Logstash
Logstash is an open-source data processing pipeline tool that ingests, transforms, and outputs data from various sources. It is part of the Elastic Stack (formerly ELK Stack) and is commonly used for log aggregation, parsing, and enrichment before sending data to destinations like Elasticsearch for analysis. It supports a wide range of inputs, filters, and outputs through its plugin-based architecture.
Developers should learn Logstash when building centralized logging systems, real-time data processing pipelines, or ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) workflows, especially in DevOps and monitoring contexts. It is ideal for handling unstructured log data from servers, applications, and IoT devices, transforming it into structured formats for easier analysis and visualization in tools like Kibana.