Fluentd is an open-source data collector developed by Sadayuki "Sada" Furuhashi in 2011, primarily supported by Treasure Data, Inc., that enables the unification of data collection and consumption. The configuration of Fluentd involves several directives, such as source, match, filter, system, label, and include, each serving distinct roles in defining input sources, output destinations, and processing pipelines. Various plugins and parameters are available for customizing these directives, with examples including the 'tail' input plugin for reading file logs and the 'match' directive for routing logs to outputs like stdout or HTTP endpoints. Fluentd supports complex configurations for parsing and transforming logs, such as using the 'multiline' parser for multiline logs and 'record_transformer' for data manipulation, which allows integration with platforms like Coralogix by ensuring logs meet API requirements. Additionally, the guide provides examples of Fluentd configurations that demonstrate how to separate, transform, and route logs efficiently for different use cases.