Raw or Plaintext Inputs
The raw/plaintext input in Graylog acts as a simple netcat-style listener, accepting any data sent to it without assuming a predefined structure. Because the input does not automatically extract timestamps or fields, messages remain in their original form and can be parsed later through the Graylog processing pipeline.
This input is especially useful for debugging, as it lets you view exactly what an appliance, application, or script is sending. It is also ideal for ingesting logs from sources without a standard format, providing full flexibility to define how messages are interpreted and enriched within Graylog.
Raw/Plaintext inputs are available over multiple transports, including TCP, UDP, Kafka, and AMQP.
Supported Log Types
This input supports collecting the following log types:
- 
                                                            
Raw/Plaintext inputs in Graylog can receive any type of log data, as no predefined structure is required. This makes them suitable for a wide range of log sources.
 
Input Type
This Input is a 
Input Configuration
Follow the input setup instructions. During setup of this input, you can configure the following options:
The Raw/Plaintext AMQP input in Graylog allows you to ingest messages directly from an AMQP-compatible message broker (such as RabbitMQ) without assuming any predefined structure.
| Configuration Option | Description | 
|---|---|
| 
                                                                             Global (Checkbox)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Select this check box to enable the input on all Graylog nodes, or keep it unchecked to enable the input on a specific node.  | 
                                                                    
| Node | Select the node on which to start this input. If the Global check box is selected, this option is not available. | 
| Title | Assign a title to the input. Example: Raw AMQP Input for XYZ Source. | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Broker hostname  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The hostname or IP address of the message broker (e.g. RabbitMQ server).  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Broker virtual host  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The logical namespace within the broker used to separate applications or tenants.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Prefetch count  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The maximum number of messages a consumer can receive before acknowledging them.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Queue  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The name of the queue from which messages will be consumed.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Exchange  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The exchange to which the input should bind in order to receive messages.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Routing key  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The key used by the exchange to route messages into the specified queue.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Number of consumers/queues  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Defines how many consumers or queues should be created for message processing.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Allow throttling this input (Checkbox)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Enables message rate limiting to control ingestion speed and prevent system overload.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Broker port (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The port number used by the message broker.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Username (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The username for authenticating against the message broker, if required.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Password (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The password associated with the broker username for authentication.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Passive queue declaration (Checkbox)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Declares the queue in passive mode, ensuring it exists without modifying or creating it.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Bind to exchange (Checkbox)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Binds the input to a specific exchange in the broker to receive messages from it.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Heartbeat timeout (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Interval (in seconds) for client–broker heartbeat checks to detect lost connections.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Enable TLS? (Checkbox)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Enable secure TLS for encrypted message transport (requires certificates). Select if this input should use TLS.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Re-queue invalid messages? (Checkbox)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Determines whether invalid/unprocessable messages are placed back into the queue.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Connection recovery interval (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Time interval (in seconds) to wait before retrying a broker connection after failure.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Override source (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Allows you to override the source field for all incoming messages.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Encoding (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Enables usage of a custom timestamp field in incoming messages.  | 
                                                                    
The Raw/Plaintext Kafka input in Graylog allows you to consume messages directly from an Apache Kafka topic without applying any predefined schema or parsing rules. Like other raw/plaintext inputs, the message content is stored exactly as received, making it ideal for debugging, ingesting unstructured or custom-formatted logs, or processing data from applications that use Kafka for event distribution.
| Configuration Option | Description | 
|---|---|
| 
                                                                             Global (Checkbox)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Select this check box to enable the input on all Graylog nodes, or keep it unchecked to enable the input on a specific node.  | 
                                                                    
| Node | Select the node on which to start this input. If the Global check box is selected, this option is not available. | 
| Title | Assign a title to the input. Example: Raw Kafka Input for XYZ Source. | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Legacy mode  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Select this option to use the old ZooKeeper-based consumer API.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Bootstrap Servers (optional)  | 
                                                                        Enter the IP address and port on which the Kafka server is running. | 
| 
                                                                             ZooKeeper address (legacy mode only) (optional)  | 
                                                                        The IP address and port on which the Zookeeper server is running. | 
| 
                                                                             Topic filter regex  | 
                                                                        Enter the topic name filter that is configured in the filebeats.yml file. | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Fetch minimum bytes  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Minimum byte size a message batch should reach before fetching.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Fetch maximum wait time (ms)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Enter the maximum time (in milliseconds) to wait before fetching.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Processor threads  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Enter the number of threads to process. This setting is based on the number of partitions available for the topic.  | 
                                                                    
| Timezone | Select the timestamp configured on the system that is sending CEF messages. If the sender does not include the timezone information, you can configure the timezone applied to the messages on arrival. That configuration does not overwrite the timezone included in the timestamp; however, it is the assumed timezone for messages that do not include timezone information. | 
| 
                                                                             Allow throttling this input (Checkbox)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Enables message rate limiting to control ingestion speed and prevent system overload.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Auto offset reset (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Choose the appropriate selection from the drop-down menu if there is no initial offset in Kafka or if an offset is out of range.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Consumer group id (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The name of the consumer group the Kafka input belongs to.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Locale (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             This setting is used to determine the language of the message.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Use full field names  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Select this option if the full field name should be used.  | 
                                                                    
