# Technical enquiry - setting "hosts" in the "output" pipeline section

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/technical-enquiry-setting-hosts-in-the-output-pipeline-section/226028>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [April 1, 2020, 10:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/technical-enquiry-setting-hosts-in-the-output-pipeline-section/226028 "2020-04-01T10:57:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rysiu](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/rysiu/32/61919_2.png) [@Rysiu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rysiu)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2020, 10:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/technical-enquiry-setting-hosts-in-the-output-pipeline-section/226028/1 "2020-04-01T10:57:15Z")

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Take for example the documentation for plugins-outputs-lumberjack:

> list of addresses lumberjack **can** send to

> **[Lumberjack output plugin | Logstash Reference \[8.11\] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/logstash/current/plugins-outputs-lumberjack.html#plugins-outputs-lumberjack-hosts)**

This plugin can send data to hosts from an array called "hosts".

This is simple.

There is information in the documentation:

But how exactly does the distribution of transmitted data look like? If there are for example four hosts in "hosts" array, what is the method of selecting the host to which the event is being sent?

It does not distribute the data equally... What is the method?

Probably the same algorithm is used in other plugins?

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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:** [April 1, 2020, 3:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/technical-enquiry-setting-hosts-in-the-output-pipeline-section/226028/2 "2020-04-01T15:09:29Z")

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> [@Rysiu](#):
>
> It does not distribute the data equally... What is the method?

My reading of the [code](https://github.com/elastic/ruby-lumberjack/blob/9df247e644eaf10fd634e00d255e09f2a4f7f7bf/lib/lumberjack/client.rb#L29) is that it picks an address at random each time it connects.

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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:** [April 29, 2020, 3:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/technical-enquiry-setting-hosts-in-the-output-pipeline-section/226028/3 "2020-04-29T15:09:32Z")

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