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Devo Relay

Owned by Juan Tomás Alonso Nieto (Deactivated)
May 27, 2022
2 min read
[ 1 Overview ] [ 2 Is it necessary to use a relay? ]

Overview

Devo Relay is a software application that receives inbound events from data sources (push sources), applies processing rules and tagging to the events, and then forwards them to a Devo deployment over a secure channel using SSL/TLS encryption.

We strongly recommend that you set up and use a relay, especially when it's not possible to send events directly from the source system to Devo securely and with its associated tag. 

In addition to tagging events based on configurable rules and providing a secure channel to Devo, the relay also:

  • Authenticates in Devo using SSL/TLS client authentication so all data is properly stored in the client Devo domain.

  • Eliminates the need to enable isolated data sources with internet access.

  • Offers the ability to compress the data to minimize bandwidth requirements for data sending.

  • Uses rules to apply filters in order to weed out the events you don't need to save in your Devo deployment.

  • Temporarily stores the events in the buffer in case there's an outbound connection error so events can be resent when the connection is restored.

Since Devo Relay is designed to reside within the same network as the event sources it forwards, it does not natively accept inbound traffic with SSL encryption. However, if you need to send SSL encrypted data to relay, here's one way of doing it.

TLS version

Note that Devo Relay sends data using TLS v1.2

Is it necessary to use a relay?

No, it's not always necessary to use a relay. If an event source has internet connectivity, can correctly tag its events, and send them over a secure channel to the Devo cloud, you can send them directly. For example, you can monitor system logs files on Unix-like servers, then send them properly tagged and over a secure channel to the Devo cloud by using the rsyslog or syslog-ng protocols. 

Alternatively, there are 3rd party and open-source data collection tools like NXlog and Fluentd that you can also use. Read about all of them here.

Although there are several alternatives for sending data to Devo, you should keep in mind that Devo Relay provides some additional benefits:

  • Optimized cloud storage - You can configure the relay to filter out unnecessary events before forwarding them to the Devo cloud.

  • Minimize bandwidth requirements - The relay compresses event data for faster data transmission.

  • Avoid data loss - The relay retains events in the buffer so that transient connection errors don't result in data loss.

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