JournalD Connector

Overview

The JournalD connector collects and streams logs from the systemd journal on Linux systems. Systemd journal provides centralized storage of system logs, service messages, kernel events, and audit records in structured binary format with rich metadata. Content streams into Edge Delta Pipelines for analysis by AI teammates through the Edge Delta MCP connector.

The connector reads journal entries directly using journalctl with flexible filtering based on systemd units, journal fields, priority levels, and boot sessions. It supports real-time streaming and historical log access.

When you add this streaming connector, it appears as a JournalD source in your selected pipeline. AI teammates access this data by querying the Edge Delta backend with the Edge Delta MCP connector.

Platform: Linux only (requires systemd)

Add the JournalD Connector

To add the JournalD connector, you configure filtering options and deploy to Linux systems running Edge Delta agents with systemd.

Prerequisites

Before configuring the connector, ensure you have:

• Linux system with systemd and systemd-journald service running
• Edge Delta agent installed with read access to journal files
• Appropriate permissions (systemd-journal group membership or root access)
• Read access to /var/log/journal/ (persistent) or /run/log/journal/ (volatile)
• Identified systemd units or journal fields to monitor

Configuration Steps

1. Navigate to AI Team > Connectors in the Edge Delta application
2. Find the JournalD connector in Streaming Connectors
3. Click the connector card
4. Configure filtering options:
   • Journald Include Matches - Journal fields to include
   • Journald Exclude Matches - Journal fields to exclude
   • Include Units - Systemd units to include
   • Exclude Units - Systemd units to exclude
5. Optionally configure Advanced Settings
6. Select a target environment (Linux only)
7. Click Save

The connector deploys to Linux agents and begins collecting journal logs.

Configuration Options

Connector Name

Name to identify this JournalD connector instance.

Journald Include Matches

Process only logs that meet specified match conditions; ignore all others. Filter by journal field using format FIELD=value with multiple fields comma-separated.

Format: FIELD=value,FIELD2=value2

Examples:

• SYSLOG_IDENTIFIER=sshd - SSH service logs only
• _TRANSPORT=kernel - Kernel messages only
• PRIORITY=3 - Error priority only
• CONTAINER_NAME=webapp - Specific container logs

Common Journal Fields:

• SYSLOG_IDENTIFIER - Service or program name
• _TRANSPORT - Log transport (kernel, syslog, journal)
• PRIORITY - Syslog priority (0-7)
• _SYSTEMD_UNIT - Systemd unit name
• CONTAINER_NAME - Container name

Journald Exclude Matches

Omit logs that meet specified match conditions; process all others. Same format as Include Matches.

Examples:

• PRIORITY=6,PRIORITY=7 - Exclude info and debug messages
• _TRANSPORT=audit - Exclude audit subsystem logs
• SYSLOG_IDENTIFIER=systemd-resolved - Exclude DNS resolver logs

Include Units

Include logs from matching systemd units; exclude all others. Convenient way to focus on specific services.

Format: Comma-separated list of systemd unit names, supports wildcards

Examples:

• sshd.service - Monitor SSH service only
• nginx.service,postgresql.service - Web and database services
• docker.service - Docker daemon
• user@*.service - All user services

Exclude Units

Exclude logs from matching systemd units; include all others. Useful for filtering out noisy services.

Examples:

• systemd-resolved.service - Exclude DNS resolver logs
• cron.service,systemd-timesyncd.service - Exclude cron and time sync

Advanced Settings

Current Boot Only

Include only entries from the current boot session. Useful for real-time monitoring vs. historical analysis.

Default: Disabled (collect all historical logs)

When to Enable:

• Real-time service monitoring
• Focus on current system state
• Reduce data volume

When to Disable:

• Historical troubleshooting
• Forensic analysis
• Investigating issues across boots

Journalctl Path

Full executable path to journalctl binary if not in standard system PATH.

Default: System journalctl from PATH (/usr/bin/journalctl or /bin/journalctl)

Examples:

• /usr/bin/journalctl - Standard location
• /opt/custom/bin/journalctl - Custom installation

Journal Directory

Read journal files from alternate directory instead of default system location.

Default: /var/log/journal/ (persistent) or /run/log/journal/ (volatile)

Examples:

• /mnt/archive/journal - Archived journal location
• /mnt/remote/system-journal - Remotely mounted journal
• /var/log/custom-journal - Custom journal directory

Use Cases:

• Analyzing archived journals
• Reading from mounted remote systems
• Accessing namespace-specific journals

Journal Namespace

Namespace for journal access. Systemd supports namespaces to isolate logs from different applications or containers.

Default: System namespace

Examples:

• container - Container-specific namespace
• myapp - Custom application namespace

Extra Args

Additional command-line arguments passed directly to journalctl for advanced filtering.

