# Couchbase - Kafka - Logstash output invalid characters

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/couchbase-kafka-logstash-output-invalid-characters/134111>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [May 31, 2018, 9:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/couchbase-kafka-logstash-output-invalid-characters/134111 "2018-05-31T21:48:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jscubida](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jscubida/32/24214_2.png) [@jscubida](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jscubida)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 9:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/couchbase-kafka-logstash-output-invalid-characters/134111/1 "2018-05-31T21:48:51Z")

</div>

Hi. I currently have the following setup:

- Confluent Open Source 4.1.0 (which includes Kafka)
- Couchbase 4.5.1-2844 Community Edition (build-2844)
- Logstash 6.2.4

Data flows from Couchbase -\> Kafka -\> Logstash. According to the Kafka logs, it receives the following from Couchbase:

```
{"event":"mutation","partition":520,"key":"_sync:seq","cas":1527802622171611136,"bySeqno":25188,"revSeqno":339050,"expiration":{"int":0},"flags":{"int":0},"lockTime":{"int":0},"content":{"bytes":"355496"}}

```

When Logstash receives this message, the log outputs the following:

```
{
   "message" => "\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0002\u0010mutation�\b\u0012_sync:seq�������*ȉ\u0003Ա)\u0002\u0000\u0002\u0000\u0002\u0000\u0002\f355496",
  "@version" => "1",
"@timestamp" => 2018-05-31T21:37:02.284Z
}

```

Here is my Logstash config:

```
input {
    kafka {
        bootstrap_servers => "<myserver>:9092"
        topics => ["test-default"] 
    }
}

output {
    stdout { }
}

```

Here's my couchbase.properties file for Kafka:

```
name=testy-couchbase
connector.class=com.couchbase.connect.kafka.CouchbaseSourceConnector
tasks.max=2
connection.cluster_address=<myserver>
connection.bucket=pa_test
connection.timeout.ms=2000
topic.name=test-default
use_snapshots=false

```

What could be causing the invalid characters in Logstash? How could I go about debugging this?

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 9:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/couchbase-kafka-logstash-output-invalid-characters/134111/2 "2018-06-28T21:48:54Z")

</div>

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