:Create a custom identifier-based machine group

Procedure

1. Create a file named user_defined_id in a specific directory.

   • Linux server: Create the file in the /etc/ilogtail/user_defined_id directory.

   • Windows server: Create the file in the C:\LogtailData\user_defined_id directory.

2. Configure a custom identifier for your servers.

   Important

   • Windows and Linux servers cannot be added to the same machine group. Do not configure the same custom identifier for Linux and Windows servers.

   • You can configure one or more custom identifiers for a single server and separate the identifiers with line feeds.

   • On a Linux server, if the /etc/ilogtail/ directory or the /etc/ilogtail/user_defined_id file does not exist, you must create the directory and file. On a Windows server, if the C:\LogtailData directory or the C:\LogtailData\user_defined_id file does not exist, you must also create the directory and file.

   • Linux server

     Configure a custom identifier in the /etc/ilogtail/user_defined_id file. For example, if you want to configure the custom identifier as userdefined, run the following command to edit the file. Then, enter userdefined in the file and save the file.

     vim /etc/ilogtail/user_defined_id

   • Windows server

     Configure a custom identifier in the C:\LogtailData\user_defined_id file. For example, if you want to configure the custom identifier as userdefined_windows, enter userdefined_windows in the C:\LogtailData\user_defined_id file and save the file.

3. Log on to the Simple Log Service console.

4. In the Projects section, click the project that you want to manage.

   

5. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Resources > Machine Groups.

6. On the right side of Machine Groups, choose > Create Machine Group.

7. In the Create Machine Group panel, configure the parameters and click OK. The following table describes the parameters.

   Parameter	Description
   Name	The name of the machine group. Important After the machine group is created, you cannot change the name of the machine group. Proceed with caution.
   Machine Group Identifier	The identifier type of the machine group. Select Custom Identifier.
   Machine Group Topic	The topic of the machine group. The topic is used to identify logs that are generated by different servers. For more information, see Log topics.
   Custom Identifier	The custom identifier of the machine group. Specify the custom identifier that you configured in Step 2.

8. View the status of the machine group.

   1. In the Machine Groups list, click the machine group that you want to manage.

   2. On the Machine Group Configurations page, view the servers that have the same custom identifier and the heartbeat status of each server.

      • The Machine Group Status section displays the IP addresses of the servers that have the same custom identifier.

        For example, a custom identifier-based machine group is created, the custom identifier is userdefined, and the IP addresses in the Machine Group Status section are 10.10.10.10, 10.10.10.11, and 10.10.10.12. This indicates that you configured the same custom identifier for the servers in the machine group. If you want to add another server to the machine group and the IP address of the server is 10.10.10.13, configure a custom identifier for the server as userdefined. Then, you can view the IP address of the server in the Machine Group Status section.

      • If the value in the Heartbeat column for a server is OK, Logtail on the server is connected to Simple Log Service. If the value is FAIL, the connection failed. For more information, see What do I do if a Logtail machine group has no heartbeats?

        Important

        If you check the status of a machine group immediately after the machine group is created, the heartbeat may be FAIL because the connection has not taken effect. In this case, click Refresh.

      

Disable a custom identifier

If you want to change the value of the Machine Group Identifier parameter to IP Address, you must delete the user_defined_id file. The new configurations take effect within 1 minute.

• Linux

  rm -f /etc/ilogtail/user_defined_id

• Windows

  del C:\LogtailData\user_defined_id

Effective period