Activate Syslog Collector

Learn how to set up and activate the Syslog Collector applet on a Broker VM within your network.

Notice

Ingesting logs and data from external sources requires a Cortex XDR Pro per GB license.

Note

Collecting data from Corelight Zeek, Forcepoint DLP, and PingFederate by activating the Syslog Collector applet is only possible in your tenant if the tenant was activated before October 1, 2025 with an active Data Collection add-on.

To receive Syslog data from an external source, you must first set up the Syslog Collector applet on a Broker VM within your network.

Specifications and limits

To ensure reliable data ingestion, observe the following technical specifications and protocol-specific constraints:

• Ingestion rate​​: The Syslog Collector supports a log ingestion rate of up to 90,000 logs per second (lps) with the recommended Broker VM setup.
• Port capacity​​: The Syslog Collector listens for logs on specific ports and from any or specific IP addresses. A single Syslog Collector configuration supports up to 100 ports.
• Protocol support​​: The collector supports TCP, Secure TCP, and UDP, following the RFC 6587 standard for transmission over TCP.

Message size limitations

• UDP​​: Each syslog message is limited to 4 KB (the size of the read buffer). Messages exceeding this size will be truncated.
• TCP with Non-Transparent-Framing​​: This is the most common option, using the newline character ​\n​​ (Hex 0x0A) as the end-of-line delimiter for syslog messages. In this mode, each message is limited to 64 KB. Messages larger than 64 KB are dropped and will cause the connection to close.
• TCP with Octet Framing​​: This method relies on the length specified by the sender. There is no explicit message size limit; the only practical limitation is the available system memory. This is the recommended framing for messages exceeding 64 KB.

Prerequisite

Set up and configure Broker VM

Perform the following procedures in the order listed below.

Task 1. Add a Syslog Collector

1. Select Settings → Configurations → Data Broker → Broker VMs.
2. Do one of the following:

   • On the Brokers tab, find the Broker VM, and in the APPS column, left-click Add → Syslog Collector.
   • On the Clusters tab, find the Broker VM, and in the APPS column, left-click Add → Syslog Collector.

Task 2. Configure the Syslog Collector

Cortex XDR supports multiple sources over a single port on a single Syslog Collector. The following options are available:

• Edit the Optional Settings of the default PORT/PROTOCOL: 514/UDP. See Task 3.

  Note

  Once configured, you cannot change the Port/PROTOCOL. If you don’t want to use a data source, ensure to remove the data source from the list as explained in Task 5.
• Add a new Syslog Collector data source. See Task 4.

Task 3. Edit the default 514/UDP Syslog Collector data source

1. Right-click the 514/UDP PORT/PROTOCOL, and select Edit.
2. Configure these Optional Settings:

   Field	Description
   Format	Select the Syslog format you want to send to the UDP 514 protocol and port on the Syslog Collector: Auto-Detect (default), CEF, LEEF, CISCO, or RAW. Note The Vendor and Product defaults to Auto-Detect when the Log Format is set to CEF or LEEF. For a Log Format set to CEF or LEEF, Cortex XDR reads events row by row to look for the Vendor and Product configured in the logs. When the values are populated in the event log row, Cortex XDR uses these values even if you specified a value in the Vendor and Product fields in the Syslog Collector settings. Yet, when the values are blank in the event log row, Cortex XDR uses the Vendor and Product that you specified in the Syslog Collector settings. If you did not specify a Vendor or Product in the Syslog Collector settings and the values are blank in the event log row, the values for both fields are set to unknown. CORELIGHT is not available for a UDP protocol.
   Vendor and Product	Specify a particular vendor and product for the Syslog format defined or leave the default Auto-Detect setting.
   Source Network	Specify the IP address or Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR). If you leave this blank, Cortex XDR will allow receipt of logs from any source IP address or CIDR that transmits over the specified protocol and port. When you specify overlapping addresses in the Source Network field in multiple rows, such as 10.0.0.10 in the first row and 10.0.0.0/24 in the second row, the order of the addresses matter. In this example, the IP address 10.0.0.10 is only captured from the first row definition. For more information on prioritizing the order of the syslog formats, see Task 5.

