# Beginner Tutorials

A guided series of step-by-step tutorials for rsyslog beginners, built around the message pipeline (input → ruleset → action).

Welcome to the Beginner Tutorials, a curated learning path designed to help you get from zero to a working rsyslog setup quickly and confidently.

Each tutorial is:

- Goal-oriented – solves a single, practical problem.

- Runnable – includes commented configuration examples.

- Verifiable – always shows how to test results (e.g., with `logger`).

- Resilient – ends with an If it’s not working… section.

We use the message pipeline metaphor throughout: rsyslog receives messages through an input, processes them in a ruleset (filters, parsers, queues), and delivers them to an action (e.g., write to file, forward, or database).

            flowchart LR
      A[Input] --> B[Ruleset]
      B --> C[Action]

This pipeline is the foundation of every tutorial in this series.

Some tutorials will also include:

- Optional Docker shortcuts – useful if Docker is already on your system and you want a quick sandbox environment.

- Companion videos – short screen-capture demos for steps that are easier to show than to describe (installation, first config, troubleshooting). Upcoming, not yet available.

Note

The video tips included in tutorials exist because we plan to provide these short videos over time. We also highly appreciate community contributions — if you would like to record a companion video, please contact rgerhards@adiscon.com or post in the GitHub discussions.

- 1. Installing rsyslog
- 2. Your First Configuration
- 3. Understanding the Default Configuration
- 4. The Log Pipeline: Inputs → Rulesets → Actions
- 5. Order Matters: Config and Include Files
- 6. Your First Remote Log Server

Support: rsyslog Assistant | GitHub Discussions | GitHub Issues: rsyslog source project

Contributing: Source & docs: rsyslog source project

© 2008–2025 Rainer Gerhards and others. Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.