Install Vector via Window Installer

Vector can be installed from an MSI package through the Windows Installer.

Install

The daemon deployment strategy is designed for data collection on a single host. Vector runs in the background, in its own process, collecting all data for that host. Typically data is collected from a process manager, such as Journald via Vector's journald source, but can be collected through any of Vector's sources. The following diagram demonstrates how it works.

Vector daemon deployment strategyVector daemon deployment strategy
1. Your service logs to STDOUT
STDOUT follows the 12 factor principles.
2. STDOUT is captured
STDOUT is captured by your platform.
3. Vector collects & fans-out data
Vector collects data from your platform.

  1. Download the Vector .msi file

    powershell Invoke-WebRequest https://packages.timber.io/vector/0.9.X/vector-x64.msi -OutFile vector-x64.msi

    Looking for a specific version?

  2. Install the Vector .msi package using msiexec command

    msiexec /i vector-x64.msi /quiet

  3. Navigate to the Vector directory

    cd "C:\Program Files\Vector"

  4. Configure Vector

    Where do you want to send your data?
    Console
    cat <<-VECTORCFG > config\vector.toml
    [sources.in]
      type = "file" # required
      include = ["/var/log/nginx/*.log"] # required
    

    [sinks.out]
      # General
      type = "console" # required
      inputs = ["in"] # required
    

      # Encoding
      encoding.codec = "json" # required
    VECTORCFG
    explain this command

  5. Start Vector

    .\bin\vector --config config\vector.toml

Configuring

The Vector configuration file is placed in:

%ProgramFiles%\Vector\config\vector.toml

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

Deploying

How you deploy Vector is largely dependent on your use case and environment. Please see the deployment section for more info on how to deploy Vector.

Administering

Vector can be managed as a Windows Service:

Administration

Uninstalling

msiexec /x {7FAD6F97-D84E-42CC-A600-5F4EC3460FF5} /quiet

Updating

Follow the install steps again, downloading the latest version of Vector.

Package

Architectures

Vector's MSI packages only support the X86_64 architecture.

Versions

Vector's MSI packages can be downloaded with the following URLs. Note that Vector maintains special URLS that are automatically updated whenever Vector is released:

VersionURL
Latest majorhttps://packages.timber.io/vector/latest/vector-x64.msi
Latest minorhttps://packages.timber.io/vector/<MAJOR>.X/vector-x64.msi
Latest patchhttps://packages.timber.io/vector/<MAJOR.MINOR>.X/vector-x64.msi
Specific versionhttps://packages.timber.io/vector/<MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH>/vector-x64.msi
Latest nightlyhttps://packages.timber.io/vector/nightly/latest/vector-x64.msi
Specific nightlyhttps://packages.timber.io/vector/nightly/<YYYY-MM-DD>/vector-x64.msi

Source Files

Vector's MSI source files are located in Vector's repo.

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