<p>We re trying to eliminate Datadog agents from our infrastructure. I am trying to find a solution to forward the containers standard output logs to be visualised on datadog but without the agents and without changing the dockerfiles because there are hundreds of them.</p>

<p>I was thinking about trying to centralize the logs with rsyslog but I dont know if its a good idea. Any suggestions ?</p>

<p><a href="https://docs.datadoghq.com/integrations/#cat-log-collection" rel="nofollow noreferrer">This doc will show you a comprehensive list</a> of all integrations that involve log collection. Some of these include other common log shippers, which can also be used to forward logs to Datadog. Among these you'd find...</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://docs.datadoghq.com/integrations/fluentd/#log-collection" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Fluentd</a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.datadoghq.com/integrations/logstash/#log-collection" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Logstash</a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.datadoghq.com/integrations/rsyslog/?tab=datadogussite" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Rsyslog</a> (for linux)</li>
<li><a href="https://docs.datadoghq.com/integrations/syslog_ng/?tab=datadogussite" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Syslog-ng</a> (for linux, windows)</li>
<li><a href="https://docs.datadoghq.com/integrations/nxlog/?tab=datadogussite" rel="nofollow noreferrer">nxlog</a> (for windows)</li>
</ul>

<p>That said, you <a href="https://docs.datadoghq.com/agent/faq/the-datadog-agent-for-logs-or-traces-only/?tab=logs" rel="nofollow noreferrer">can still just use the Datadog agent to collect logs only</a> (they want you to collect everything with their agent, that's why they warn you against collecting just their logs).</p>

<p>If you want to collect logs from docker containers, the Datadog agent is an easy way to do that, and it has the benefit of adding lots of relevant docker-metadata as tags to your logs. (<a href="https://docs.datadoghq.com/logs/log_collection/docker/?tab=containerinstallation" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Docker log collection instructions here</a>.)</p>

<p>If you don't want to do that, I'd look at Fluentd first on the list above -- it has a good reputation for containerized log collection, promotes JSON log formatting (for easier processing), and scales reasonably well. </p>
