Fluent Forward

The Fluent Forward source receives logs from Fluentd, Fluent Bit, and any agent capable of emitting over the Fluent Forward Protocol. Bindplane runs a listener that accepts forwarded log records, which is useful for integrating OpenTelemetry collectors into an environment where Fluentd or Fluent Bit is already the primary log collection system.

Supported Telemetry Types

Platform	Metrics	Logs	Traces
Linux		✓
Windows		✓
macOS		✓
Kubernetes Gateway		✓
OpenShift Gateway		✓

Prerequisites

• A Fluentd, Fluent Bit, or other agent configured to forward logs using the Fluent Forward Protocol.
• The collector reachable from the forwarding agent on the configured listen address and port (default 24224).

Configuration

General

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
Listen Address	String	0.0.0.0	The IP address to listen on and receive logs from Fluent Forward capable agents.
Port	Integer	24224	TCP port to listen on and receive logs from Fluent Forward capable agents. Must be between 0 and 65535.

Example Configuration

Standalone Source

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Source
metadata:
  id: fluentforward
  name: fluentforward
spec:
  type: fluentforward
  parameters:
    - name: listen_address
      value: '0.0.0.0'
    - name: port
      value: '24224'

Configuration Tips

Pointing your Fluent agent at the collector

• Configure the Fluentd forward output plugin or the Fluent Bit forward output to send to the collector's host and the port set above. The default port for the Fluent Forward Protocol is 24224.
• The collector preserves the original forwarded record on each log under the log.record.original attribute, so the unmodified payload remains available to downstream processors.

Kubernetes and OpenShift

• The Fluent Forward source supports Kubernetes Gateway and OpenShift Gateway collectors. Applications within the cluster forward logs to the gateway through a Service.
• Create a ClusterIP Service whose port matches the port configured on the source, then apply it to your cluster:

# bindplane-gateway-agent-svc-fluent.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/component: gateway
    app.kubernetes.io/name: bindplane-agent
  name: bindplane-gateway-agent-fluent
  namespace: bindplane-agent
spec:
  ports:
  - name: fluent
    port: 24224
    targetPort: 24224
    protocol: TCP
  selector:
    app.kubernetes.io/component: gateway
    app.kubernetes.io/name: bindplane-agent
  type: ClusterIP

Troubleshooting

Symptom: No logs arrive at the collector from the Fluent agent. Solution: Confirm the forwarding agent points at the collector's listen address and port, and that the port matches the port parameter on the source. Verify no firewall or network policy blocks traffic to the configured port (default 24224).

Symptom: The collector is not reachable on the expected interface. Solution: The default listen_address of 0.0.0.0 binds all interfaces. If you set a specific address, make sure it is an interface the collector host actually owns and that the forwarding agent can route to it.

Symptom: On a Kubernetes or OpenShift Gateway collector, in-cluster applications cannot reach the source. Solution: Create a ClusterIP Service whose port matches the source port and apply it to the cluster (see Kubernetes and OpenShift).

Related Resources

• Fluent Forward Protocol specification
• Fluentd forward output plugin
• Fluent Bit forward output plugin
• Custom Service for Kubernetes collectors