Install Vector From Archives

This page covers installing Vector from a pre-built archive. These archives contain the vector binary as well as supporting configuration files.

We recommend installing Vector through a supported container platform or package manager, if possible. These handle permissions, directory creation, and other intricacies covered in the Next Steps section.

Installation

• Linux (x86_64)
• Linux (ARM64)
• Linux (ARMv7)
• MacOS (x86_64)
• Windows (x86_64, 7+)

1. Download & unpack the archive

   • Latest (0.5.0)
   • Nightly

   mkdir -p vector && \
     curl -sSfL --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 https://packages.timber.io/vector/0.5.0/vector-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz | \
     tar xzf - -C vector --strip-components=2

2. Change into the vector directory

   cd vector

3. Move vector into your $PATH

   echo "export PATH=\"$(pwd)/vector/bin:$PATH\"" >> $HOME/.profile
   source $HOME/.profile

4. Start Vector

   That's it! You can start vector with:

   vector --config config/vector.toml

Next Steps

Configuring

The Vector configuration file is located at:

config/vector.toml

A full spec is located at config/vector.spec.toml and examples are located in config/vector/examples/*. You can learn more about configuring Vector in the Configuration section.

Data Directory

We highly recommend creating a data directory that Vector can use:

mkdir /var/lib/vector

Make sure that this directory is writable by the vector process.

Vector offers a global data_dir option that you can use to specify the path of your directory.

vector.toml

data_dir = "/var/lib/vector" # default

Service Managers

Vector archives ship with service files in case you need them:

Init.d

To install Vector into Init.d run:

cp -av etc/init.d/vector /etc/init.d

Systemd

To install Vector into Systemd run:

cp -av etc/systemd/vector.service /etc/systemd/system

Updating

Simply follow the same installation instructions above.