Since version 4.0.0, td-agent is registered as a Windows service permanently by the msi installer. You can start td-agent service manually.

Using GUI

Navigate to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools -> Services, and you'll see Fluentd Windows Service is listed.

Double click Fluentd Window Service, and click Start button. Then the process will be executed as Windows Service.

Using net.exe

> net start fluentdwinsvc
The Fluentd Windows Service service is starting..
The Fluentd Windows Service service was started successfully.

Using Powershell Cmdlet

PS> Start-Service fluentdwinsvc

Note that using fluentdwinsvc is needed to start Fluentd service from the command-line. fluentdwinsvc is the service name and it should be passed to net.exe or Start-Service Cmdlet.

The log file will be located at C:/opt/td-agent/td-agent.log as we specified in Step 3.

  1. Install Plugins. Open Td-agent Command Prompt and use td-agent-gem command:
C:\opt\td-agent> td-agent-gem install fluent-plugin-xyz --version=1.2.3

You must now install the SixthSense log monitoring agent. For more informaiton, see Installing Log Monitoring agents.