MySQL Logs

Ship logs from MySQL to Logstash

Follow the steps below to send your observability data to Logit.io

Logs

Configure Filebeat to ship logs from MySQL to Logstash and Elasticsearch.

Install Integration

Please click on the Install Integration button to configure your stack for this source.

Install Filebeat

To get started you will need to install filebeat. To do this you have two main options:

To successfully install filebeat and set up the required Windows service you will need to have administrator access.

If you have chosen to download the zip file:

  • Extract the contents of the zip file into C:\Program Files.
  • Rename the extracted folder to filebeat
  • Open a PowerShell prompt as an Administrator (right-click the PowerShell icon and select Run As Administrator).
  • From the PowerShell prompt, run the following commands to install filebeat as a Windows service:
cd 'C:\Program Files\filebeat'
.\install-service-filebeat.ps1

If script execution is disabled on your system, you need to set the execution policy for the current session to allow the script to run. For example:

PowerShell.exe -ExecutionPolicy UnRestricted -File .\install-service-filebeat.ps1

For more information about Powershell execution policies see here (opens in a new tab).

If you have chosen to download the filebeat.msi file:

  • double-click on it and the relevant files will be downloaded.

At the end of the installation process you'll be given the option to open the folder where filebeat has been installed.

  • Open a PowerShell prompt as an Administrator (right-click the PowerShell icon and select Run As Administrator).
  • From the PowerShell prompt, change directory to the location where filebeat was installed and run the following command to install filebeat as a Windows service:
.\install-service-filebeat.ps1

If script execution is disabled on your system, you need to set the execution policy for the current session to allow the script to run. For example:

PowerShell.exe -ExecutionPolicy UnRestricted -File .\install-service-filebeat.ps1

For more information about Powershell execution policies see here (opens in a new tab).

Enable the MySQL module

There are several built in filebeat modules you can use. You will need to enable the mysql module:

.\filebeat.exe modules list
.\filebeat.exe modules enable mysql

The default configured paths for MySQL logs are as follows:

c:\programdata\MySQL\MySQL Server*\error.log*

c:\programdata\MySQL\MySQL Server*\mysql-slow.log*

In the module config under modules.d, change the module settings to match your environment. You must enable at least one fileset in the module.

Filesets are disabled by default.

Copy the snippet below and replace the contents of the mysql.yml module file:

# Module: mysql
# Docs: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/8.12/filebeat-module-mysql.html
 
- module: mysql
  # Error logs
  error:
    enabled: true
 
  # Set custom paths for the log files. If left empty,
  # Filebeat will choose the paths depending on your OS.
  #var.paths:
 
  # Slow logs
  slowlog:
    enabled: true
 
  # Set custom paths for the log files. If left empty,
  # Filebeat will choose the paths depending on your OS.
  #var.paths:

Update Your Configuration File

The configuration file below is pre-configured to send data to your Logit.io Stack via Logstash.

Copy the configuration file below and overwrite the contents of filebeat.yml.

# ============================== Filebeat modules ==============================
filebeat.config.modules:
  path: ${path.config}/modules.d/*.yml
  reload.enabled: false
  #reload.period: 10s
 
# ================================== Outputs ===================================
# ------------------------------ Logstash Output -------------------------------
output.logstash:
  hosts: ["@logstash.host:@logstash.sslPort"]
  loadbalance: true
  ssl.enabled: true
 
# ================================= Processors =================================
processors:
  - add_host_metadata:
      when.not.contains.tags: forwarded
  - add_cloud_metadata: ~
  - add_docker_metadata: ~
  - add_kubernetes_metadata: ~

If you're running Filebeat 7 add this code block to the end. Otherwise, you can leave it out.

# ... For Filebeat 7 only ...
filebeat.registry.path: /var/lib/filebeat

If you're running Filebeat 6 add this code block to the end. Otherwise, you can leave it out.

# ... For Filebeat 6 only ...
registry_file: /var/lib/filebeat/registry

Validate your YAML

It's a good idea to run the configuration file through a YAML validator to rule out indentation errors, clean up extra characters, and check if your YAML file is valid. Yamllint.com (opens in a new tab) is a great choice.