Format: Space-separated journalctl arguments

Examples:

• -k - Kernel messages only (equivalent to --dmesg)
• -f - Follow mode for real-time streaming
• --no-pager --no-tail - Full output without truncation
• -o json-pretty - Pretty-printed JSON output
• --since "2024-10-01 00:00:00" - Logs since specific timestamp

Metadata Level

This option is used to define which detected resources and attributes to add to each data item as it is ingested by Edge Delta. You can select:

• Required Only: This option includes the minimum required resources and attributes for Edge Delta to operate.
• Default: This option includes the required resources and attributes plus those selected by Edge Delta
• High: This option includes the required resources and attributes along with a larger selection of common optional fields.
• Custom: With this option selected, you can choose which attributes and resources to include. The required fields are selected by default and can’t be unchecked.

Based on your selection in the GUI, the source_metadata YAML is populated as two dictionaries (resource_attributes and attributes) with Boolean values.

See Choose Data Item Metadata for more information on selecting metadata.

JournalD-specific metadata included:

• host.id - Host identifier
• service.namespace - Service namespace
• systemd.transport - Transport type
• process.name - Process name

Rate Limit

Rate limit configuration to control journal data ingestion volume and manage processing capacity.

Target Environments

Select the Edge Delta pipeline (environment) where you want to deploy this connector. Linux systems only - the connector will only deploy to Linux agents with systemd.

How to Use the JournalD Connector

The JournalD connector integrates seamlessly with AI Team, enabling analysis of systemd journal logs from Linux infrastructure. AI teammates automatically leverage the ingested data based on the queries they receive and the context of the conversation.

Use Case: Service Error Monitoring

Monitor systemd service errors and warnings to catch failures before they impact users. Configure the connector to include only error and warning priority levels (3 and 4) for real-time detection. AI teammates detect patterns, correlate failures across services, and provide actionable recommendations. When combined with PagerDuty alerts, teammates automatically query recent service errors during incident investigation to identify which services failed and in what sequence.

Configuration: Include Matches: PRIORITY=3,PRIORITY=4, Current Boot Only: Enabled

Use Case: SSH Authentication Monitoring

Track SSH authentication activity to detect brute force attacks, unauthorized access attempts, and security breaches. Filter for sshd service logs to capture all authentication events. AI teammates identify attack patterns, suspicious source IPs, and targeted user accounts. This is valuable when investigating security incidents—teammates can correlate failed login attempts with successful breaches and identify compromised accounts.

Configuration: Include Matches: SYSLOG_IDENTIFIER=sshd, Current Boot Only: Disabled for audit trail

Use Case: Kernel Event Analysis

Monitor kernel-level events to detect hardware failures, driver issues, and system-level problems before outages. Filter for kernel transport messages to focus on system events. AI teammates identify critical hardware events, out-of-memory conditions, and network interface issues. When combined with Jira integration, teammates can automatically document hardware problems by querying kernel logs and creating tickets with diagnostic details.

Configuration: Include Matches: _TRANSPORT=kernel, Current Boot Only: Enabled

Troubleshooting

Failed to open journal errors: Add Edge Delta user to systemd-journal group (sudo usermod -a -G systemd-journal edgedelta). Restart Edge Delta service. Verify with groups edgedelta.

No journal logs appearing: Verify systemd-journald is running (systemctl status systemd-journald). Test with journalctl -n 10. Check filters aren’t too restrictive. Review Edge Delta agent logs for errors.

Permission denied on audit logs: Audit logs require elevated privileges. Either grant appropriate Linux capabilities, use audit group membership, or exclude audit logs with Exclude Matches: _TRANSPORT=audit.

Journal directory not found: Check if persistent journal enabled (ls /var/log/journal/). If volatile mode, update Journal Directory to /run/log/journal/. Enable persistent with sudo mkdir -p /var/log/journal/ and restart systemd-journald.

High memory usage: Limit collection with unit or identifier filters. Use priority filtering (PRIORITY=3,PRIORITY=4). Enable Current Boot Only. Configure rate limiting. Exclude noisy services.

Filters not working: Journal fields are case-sensitive. Test with journalctl first (journalctl SYSLOG_IDENTIFIER=sshd -n 10). Multiple Include Matches fields are OR’ed, not AND’ed. List available fields with journalctl -o json | jq 'keys'.

Duplicate logs (journal + syslog): Choose one logging source. Use JournalD connector for systemd systems to get structured metadata. Use Syslog connector for non-systemd systems. If running both, implement careful filtering to separate collection scope.

Large journal disk usage: Configure limits in /etc/systemd/journald.conf: SystemMaxUse (500M-1GB), SystemMaxFileSize (100M-200M), MaxRetentionSec (7day-30day). Restart systemd-journald. Vacuum old files with journalctl --vacuum-time=7d.

Next Steps

• Learn about creating custom teammates that can use journal data
• Explore the Edge Delta MCP connector for querying systemd logs

For additional help, visit AI Team Support.