Syslog is a standard protocol used for collecting system log messages from various machines in a central location. Open source tools like syslog-ng and rsyslog can make it easier to forward logs to centralized locations like New Relic. Rsyslog is an open source, Unix-based utility that collects, transforms, filters, and routes log messages in an IP network. It's widely used due to its flexibility and simplicity. To get started with rsyslog, users need to install the necessary packages, create a configuration file, and restart the service. The configuration can be tailored to forward specific logs to New Relic or other destinations. Disk-assisted queuing provides reliability by combining memory and disk queueing. Users can enable this feature by editing their /etc/rsyslog.conf file or creating a new file in the /etc/rsyslog.d/ directory.