# Elastiflow / logstash netflow plugin - reduce logging to syslog

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastiflow-logstash-netflow-plugin-reduce-logging-to-syslog/254219>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [November 4, 2020, 7:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastiflow-logstash-netflow-plugin-reduce-logging-to-syslog/254219 "2020-11-04T07:30:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![davidsm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@davidsm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/davidsm)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2020, 7:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastiflow-logstash-netflow-plugin-reduce-logging-to-syslog/254219/1 "2020-11-04T07:30:29Z")

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Greetings!

I'm using elastiflow with the logstash netflow plugin. Logs can get quite noisy with expected DNS timeouts and waiting for flow templates. These are logged in both /var/log/logstash/logstash-plain.log as well as syslog. Is it possible to configure the setup not to log to syslog?

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![Badger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/badger/32/25190_2.png) [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2020, 3:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastiflow-logstash-netflow-plugin-reduce-logging-to-syslog/254219/2 "2020-11-04T15:59:37Z")

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logstash does not log to syslog itself. It logs to logstash-plain.log and stdout. Your service manager may be cc'ing stdout to syslog. You can reconfigure the service manager to prevent that.

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**Author:** ![davidsm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@davidsm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/davidsm)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2020, 9:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastiflow-logstash-netflow-plugin-reduce-logging-to-syslog/254219/3 "2020-11-05T09:04:56Z")

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Thanks Badger!

I'm using systemd and found that:  
ForwardToSyslog - This parameter specifies if log messages that are received by the systemd-journald daemon will also be forwarded to a syslog daemon. The default is yes, but if no process is reading off from the socket, nothing happens.

In general I want stuff logged in syslog I just didn't want excessive (expected) logstash warnings. I guess I cannot have my cake and eat it (as I do still want these in logstash-plain) 😉

Cheers

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 9:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastiflow-logstash-netflow-plugin-reduce-logging-to-syslog/254219/4 "2020-12-03T09:04:57Z")

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