vRealize Log Insight Importer uses a manifest configuration file to determine the log format and to specify the location of the data to import. The manifest file has the same format as the liagent.ini configuration file and is similar in structure.

Optionally, you can create your own manifest file to import arbitrary log files. One advantage of creating such a file is that you do not need to know the absolute path to the data files.

If you do not create a manifest file, vRealize Log Insight Importer uses the default manifest, which collects all .txt and .log files (include=*.log*;*.txt*) and applies the auto parser (extracts timestamp + kvp) on the extracted logs.

If the liagent.ini configuration file is used as a manifest file, vRealize Log Insight Importer extracts only the [filelog] sections as a manifest. All options for the [filelog] section are supported in vRealize Log Insight Importer.

For information about options supported in the [filelog] section and configuration examples, see the topic "Collect Events from a Log File" in the Working with vRealize Log Insight Agents.

To Create a Manifest File

You can copy and paste the contents of the agent configuration file into a new TXT file. To identify a dynamic path, remove the leading " / " before the directory path.

Specifying the Directory Path

The directory specified in the [filelog] section can be either relative to the source or absolute. To specify a relative path, do not include the leading slash under Linux, otherwise vRealize Log Insight Importer treats the path as absolute.

To indicate name patterns in the value of the directory key, you can use the * and ** characters.
  • Use * as a placeholder for a single directory. Use it to indicate one level of nesting with an arbitrary folder name. For example, use directory = log_folder_* to indicate any folder that starts with the string log_folder_.
  • Use ** to indicate an arbitrary level of nesting with any folder name. For example, you can use directory = **/log to indicate any folder with the name log at any level of nesting within the source directory.