rsyslog not connecting to elasticsearch in docker - docker

Question

I am trying to capture syslog messages sent over the network using rsyslog, and then have rsyslog capture, transform and send these messages to elasticsearch.
I found a nice article on the configuration on https://www.reddit.com/r/devops/comments/9g1nts/rsyslog_elasticsearch_logging/
Problem is that rsyslog keeps popping up an error at startup that it cannot connect to Elasticsearch on the same machine on port 9200. Error I get is
Failed to connect to localhost port 9200: Connection refused
2020-03-20T12:57:51.610444+00:00 53fd9e2560d9 rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="8.36.0" x-pid="1" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] start
rsyslogd: omelasticsearch: we are suspending ourselfs due to server failure 7: Failed to connect to localhost port 9200: Connection refused [v8.36.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2007 ]
Anyone can help on this?
Everything is running in docker on a single machine. I use below docker compose file to start the stack.
version: "3"
services:
elasticsearch:
image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:7.6.1
environment:
- discovery.type=single-node
- xpack.security.enabled=false
ports:
- 9200:9200
networks:
- logging-network
kibana:
image: docker.elastic.co/kibana/kibana:7.6.1
depends_on:
- logstash
ports:
- 5601:5601
networks:
- logging-network
rsyslog:
image: rsyslog/syslog_appliance_alpine:8.36.0-3.7
environment:
- TZ=UTC
- xpack.security.enabled=false
ports:
- 514:514/tcp
- 514:514/udp
volumes:
- ./rsyslog.conf:/etc/rsyslog.conf:ro
- rsyslog-work:/work
- rsyslog-logs:/logs
volumes:
rsyslog-work:
rsyslog-logs:
networks:
logging-network:
driver: bridge
rsyslog.conf file below:
global(processInternalMessages="on")
#module(load="imtcp" StreamDriver.AuthMode="anon" StreamDriver.Mode="1")
module(load="impstats") # config.enabled=`echo $ENABLE_STATISTICS`)
module(load="imrelp")
module(load="imptcp")
module(load="imudp" TimeRequery="500")
module(load="omstdout")
module(load="omelasticsearch")
module(load="mmjsonparse")
module(load="mmutf8fix")
input(type="imptcp" port="514")
input(type="imudp" port="514")
input(type="imrelp" port="1601")
# includes done explicitely
include(file="/etc/rsyslog.conf.d/log_to_logsene.conf" config.enabled=`echo $ENABLE_LOGSENE`)
include(file="/etc/rsyslog.conf.d/log_to_files.conf" config.enabled=`echo $ENABLE_LOGFILES`)
#try to parse a structured log
action(type="mmjsonparse")
# this is for index names to be like: rsyslog-YYYY.MM.DD
template(name="rsyslog-index" type="string" string="rsyslog-%$YEAR%.%$MONTH%.%$DAY%")
# this is for formatting our syslog in JSON with #timestamp
template(name="json-syslog" type="list") {
constant(value="{")
constant(value="\"#timestamp\":\"") property(name="timereported" dateFormat="rfc3339")
constant(value="\",\"host\":\"") property(name="hostname")
constant(value="\",\"severity\":\"") property(name="syslogseverity-text")
constant(value="\",\"facility\":\"") property(name="syslogfacility-text")
constant(value="\",\"program\":\"") property(name="programname")
constant(value="\",\"tag\":\"") property(name="syslogtag" format="json")
constant(value="\",") property(name="$!all-json" position.from="2")
# closing brace is in all-json
}
# this is where we actually send the logs to Elasticsearch (localhost:9200 by default)
action(type="omelasticsearch" template="json-syslog" searchIndex="rsyslog-index" dynSearchIndex="on")
#################### default ruleset begins ####################
# we emit our own messages to docker console:
syslog.* :omstdout:
include(file="/config/droprules.conf" mode="optional") # this permits the user to easily drop unwanted messages
action(name="main_utf8fix" type="mmutf8fix" replacementChar="?")
include(text=`echo $CNF_CALL_LOG_TO_LOGFILES`)
include(text=`echo $CNF_CALL_LOG_TO_LOGSENE`)

Answer 1

First of all you need to run all the containers on the same docker network which in this case are not. Second , after running the containers on the same network , login to rsyslog container and check if 9200 is available.