Logstash Forwarder
Logstash Forwarder is a lightweight data shipper that securely collects and forwards log data from client machines to a central Logstash server for processing. It was originally developed by Elastic as part of the ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) stack to efficiently transport logs with minimal resource usage. It uses the Lumberjack protocol for secure, reliable transmission and has been largely superseded by Filebeat in modern deployments.
Developers should learn Logstash Forwarder when working with legacy logging systems or maintaining older ELK stack implementations that still rely on it for log collection. It's particularly useful in environments where lightweight, secure log forwarding from multiple servers to a central Logstash instance is required, such as in distributed applications or microservices architectures. However, for new projects, Filebeat is recommended as its more feature-rich successor.