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Environment Variables

You can use the following environment variables to configure your Cribl Edge installation.

NamePurpose
CRIBL_TMP_DIRDefines the root of a temporary directory. See Usage Notes below.
CRIBL_VOLUME_DIRSets a directory that persists modified data between different containers or ephemeral instances. When set, this environment variable overrides CRIBL_HOME. It also creates predefined subdirectories in the specified directory. If that directory already contains subdirectories with those names, they will be overwritten.
CRIBL_BOOTSTRAPQuickstart a Cribl instance by configuring this variable.
CRIBL_BOOTSTRAP_HOSTHost name for connecting to the Leader Node when setting up a new Edge Node.
CRIBL_EDGE(Cribl Edge only) When set to any value, runs this command at container start: cribl mode‑edge ‑H 0.0.0.0. This launches the instance as an Edge Node, listening on a host at 0.0.0.0.
CRIBL_EDGE_FS_ROOT(Cribl Edge running in a container only) Location of the host OS filesystem when mounting in a container. Defaults to /hostfs.
CRIBL_K8S_POD(Cribl Edge on Kubernetes only) Sets the name of the Kubernetes Pod in which Cribl Edge is deployed.
CRIBL_K8S_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED(Cribl Edge on Kubernetes only) Set to 0 to disable certificates validation when connecting to the Kubernetes APIs. When you disable this environment variable, all Kubernetes features (including Metadata, Metrics, Logs, and AppScope metadata) will tolerate invalid TLS certificates (such as, expired, self-signed, and so forth) when connecting to the Kubernetes APIs.
CRIBL_SERVICEACCOUNT_PATH(Cribl Edge on Kubernetes only) Path to the ServiceAccount to use to query the Kubernetes API. Defaults to /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount.

Distributed Deployment Variables

You can use the following environment variables to configure your distributed Cribl Edge instance.

NamePurpose
CRIBL_DIST_LEADER_URLURL of the Leader Node. Example: CRIBL_DIST_LEADER_URL=tls://<authToken>@leader:4200. See Usage Notes below.
CRIBL_DIST_MODEworker or master. Defaults to worker, if (and only if) CRIBL_DIST_LEADER_URL is present.
CRIBL_DIST_WORKER_PROXYCommunicate to the Leader Node via a SOCKS proxy. See Usage Notes below.

Usage Notes

This section explains how to use certain complex environment variables.

CRIBL_DIST_LEADER_URL

Use this format:

<tls|tcp>://<authToken>@host:port?group=defaultGroup&tag=tag1&tag=tag2&tls.<tls_settings>

To generate a random authentication token, leave <authToken> unchanged. You can define it to add your own token instead, but make sure it’s secure enough.

Here are the components:

  • group – The preferred Fleet assignment.
  • resiliency – The preferred Leader failover mode.
  • volume– The location of the NFS directory to support Leader failover.
  • tag – A list of tags that you can use to assign (Stream, Edge) the Worker to a Fleet.
  • disableSNIRouting – Whether Server Name Indicator (SNI) routing is enabled on the Edge Node. Boolean; defaults to false.

    Do not edit this advanced setting without supervision by Cribl Support. Changing this setting can affect the scalability of your system because it determines how Cribl Edge routes connections between Leader Nodes and Edge Nodes. See the Known Issue that resulted in this setting for more details.

  • tls.privKeyPath – Private Key Path.
  • tls.passphrase – Key Passphrase.
  • tls.caPath – CA Certificate Path.
  • tls.certPath – Certificate Path.
  • tls.rejectUnauthorized – Validate Client Certs. Boolean; defaults to false.
  • tls.requestCert – Authenticate Client (mutual auth). Boolean; defaults to false.
  • tls.commonNameRegex – Regex matching peer certificate > subject > common names allowed to connect. Used only if tls.requestCert is set to true.

CRIBL_DIST_LEADER_URL was previously called CRIBL_DIST_MASTER_URL. This name is still in use in certain contexts, for example in Helm charts.

CRIBL_TMP_DIR

Sources use this variable to construct temporary directories in which to stage downloaded Parquet data. If CRIBL_TMP_DIR is not set (the default), Cribl applications create subdirectories within your operating system’s default temporary directory:

  • For Cribl Stream: <OS_default_temporary_directory>/stream/.
  • For Cribl Edge: <OS_default_temporary_directory>/edge/.

For example, on Linux, Stream’s default staging directory would be /tmp/stream/.

If you explicitly set this CRIBL_TMP_DIR environment variable, its value replaces this OS-specific default parent directory.

CRIBL_DIST_WORKER_PROXY

Use the format <socks4|socks5>://<username>:<password>@<host>:<port>. Only <host>:<port> are required.

The default protocol is socks5://, but you can specify socks4://proxyhost:port if needed.

To authenticate on a SOCKS4 proxy with username and password, use this format: username:password@proxyhost:port. The proxyhost can be a hostname, ip4, or ip6.

CRIBL_BOOTSTRAP_HOST

CRIBL_BOOTSTRAP_HOST overrides the Add/Bootstrap New Worker script generator’s default hostname.

For example, if you set CRIBL_BOOTSTRAP=myhost, then myhost will appear in the script modal’s Leader hostname/IP field, instead of the URL used in the browser.

CRIBL_BOOTSTRAP

CRIBL_BOOTSTRAP enables specifying a URL, an absolute disk file path, or a YAML string, in order to bootstrap a configuration to the $CRIBL_HOME/local directory. Cribl Edge applies this configuration only upon its first startup.

For any method, Cribl Edge expects each targeted config file to be YAML-formatted. Each file’s top-level keys should be the paths to config files inside the $CRIBL_HOME/local/... subdirectory.

Below is an example of a bootstrap file. Its output, when Cribl Edge starts, would be to create three files inside the $CRIBL_HOME/local/cribl path: inputs.yml, outputs.yml, and pipelines/route.yml.

cribl/inputs.yml:
  inputs:
    <id>:
      <config>
cribl/outputs.yml:
  outputs:
    <id>:
      <config>
cribl/pipelines/route.yml:
  id: default
  groups: {}
  comments: []
  routes:
    ...

For details about each file’s syntax, see Config Files and its child topics.

Adding Fallback Leaders

You can configure fallback Leader Nodes to support high availability and failover. Use the following environment variables.

NamePurpose
CRIBL_DIST_MASTER_RESILIENCY=failoverSets the Leader’s Resiliency to Failover mode.
CRIBL_DIST_MASTER_FAILOVER_VOLUME=/tmp/sharedSets the location of the NFS directory to support Leader failover.
CRIBL_DIST_MASTER_FAILOVER_MISSED_HB_LIMITDetermines how many Lease refresh periods elapse before the standby Nodes attempt to promote themselves to primary. Cribl recommends setting this to 3.
CRIBL_DIST_MASTER_FAILOVER_PERIODDetermines how often the primary Leader refreshes its hold on the Lease file. Cribl recommends setting this to 5s.
CRIBL_INSTANCE_HOMEIn Failover mode, this variable points to the Leader Node’s root directory, as opposed to the shared volume. It is used to access $CRIBL_INSTANCE_HOME/local/_system/instance.yml (C:\ProgramData\Cribl\local\_system.yml for Cribl Edge on Windows).

GitOps Variables

Cribl Edge provides the following environment variables to facilitate using GitOps in Cribl Stream.

You can use these variables to override the defaults in the UI if you are not using systemd to manage the cribl service.

Bootstrap Variables

NamePurpose
CRIBL_GIT_REMOTELocation of the remote repo to track. Can contain username and password for HTTPS auth.
GIT_SSH / GIT_SSH_COMMANDSee Git’s documentation.
CRIBL_GIT_BRANCHGit ref (branch, tag, commit) to track/check out.
CRIBL_GIT_AUTHOne of: none, basic, or ssh.
CRIBL_GIT_USERUsed for basic auth.
CRIBL_GIT_PASSWORDUsed for basic auth.
CRIBL_GIT_OPSControls which GitOps workflow to use. One of: push to enable the GitOps push workflow, or none to disable GitOps.
CRIBL_INTERACTIVEControls whether git commands called by Cribl CLI at startup are interactive.
CRIBL_GIT_SSH_KEYContent of the SSH key used to access git remote.
CRIBL_GIT_STRICT_HOST_KEY_CHECKINGControls whether to check the host key strictly.

Additional Environment Variables

Cribl Edge uses the following variables for multiple purposes.

NamePurpose
CRIBL_SPOOL_DIRSpecifies the base path where events from various Sources and Destinations are spooled. Defaults to $CRIBL_HOME/state/spool or $CRIBL_VOLUME_DIR/state/spool.

CRIBL_HOME

CRIBL_HOME is a special internal environment variable that indicates the location of the Cribl binary (bin directory). You do not set it manually, but it is referred to in multiple places and commands.