:Configure application log collection using pod environment variables

Configure through the console

1. Log on to the ACS console. In the left-side navigation pane, click Clusters.

2. On the Clusters page, find the cluster that you want to manage and click its name. In the left-side pane, choose Workloads > Deployments.

3. On the Deployments tab, click Create from Image.

   Note

   This is a Deployments application example. The configuration method is the same for other types of workloads

4. On the Basic Information tab, set the Name, Replicas, and Type parameters, click Next to go to the Container page.

   The following section only introduces the configuration related to Simple Log Service. For other application configurations, see Create a stateless application by using a Deployment.

5. In the Log section, configure the log-related information.

   1. Set the Collection Configuration.

      Click the + icon to create a new collection configuration. Each collection configuration consists of two items: Logstore and Log Path in Container.

      • Logstore: Configure the Logstore name to specify where the collected logs are stored. If the Logstore does not exist, ACS automatically creates the corresponding Logstore in the Simple Log Service Project associated with the cluster.

        Note

        The default retention period for logs in the newly created Logstore is 180 days.

      • Log path in a container: Specify the path where the logs to be collected are located, such as using /usr/local/tomcat/logs/catalina.*.log to collect Tomcat text logs.

        Note

        When specified as stdout, it means collecting the standard output and standard error output of containers.

        Each collection configuration is automatically corresponds to a Logstore. By default, the minimal mode (by line) is used. If you need more collection methods, see Use the Simple Log Service console to collect container text logs in DaemonSet mode and Use the Simple Log Service console to collect container stdout and stderr in DaemonSet mode.

      

   2. Set the Custom Tag.

      Click the + icon to create a new custom tag. Each custom tag is a key-value pair that is appended to the collected logs. You can use it to tag the log data of the container, such as the version number.

      

6. After completing all configurations, click Next to proceed to the next step.

   For subsequent operations, see Create a stateless application by using a Deployment.

Using YAML templates

1. Log on to the Container Compute Service (ACS) Management Console, and select Clusters from the left navigation bar.

2. On the Clusters page, find the cluster that you want to manage and click its name. In the left-side pane, choose Workloads > Deployments.

3. In the Stateless page, set the namespace in the Namespace drop-down box at the top, and click Create Using YAML in the upper right corner of the page. Note: This example uses a stateless application. The configuration method is the same for other types of workloads (e.g., stateful).

4. Configure the YAML file.

   The syntax of the YAML template is the same as Kubernetes syntax, but to specify the collection configuration for the container, you need to use env to add Collection Configuration and Custom Tag for the container. Below is a simple pod example:

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Pod
   metadata:
     name: my-demo
   spec:
     containers:
     - name: my-demo-app
       image: 'registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/log-service/docker-log-test:latest'
       env:
       # Configure environment variables
       - name: aliyun_logs_log-stdout
         value: stdout
       - name: aliyun_logs_log-varlog
         value: /var/log/*.log
       - name: aliyun_logs_mytag1_tags
         value: tag1=v1

   Configure according to your needs in the following order.

   Note

   If you have more log collection requirements, see Step 3: Advanced parameter settings for log collection.

   1. Create your Collection Configuration and Custom Tag through environment variables. All environment variables related to configuration use aliyun_logs_ as the prefix.

      • The rules for creating collection configurations are as follows:

        apiVersion: v1
        kind: Pod
        metadata:
          name: my-demo
        spec:
          containers:
          - name: my-demo-app
            image: 'registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/log-service/docker-log-test:latest'
            env:
            - name: aliyun_logs_log-stdout
              value: stdout
            - name: aliyun_logs_log-varlog
              value: /var/log/*.log                        

        The example creates two collection configurations. The format is aliyun_logs_{key}, and the corresponding {key} are log-stdout and log-varlog.

        • aliyun_logs_log-stdout: This env indicates the creation of a log-stdout Logstore with a log collection path of stdout. The corresponding Simple Log Service collection configuration name is also log-stdout. The purpose is to collect the container's standard output into the log-stdout Logstore.

        • aliyun_logs_log-varlog: This env indicates the creation of a Logstore named log-varlog with a log collection path of /var/log/*.log. The corresponding Simple Log Service collection configuration name is also log-varlog. The purpose is to collect the content of the /var/log/*.log files in the container into the log-varlog Logstore.

      • The rules for creating Custom Tags are as follows:

        apiVersion: v1
        kind: Pod
        metadata:
          name: my-demo
        spec:
          containers:
          - name: my-demo-app
            image: 'registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/log-service/docker-log-test:latest'
            env:
            - name: aliyun_logs_mytag1_tags
              value: tag1=v1                       

        After configuring the tag, when the logs of the container are collected, the corresponding fields will be automatically appended to the logs in Simple Log Service. The mytag1 is an arbitrary name that does not contain '_'.

   2. If your collection configuration specifies a non-stdout collection path, you need to create the corresponding volumeMounts in this section.

      In the example, the collection configuration adds the collection of /var/log/*.log, so the corresponding volumeMounts for /var/log is added.

5. After writing the YAML, click Create to submit the corresponding configuration to the Kubernetes cluster for execution.

View logs by using Simple Log Service console

1. After the installation is successful, go to the Simple Log Service console.

2. After entering the console, select the project corresponding to the Kubernetes cluster (default: k8s-log-{Kubernetes cluster ID}) in the Projects area, click and go to the Logstore.

3. Find the corresponding Logstore (specified in the collection configuration) in the list, hover the mouse over the right side of the Logstore name, click the icon, and click Search & Analysis.

   In this example, you can view the standard output logs and text logs inside the container of the Tomcat application on the log query page, and you can find custom tags appended to the log fields.