Install Vector from source

This page covers installing Vector from source using the native toolchain for the host.

Vector can also be compiled to a static binary for Linux for x86_64, ARM64, and ARMv7 architectures. See compiling using Docker for details.

We recommend installing Vector through a supported platform, package manager, or pre-built archive if possible. These handle permissions, directory creation, and other intricacies covered in the Next Steps section.

Installation

Linux

Install compilation dependencies for your distribution, if they aren’t pre-installed on your system:

# Install Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- -y --default-toolchain stable

# Install protoc
./scripts/environment/install-protoc.sh

# Install other dependencies, example for Ubuntu/Debian:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential cmake curl git

Clone Vector’s source:

git clone https://github.com/vectordotdev/vector
cd vector

# (Optional) Check out a specific version
# git checkout v0.51.1

# Or use the latest release tag
# git checkout $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)

Compile and run Vector:

make build

# Or specify with custom features
# FEATURES="<flag1>,<flag2>,..." make build

# Run your custom build
target/release/vector --config config/vector.yaml

The FEATURES environment variable is optional. You can override the default features using this variable. See feature flags for more info.

Windows

Install Rust using rustup. If you don’t have VC++ build tools, the install will prompt you to install them.

Install and add CMake to PATH.

Install and add Protoc to PATH.

Install Perl for Windows.

Add Perl to your PATH. In a Rust/MSVC environment (for example using x64 Native Tools Command Prompt) add the binary directory of Perl installed on the previous step to PATH. For example, for default installation of Strawberry Perl it is

set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Strawberry\perl\bin

Get Vector’s source using Git:

# Latest
git clone https://github.com/vectordotdev/vector
git checkout v0.51.1
cd vector

# Master
git clone https://github.com/vectordotdev/vector
cd vector

Build Vector in release mode:

set RUSTFLAGS=-Ctarget-feature=+crt-static
cargo build --no-default-features --features default-msvc --release

Start Vector. After these steps, a binary vector.exe in target\release would be created. It can be started by running:

.\target\release\vector --config config\vector.yaml

Docker

You can build statically linked binaries of Vector for Linux using cross in Docker. If you do so, the dependencies listed in the previous section aren’t needed, as all of them would be automatically pulled by Docker.

First, clone Vector’s source:

git clone https://github.com/vectordotdev/vector
cd vector

# (Optional) Check out a specific version
# git checkout v0.51.1

# Alternative: Download tarball
# mkdir -p vector && \
#   curl -sSfL --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 https://api.github.com/repos/vectordotdev/vector/tarball/v0.51.1 | \
#   tar xzf - -C vector --strip-components=1 && cd vector

Second, install cross.

Then build Vector using cross for your target architecture:

# Linux x86_64 (musl - fully static)
make package-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl-all

# Linux x86_64 (glibc - standard)
make package-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-all

# Linux ARM64 (musl)
make package-aarch64-unknown-linux-musl-all

# Linux ARM64 (glibc)
make package-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-all

# Linux ARMv7
make package-armv7-unknown-linux-musleabihf-all

These commands build a Docker image with a Rust toolchain for the target architecture, start a container from this image, and build Vector inside the container. The musl targets create fully static binaries, while gnu targets link against glibc.

The compiled packages will be located in target/artifacts/.

Building Custom Docker Images

You can build custom Docker images with Vector. The repository includes Dockerfiles for different base images in the distribution/docker/ directory.

Using the Alpine Dockerfile (smallest image, musl-based):

# First build the musl binary
make package-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl-all

# Then build the Docker image
cd distribution/docker/alpine
docker build -t my-vector:alpine .

Using the Debian Dockerfile (glibc-based):

# First build the deb package
make package-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-all

# Then build the Docker image
cd distribution/docker/debian
docker build -t my-vector:debian .

Next steps

Configuring

The Vector configuration file is located at:

config/vector.yaml

Example configurations are located in config/vector/examples/*. You can learn more about configuring Vector in the Configuration documentation.

Data directory

We recommend creating a data directory that Vector can use:

mkdir /var/lib/vector

Make sure that this directory is writable by the vector process.

Vector offers a global data_dir option that you can use to specify the path of your directory:

data_dir = "/var/lib/vector" # default

Service managers

Vector archives ship with service files in case you need them:

Init.d

To install Vector into Init.d, run:

cp -av etc/init.d/vector /etc/init.d

Systemd

To install Vector into Systemd, run:

cp -av etc/systemd/vector.service /etc/systemd/system

Updating

To update Vector, follow the same installation instructions above.

How it works

Feature flags

Vector supports many feature flags to customize which features are included in a build. By default, all sources, transforms, and sinks are enabled. To view a complete list of features, they are listed under “[features]” here.

Example of building with only specific components:

# Build with only file source, remap transform, and console sink
FEATURES="api,sources-file,transforms-remap,sinks-console" make build