   After each configuration, select to save the changes and then Done to update the Syslog Collector with your settings.

Task 4. Add a new Syslog Collector data source

1. Select Add New.
2. Configure these mandatory General settings:

Protocol

Choose a protocol over which the Syslog will be sent: UDP, TCP, or Secure TCP.

When configuring the Protocol as Secure TCP, these additional General Settings are available:

• Server Certificate: Browse to your server certificate to configure server authentication.
• Private Key: Browse to your private key for the server certificate.
• Optional CA Certificate: (Optional) Browse to your CA certificate for mutual authentication.

  The log forwarder (for example, a firewall) authenticates the Broker VM by default. The Broker VM does not authenticate the log forwarder by default, but you can use this option to set set up such authentication. If you use this option, ensure that you have a client certificate on the log forwarding side that matches the CA certificate on the Broker VM side.
• Minimal TLS Version: Select either 1.0 or 1.2 (default) as the minimum TLS version allowed.

Note

• The server certificate and private key pair is expected in a PEM format.
• Cortex XDR will notify you when your certificates are about to expire.

Port

Choose a port on which the Syslog Collector will listen for logs. A Syslog Collector configuration supports up to 100 ports.

Note

Because some port numbers are reserved by Cortex XDR , you must choose a port number that is not:

• In the range of 0-1024 (except for 514)
• In the range of 63000-65000
• Values of 4052, 4369, 5671, 5672, 5986, 6379, 8000, 8888, 9100, 15672, or 28672

3. Configure these Optional Settings:

Field	Description
Format	Select the Syslog format you want to send to the protocol and port on the Syslog Collector: Auto-Detect (default), CEF, LEEF, CISCO, CORELIGHT, or RAW. Note CORELIGHT is not available for a UDP protocol.
Vendor and Product	Enter a particular vendor and product for the Syslog format defined or leave the default Auto-Detect setting.
Source Network	Specify the IP address or Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR). If you leave this blank, Cortex XDR will allow receipt of logs from any source IP address or CIDR that transmits over the specified protocol and port. When you specify overlapping addresses in the Source Network field in multiple rows, such as 10.0.0.10 in the first row and 10.0.0.0/24 in the second row, the order of the addresses matter. In this example, the IP address 10.0.0.10 is only captured from the first row definition. For more information on prioritizing the order of the syslog formats, see Task 5.

After each configuration, select to save the changes and then Done to update the Syslog Collector with your settings.

Task 5. Make additional changes to the Syslog Collector data sources configured

• To remove a Syslog Collector data source, right-click the row after the Port/Protocol entry, and select Remove.
• To prioritize the order of the Syslog formats listed for the protocols and ports configured, drag and drop the rows to the order you require.

Task 6. Save the Syslog Collector settings

Click Save. After a successful activation, the APPS field displays Syslog with a green dot indicating a successful connection.

Task 7. (optional) View metrics about the Syslog Collector

To view metrics about the Syslog Collector, left-click the Syslog connection in the APPS field for your Broker VM. Cortex XDR displays the following information:

Metric	Description
Connectivity Status	Whether the applet is connected to Cortex XDR.
Logs Received and Logs Sent	Number of logs received and sent by the applet per second over the last 24 hours. If the number of incoming logs received is larger than the number of logs sent, it could indicate a connectivity issue.
Resources	Displays the amount of CPU, Memory, and Disk space the applet is using.

Step 8. Manage the Syslog Collector

After the Syslog Collector has been activated, you can make additional changes to your configuration if needed. To modify a configuration, left-click the Syslog connection in the APPS column to display the Syslog Collector settings, and select:

• Configure to redefine the Syslog configurations.
• Deactivate to disable the Syslog Collector.