Validate configuration

In the directory where Filebeat is installed, run the following command to validate the installation:
.\@beatname.exe test config -c @beatname.yml

If the yml file is invalid, @beatname will print a description of the error. For example, if the output.logstash section was missing, @beatname would print no outputs are defined, please define one under the output section

Start filebeat

To start Filebeat, run in Powershell:

Start-Service filebeat

Check Logit.io for your logs

Data should now have been sent to your Stack.

View My Data

If you don't see take a look at How to diagnose no data in Stack below for how to diagnose common issues.

How to diagnose no data in Stack

If you don't see data appearing in your stack after following this integration, take a look at the troubleshooting guide for steps to diagnose and resolve the problem or contact our support team and we'll be happy to assist.

Metrics

Configure Telegraf to ship MySQL Server metrics to your Logit.io stacks via Logstash.

Install Integration

Please click on the Install Integration button to configure your stack for this source.

Install Telegraf

This integration allows you to configure a Telegraf agent to send your metrics, in multiple formats, to Logit.io.

Choose the installation method for your operating system:

When you paste the command below into Powershell it will download the Telegraf zip file. Once that is complete, press Enter again and the zip file will be extracted into C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf\telegraf-1.31.2.

wget https://dl.influxdata.com/telegraf/releases/telegraf-1.31.2_windows_amd64.zip -UseBasicParsing -OutFile telegraf-1.31.2_windows_amd64.zip 
Expand-Archive .\telegraf-1.31.2_windows_amd64.zip -DestinationPath 'C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf'

Configure the Telegraf input plugin

The configuration file below is pre-configured to scrape the system metrics from your hosts, add the following code to the configuration file /etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf from the previous step.

# Read metrics from one or many mysql servers
[[inputs.mysql]]
  ## specify servers via a url matching:
  ##  [username[:password]@][protocol[(address)]]/[?tls=[true|false|skip-verify|custom]]
  ##  see https://github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql#dsn-data-source-name
  ##  e.g.
  ##    servers = ["user:passwd@tcp(127.0.0.1:3306)/?tls=false"]
  ##    servers = ["user@tcp(127.0.0.1:3306)/?tls=false"]
  #
  ## If no servers are specified, then localhost is used as the host.
  servers = ["tcp(127.0.0.1:3306)/"]
 
  ## Selects the metric output format.
  ##
  ## This option exists to maintain backwards compatibility, if you have
  ## existing metrics do not set or change this value until you are ready to
  ## migrate to the new format.
  ##
  ## If you do not have existing metrics from this plugin set to the latest
  ## version.
  ##
  ## Telegraf >=1.6: metric_version = 2
  ##           <1.6: metric_version = 1 (or unset)
  metric_version = 2
 
  ## if the list is empty, then metrics are gathered from all database tables
  # table_schema_databases = []
 
  ## gather metrics from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES for databases provided
  ## in the list above
    gather_table_schema = true
 
  ## gather thread state counts from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PROCESSLIST
    gather_process_list = true
 
  ## gather user statistics from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.USER_STATISTICS
    gather_user_statistics = true
 
  ## gather auto_increment columns and max values from information schema
    gather_info_schema_auto_inc = true
 
  ## gather metrics from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.INNODB_METRICS
    gather_innodb_metrics = true
 
  ## gather metrics from all channels from SHOW SLAVE STATUS command output
  # gather_all_slave_channels = false
 
  ## gather metrics from SHOW SLAVE STATUS command output
    gather_slave_status = true
 
  ## use SHOW ALL SLAVES STATUS command output for MariaDB
  # mariadb_dialect = false
 
  ## gather metrics from SHOW BINARY LOGS command output
    gather_binary_logs = true
 
  ## gather metrics from SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES command output
    gather_global_variables = true
 
  ## gather metrics from PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA.TABLE_IO_WAITS_SUMMARY_BY_TABLE
    gather_table_io_waits = true
 
  ## gather metrics from PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA.TABLE_LOCK_WAITS
    gather_table_lock_waits = true
 
  ## gather metrics from PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA.TABLE_IO_WAITS_SUMMARY_BY_INDEX_USAGE
    gather_index_io_waits = true
 
  ## gather metrics from PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA.EVENT_WAITS
    gather_event_waits = true
 
  ## gather metrics from PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA.FILE_SUMMARY_BY_EVENT_NAME
    gather_file_events_stats = true
 
  ## gather metrics from PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA.EVENTS_STATEMENTS_SUMMARY_BY_DIGEST
  # gather_perf_events_statements = false
  #
  ## gather metrics from PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA.EVENTS_STATEMENTS_SUMMARY_BY_ACCOUNT_BY_EVENT_NAME
    gather_perf_sum_per_acc_per_event = true
  #
  ## list of events to be gathered for gather_perf_sum_per_acc_per_event
  ## in case of empty list all events will be gathered
  # perf_summary_events = []
 
  ## the limits for metrics form perf_events_statements
  # perf_events_statements_digest_text_limit = 120
  # perf_events_statements_limit = 250
  # perf_events_statements_time_limit = 86400
 
  ## Some queries we may want to run less often (such as SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES)
  ##   example: interval_slow = "30m"
  # interval_slow = ""
 
  ## Optional TLS Config (used if tls=custom parameter specified in server uri)
  # tls_ca = "/etc/telegraf/ca.pem"
  # tls_cert = "/etc/telegraf/cert.pem"
  # tls_key = "/etc/telegraf/key.pem"
  ## Use TLS but skip chain & host verification
  # insecure_skip_verify = false

Read more about how to configure data scraping and configuration options for MySQL (opens in a new tab)

Configure the output plugin

Once you have generated the configuration file, you need to set up the output plug-in to allow Telegraf to transmit your data to Logit.io in Prometheus format. This can be accomplished by incorporating the following code into your configuration file:

[[outputs.http]]
  url = "https://@metricsUsername:@metricsPassword@@metrics_id-vm.logit.io:@vmAgentPort/api/v1/write"
  data_format = "prometheusremotewrite"
 
  [outputs.http.headers]
    Content-Type = "application/x-protobuf"
    Content-Encoding = "snappy"

Start Telegraf

From the location where Telegraf was installed (C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf\telegraf-1.31.2) run the program providing the chosen configuration file as a parameter:

.\telegraf.exe --config telegraf-demo.conf

Once Telegraf is running you should see output similar to the following, which confirms the inputs, output and basic configuration the application has been started with: Powershell Telegraf information

View your metrics

Data should now have been sent to your Stack.

View My Data

If you don't see take a look at How to diagnose no data in Stack below for how to diagnose common issues.

How to diagnose no data in Stack

If you don't see data appearing in your stack after following this integration, take a look at the troubleshooting guide for steps to diagnose and resolve the problem or contact our support team and we'll be happy to assist.

MySQL Dashboard

The MySQL module comes with predefined Kibana dashboards. To view your dashboards for any of your Logit.io stacks, launch Logs and choose Dashboards.

Predefined kibana dashboard screenshot

MySQL Logging Overview

MySQL is an open source relational database management system created by Michael Widenius in 1995, this relational database runs across the majority of operating systems & is closely associated with its usage for web applications.

MySQL powers some of the world's highest traffic sites, including Facebook, YouTube & Pinterest.

MySQL is able to work within an operating system to organise data into multiple data tables and show which data types may be related to each other. This helps the user to easily structure their data.

When used in this way, relational databases can be used to test database integrity, manage users and create backups of vital data.

MySQL Servers create numerous logs that you can use for troubleshooting and analysis, the most important ones include: Slow query logs, General query logs & error logs.

These logs default to a text file format, which can quickly become tedious to parse and process quickly to spot functional problems, opportunities to improve performance and identify security issues.

Our built in HA (high availability) MySQL log file analyser (opens in a new tab) can be used to centralise your data & set up alerts to monitor your log data in real-time as well as deliver metrics for Kibana visualisations & reports with easily.