Errors using new rsyslog template syntax on RHEL6

Well, the answer is rather simple (and probably unsatisfactory). The new syntax is not supported in this old version. You need at least v6, but to use all features v7 is required. So far, Red Hat does not ship these for RHEL. As an alternative, you can use the rsyslog rpm packages: http://www.rsyslog.com/rhelcentos-rpms/

Please also note that the doc on http://www.rsyslog.com/doc is always for the MOST CURRENT version. However, each version has its own doc set. It is obviously better to refer to the doc set that accompanies your version. Most distros do not install it by default, but there usually is a package named along the lines of rsyslog-doc.

As of September 2015 there are rsyslog7 packages available in RHEL6. The current version of rsyslog is 8.11, but this one is at least closer to current.

To install, you first have to remove your rsyslog package:

# rpm -e --nodeps rsyslog
# yum -y install rsyslog7