# Parsing Rule works in Grok Debugger but not when running in logstash with MSSQL

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-rule-works-in-grok-debugger-but-not-when-running-in-logstash-with-mssql/178088>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [April 23, 2019, 5:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-rule-works-in-grok-debugger-but-not-when-running-in-logstash-with-mssql/178088 "2019-04-23T17:53:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jbm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jbm/32/43221_2.png) [@jbm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jbm)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 5:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-rule-works-in-grok-debugger-but-not-when-running-in-logstash-with-mssql/178088/1 "2019-04-23T17:53:21Z")

</div>

I am attempting to read Microsoft SQL Error logs in via filebeat -\> logstash. Testing the rule below against the logs below works in the grok debugger, but fails when running in production.

```
%{TIMESTAMP_ISO8601:time} %{WORD:event_category}\s+%{WORD:event}:? %{GREEDYDATA:rest_of_message}

2019-04-21 00:15:10.28 Logon Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State: 38.
2019-04-21 00:15:08.24 Logon Login succeeded for user 'domain\realuser'. Connection made using Windows authentication. [CLIENT: 192.168.10.10]

```

In the full logstash config, I have the below snippet, and I am getting the "pre header" tag but not the "parsed header" tag, so I know this bit is where the issue is. The only thing I can make the logs match against in logstash is %{GREEDYDATA}.

```
if "_grokparsefailure" not in [tags] {
    mutate {
        add_tag => "pre header"
    }
}
grok {
    match => [
        "message", "%{TIMESTAMP_ISO8601:time} %{WORD:event_category}\s+%{WORD:event}:? %{GREEDYDATA:rest_of_message}"
    ]
}
if "_grokparsefailure" not in [tags] {
    mutate {
        add_tag => "parsed header"
    }
}

```

Is there potential for grokparsing to fail due to encoding? I am pretty sure these logs are utf-16 encoded. I'm just not sure what to try at this point.

Any help is appreciated.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jbm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jbm/32/43221_2.png) [@jbm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jbm)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 1:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-rule-works-in-grok-debugger-but-not-when-running-in-logstash-with-mssql/178088/2 "2019-04-25T13:01:44Z")

</div>

Figured it out! MSSQL Error log is encoded in UTF-16LE. I hadn't put

```
encoding: utf-16le

```

in filebeats as part of the input, so that is why it wasn't matching.

---

<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:** [May 23, 2019, 1:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-rule-works-in-grok-debugger-but-not-when-running-in-logstash-with-mssql/178088/3 "2019-05-23T13:01:44Z")

</div>

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