4. Basic Principles

The following principles apply to syslog communication:

The syslog protocol does not provide acknowledgment of message delivery. Though some transports may provide status information, conceptually, syslog is a pure simplex communications protocol.
Originators and relays may be configured to send the same message to multiple collectors and relays.
Originator, relay, and collector functionality may reside on the same system.

4.1. Example Deployment Scenarios

Sample deployment scenarios are shown in Diagram 2. Other arrangements of these examples are also acceptable. As noted, in the following diagram, relays may send all or some of the messages that they receive and also send messages that they generate internally. The boxes represent syslog-enabled applications.

+----------+ +---------+
|Originator|---->----|Collector|
+----------+ +---------+

+----------+ +-----+ +---------+
|Originator|---->----|Relay|---->----|Collector|
+----------+ +-----+ +---------+

+----------+ +-----+ +-----+ +---------+
|Originator|-->--|Relay|-->--..-->--|Relay|-->--|Collector|
+----------+ +-----+ +-----+ +---------+

+----------+ +-----+ +---------+
|Originator|---->----|Relay|---->----|Collector|
|          |-+ +-----+ +---------+
+----------+ \
             \ +-----+ +---------+
              +->--|Relay|---->----|Collector|
                   +-----+ +---------+

+----------+ +---------+
|Originator|---->----|Collector|
|          |-+ +---------+
+----------+ \
             \ +-----+ +---------+
              +->--|Relay|---->----|Collector|
                   +-----+ +---------+

+----------+ +-----+ +---------+
|Originator|---->----|Relay|---->-------|Collector|
|          |-+ +-----+ +---| |
+----------+ \               / +---------+
              \ +-----+     /
               +->--|Relay|-->--/
                    +-----+

+----------+ +-----+ +---------+
|Originator|---->----|Relay|---->--------------|Collector|
|          |-+ +-----+ +--| |
+----------+ \               / +---------+
              \ +------------+ /
               \ |+----------+| /
                +->-||Relay    ||->---/
                    |+----------|| /
                    ||Originator||->-/
                    |+----------+|
                    +------------+

Diagram 2. Some Possible Syslog Deployment Scenarios

4.1. Example Deployment Scenarios​

4.1. Example Deployment Scenarios