diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2cf5a6d9..5bee85b1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -165,6 +165,7 @@ contains the following fields:
 * availability zone
 * instance group
 * instance ID
+* instance index
 
 The structured data may also contain an optional `environment` field if
 provided by the operator.
@@ -172,14 +173,14 @@ provided by the operator.
 The whole thing looks something like this:
 
 ```
-<$PRI>$VERSION $TIMESTAMP $HOST $APP_NAME $PROC_ID $MSG_ID [instance@47450 director="$DIRECTOR" deployment="$DEPLOYMENT" group="$INSTANCE_GROUP" az="$AVAILABILITY_ZONE" id="$ID"] $MESSAGE
+<$PRI>$VERSION $TIMESTAMP $HOST $APP_NAME $PROC_ID $MSG_ID [instance@47450 director="$DIRECTOR" deployment="$DEPLOYMENT" group="$INSTANCE_GROUP" az="$AVAILABILITY_ZONE" id="$ID" index="$INDEX"] $MESSAGE
 ```
 
 Here are a couple of example messages from diego:
 
 ```
-<14>1 2017-01-25T13:25:03.18377Z 192.0.2.10 etcd cloudfoundry-blackbox - [instance@47450 director="test-env" deployment="cf" group="diego_database" az="us-west1-a" id="83bd66e5-3fdf-44b7-bdd6-508deae7c786"] [INFO] the leader is [https://diego-database-0.etcd.service.cf.internal:4001]
-<14>1 2017-01-25T13:25:03.184491Z 192.0.2.10 bbs cloudfoundry-blackbox - [instance@47450 director="test-env" deployment="cf" group="diego_database" az="us-west1-a" id="83bd66e5-3fdf-44b7-bdd6-508deae7c786"] {"timestamp":"1485350702.539694548","source":"bbs","message":"bbs.request.start-actual-lrp.starting","log_level":1,"data":{"actual_lrp_instance_key":{"instance_guid":"271f71c7-4119-4490-619f-4f44694717c0","cell_id":"diego_cell-2-41f21178-d619-4976-901c-325bc2d0d11d"},"actual_lrp_key":{"process_guid":"1545ce89-01e6-4b8f-9cb1-5654a3ecae10-137e7eb4-12de-457d-8e3e-1258e5a74687","index":5,"domain":"cf-apps"},"method":"POST","net_info":{"address":"192.0.2.12","ports":[{"container_port":8080,"host_port":61532},{"container_port":2222,"host_port":61533}]},"request":"/v1/actual_lrps/start","session":"418.1"}}
+<14>1 2017-01-25T13:25:03.18377Z 192.0.2.10 etcd cloudfoundry-blackbox - [instance@47450 director="test-env" deployment="cf" group="diego_database" az="us-west1-a" id="83bd66e5-3fdf-44b7-bdd6-508deae7c786" index="0"] [INFO] the leader is [https://diego-database-0.etcd.service.cf.internal:4001]
+<14>1 2017-01-25T13:25:03.184491Z 192.0.2.10 bbs cloudfoundry-blackbox - [instance@47450 director="test-env" deployment="cf" group="diego_database" az="us-west1-a" id="83bd66e5-3fdf-44b7-bdd6-508deae7c786" index="0"] {"timestamp":"1485350702.539694548","source":"bbs","message":"bbs.request.start-actual-lrp.starting","log_level":1,"data":{"actual_lrp_instance_key":{"instance_guid":"271f71c7-4119-4490-619f-4f44694717c0","cell_id":"diego_cell-2-41f21178-d619-4976-901c-325bc2d0d11d"},"actual_lrp_key":{"process_guid":"1545ce89-01e6-4b8f-9cb1-5654a3ecae10-137e7eb4-12de-457d-8e3e-1258e5a74687","index":5,"domain":"cf-apps"},"method":"POST","net_info":{"address":"192.0.2.12","ports":[{"container_port":8080,"host_port":61532},{"container_port":2222,"host_port":61533}]},"request":"/v1/actual_lrps/start","session":"418.1"}}
 ```
 
 Note: the `cloudfoundry-blackbox` PROC_ID in the above indicates that the logs
diff --git a/jobs/syslog_forwarder/templates/syslog-release-forwarding-setup.conf.erb b/jobs/syslog_forwarder/templates/syslog-release-forwarding-setup.conf.erb
index e02c0c98..ab578720 100644
--- a/jobs/syslog_forwarder/templates/syslog-release-forwarding-setup.conf.erb
+++ b/jobs/syslog_forwarder/templates/syslog-release-forwarding-setup.conf.erb
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ set $.deployment = "<%= spec.deployment %>";
 set $.instance = "<%= spec.name %>";
 set $.az = "<%= spec.az %>";
 set $.id = "<%= spec.id %>";
+set $.index = "<%= spec.index %>";
 # following https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5424#section-6
 template(name="SyslogForwarderTemplate" type="list") {
   constant(value="<")
@@ -52,6 +53,8 @@ template(name="SyslogForwarderTemplate" type="list") {
   property(name="$.az")
   constant(value="\" id=\"")
   property(name="$.id")
+  constant(value="\" index=\"")
+  property(name="$.index")
   constant(value="\"]")
   property(name="msg" spifno1stsp="on" )
   property(name="msg")