| Custom Kafka properties (optional) | Custom Kafka properties (optional) | 
The Raw/Plaintext TCP input in Graylog listens for incoming log data over the TCP protocol without applying any predefined structure or parsing rules.
| Configuration Option | Description | 
|---|---|
| 
                                                                             Global (Checkbox)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Select this check box to enable the input on all Graylog nodes, or keep it unchecked to enable the input on a specific node.  | 
                                                                    
| Node | Select the node on which to start this input. If the Global check box is selected, this option is not available. | 
| Title | Assign a title to the input. Example: Raw TCP Input for XYZ Source. | 
                                                                    
| Bind address | Enter an IP address for this input to listen on. The source system/data sends logs to this IP/input. | 
| Port | 
                                                                             Enter a port to use in conjunction with the IP address.  | 
                                                                    
| Timezone | Select the timestamp configured on the system that is sending CEF messages. If the sender does not include the timezone information, you can configure the timezone applied to the messages on arrival. That configuration does not overwrite the timezone included in the timestamp; however, it is the assumed timezone for messages that do not include timezone information. | 
| Receive Buffer Size (optional) | Depending on the amount of traffic being ingested by the input, this value should be large enough to ensure proper flow of data but small enough to prevent the system from spending resources trying to process the buffered data. | 
| No. of worker threads | 
                                                                             This setting controls how many concurrent threads are used to process incoming data. Increasing the number of threads can enhance data processing speed, resulting in improved throughput. The ideal number of threads to configure depends on the available CPU cores on your Graylog server. A common starting point is to align the number of worker threads with the number of CPU cores. However, it is crucial to strike a balance with other server demands.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             TLS cert file (optional)  | 
                                                                        The certificate file that is stored on a Graylog system. The value of this field is a path (/path/to/file) that Graylog should have access to. | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             TLS private key file (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The certificate private key file that is stored on a Graylog system. The value of this field is a path (  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Enable TLS  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Select this option if this input should use TLS.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             TLS key password (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The private key password.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             TLS client authentication (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             If you want to require authentication, set this value to optional or required.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             TLS Client Auth Trusted Certs (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The path where client (source) certificates are located on a Graylog system. The value of this field is a path (  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             TCP keepalive (Checkbox)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             Enable this option if you want the input to support TCP keep-alive packets to prevent idle connections.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Null frame delimeter (Checkbox)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             This option is typically left unchecked. Newline characters are the default message delimiter used when this box is left unchecked.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Maximum message size (optional)  | 
                                                                        
                                                                             The maximum message size of the message. The default value should suffice but can be modified depending on message length. Each input type usually has specifications that note the maximum length of a message.  | 
                                                                    
| 
                                                                             Override source (optional)  | 
                                                                        Allows you to override the source field for all incoming messages. | 
| 
                                                                             Encoding (optional)  | 
                                                                        Enables usage of a custom timestamp field in incoming messages. | 
The Raw/Plaintext UDP input in Graylog listens for incoming log data over the UDP protocol without applying any predefined structure or parsing rules.
| Configuration Option | Description | 
|---|---|
| 
                                                                         Global (Checkbox)  | 
                                                                    
                                                                         Select this check box to enable the input on all Graylog nodes, or keep it unchecked to enable the input on a specific node.  | 
                                                                
| Node | Select the node on which to start this input. If the Global check box is selected, this option is not available. | 
| Title | Assign a title to the input. Example: Raw UDP Input for XYZ Source. | 
                                                                
| Bind address | Enter an IP address for this input to listen on. The source system/data sends logs to this IP/input. | 
| Port | 
                                                                         Enter a port to use in conjunction with the IP address.  | 
                                                                
| Receive Buffer Size (optional) | Depending on the amount of traffic being ingested by the input, this value should be large enough to ensure proper flow of data but small enough to prevent the system from spending resources trying to process the buffered data. | 
| No. of worker threads | 
                                                                         This setting controls how many concurrent threads are used to process incoming data. Increasing the number of threads can enhance data processing speed, resulting in improved throughput. The ideal number of threads to configure depends on the available CPU cores on your Graylog server. A common starting point is to align the number of worker threads with the number of CPU cores. However, it is crucial to strike a balance with other server demands.  | 
                                                                
| 
                                                                         Override source (optional)  | 
                                                                    Allows you to override the source field for all incoming messages. | 
| 
                                                                         Encoding (optional)  | 
                                                                    Enables usage of a custom timestamp field in incoming messages. | 
Next Steps
After you complete input setup, visit Input Diagnosis for testing and validation of the new input. Use this functionality to help troubleshoot any connection issues.
Further Reading
Explore the following additional resources and recommended readings to expand your knowledge on related topics:
