LogStash init.d service script.

logstash

#! /bin/sh
#
#       /etc/rc.d/init.d/logstash
#
#       Starts Logstash as a daemon
#
# chkconfig: 2345 20 80
# description: Starts Logstash as a daemon

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: logstash
# Required-Start: $local_fs $remote_fs
# Required-Stop: $local_fs $remote_fs
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: S 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Logstash
# Description: Starts Logstash as a daemon.

### END INIT INFO

. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin
NAME=logstash
DESC="Logstash Daemon"
DEFAULT=/etc/sysconfig/$NAME

if [ `id -u` -ne 0 ]; then
   echo "You need root privileges to run this script"
   exit 1
fi

# The following variables can be overwritten in $DEFAULT

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/bin

# Directory where the logstash all in one jar lives
LS_HOME=/usr/local/bin/logstash
export HOME=$LS_HOME

# logstash log directory
LOG_DIR=/var/log/logstash

# logstash configuration directory
CONF_DIR=/etc/logstash.conf

# logstash log file
LOG_FILE=$LOG_DIR/$NAME.log

# Open File limit
OPEN_FILES=4096

# Nice level
NICE=19

# Filter threads
FILTER_THREADS=1

# End of variables that can be overwritten in $DEFAULT

if [ -f "$DEFAULT" ]; then
  . "$DEFAULT"
fi

# Define other required variables
PID_FILE=/var/run/logstash/logstash.pid

JAVA=`which java`
JAR="${LS_HOME}/logstash.jar"
ARGS="-jar ${JAR} agent --config ${CONF_DIR} --log ${LOG_FILE} -w ${FILTER_THREADS}"

is_true() {
    if [ "x$1" = "xtrue" -o "x$1" = "xyes" -o "x$1" = "x1" ] ; then
        return 0
    else
        return 1
    fi
}

#
# Function that starts the daemon/service
#
do_start()
{

  if ! is_true "$START" ; then
    echo "logstash not configured to start, please edit $DEFAULT to enable"
    exit 0
  fi

  if [ -z "$JAVA" ]; then
    echo "no JDK found - $JAVA"
    exit 1
  fi

  if ! test -e "${JAR}"; then
    echo "Daemon $DAEMON doesn't exist"
    exit 1
  fi

  if pidofproc -p "$PID_FILE" >/dev/null; then
    failure
    exit 99
  fi

  ulimit -n $OPEN_FILES

  cd $LS_HOME
  $JAVA $ARGS > /dev/null 1>&1 &

  RETVAL=$?
  local PID=`pgrep -f "${DAEMON} ${ARGS}"`
  echo $PID > $PID_FILE
  success
}

#
# Function that stops the daemon/service
#
do_stop()
{
    killproc -p $PID_FILE $DAEMON
    RETVAL=$?
    echo
    [ $RETVAL = 0 ] && rm -f ${PID_FILE}
}

case "$1" in
  start)
    echo -n "Starting $DESC: "
    do_start
    touch /var/run/logstash/$NAME
    ;;
  stop)
    echo -n "Stopping $DESC: "
    do_stop
    rm /var/run/logstash/$NAME
    ;;
  restart|reload)
    echo -n "Restarting $DESC: "
    do_stop
    do_start
    ;;
  status)
    echo -n "$DESC"
    status -p $PID_FILE
    exit $?
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart}" >&2
    exit 3
    ;;
esac

echo
exit 0

Thank you for the script.
Just curious, why specify NICE=19? Why assign lowest priority to a process that is very CPU intensive?
I based my init script off of this and couldn't understand why logstash was underperforming. On closely examining the init script, i discovered the NICE setting. Once i removed the NICE value, things started performing as expected.

@cybervedaa I believe that's because of the philosophy that log forwarding (and other monitoring) tools shouldn't take up the CPU cycles meant for application itself.