Fluent Forward

Fluxtail accepts Fluent Forward v1 Message, Forward, and PackedForward frames over TLS TCP. Uncompressed MessagePack and gzip PackedForward are supported, with optional chunk acknowledgement after publish.

Prerequisites

Create a Fluent Forward receiver, configure the sender’s public IPv4 or CIDR, wait for active, and copy the exact hostname and assigned port.

Fluent Bit output

[OUTPUT]
    Name                  forward
    Match                 *
    Host                  ${FLUXTAIL_FLUENT_FORWARD_HOST}
    Port                  ${FLUXTAIL_FLUENT_FORWARD_PORT}
    Require_ack_response  On
    Compress              gzip
    Retry_Limit           5
    net.keepalive         On
    tls                   On
    tls.verify            On
    tls.verify_hostname   On
    tls.vhost             ${FLUXTAIL_FLUENT_FORWARD_HOST}

Shared-key Forward authentication and non-gzip compression are not supported.

Verify

Send one known record, open the configured stream in Live Tail, and filter by its tag or message.

Troubleshooting

• Keep TLS and hostname verification enabled.
• Confirm the public source IPv4 rule and endpoint state.
• Enable Require_ack_response so the sender waits for publish acknowledgement.
• Sender fields such as tag, host, service name, and stream ID are data, not authentication.