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Simple Log Service:Collect Kubernetes container logs

Last Updated:Jan 19, 2024

Kubernetes container logs that are collected can be used for troubleshooting, performance optimization, security auditing, and resource utilization analysis. Simple Log Service allows you to collect container logs from Kubernetes clusters in DaemonSet mode or Sidecar mode. This topic describes the procedures, advantages, and disadvantages of log collection in the two modes.

Collection modes

Collection mode

Advantage

Disadvantage

DaemonSet

Provides simple O&M, low resource usage, and flexible configurations. You can collect container stdout and stderr logs. You can also collect container text logs.

Logtail collects logs from all containers on a DaemonSet-specific node. However, in this mode, performance bottleneck issues may occur on Logtail, and containers are loosely isolated.

Sidecar

In Sidecar mode, a Sidecar container is created for each container from which you want to collect logs. In this mode, Logtail provides good performance, and tenants are completely isolated.

None

Log collection configurations

You can create log collection configurations in the Simple Log Service console or by using custom resource definitions (CRDs). The following table describes the differences between the two modes.

Item

CRD

Console

Operation complexity

Easy

Moderate

Feature

All configurations that the Simple Log Service console supports and advanced configurations that the console does not support

Moderate

Ease of use

Moderate

Low

Network connections

Connects to a Kubernetes cluster

Connects to the Internet

Integration with container applications

Supported

Not supported

Authentication method

Authenticated by Kubernetes

Authentication based on Alibaba Cloud accounts

Log collection procedures

To collect logs in DaemonSet mode, perform the following steps:

  1. Install Logtail components in an ACK cluster.

  2. Create a log collection configuration.

    You can create log collection configurations in the Simple Log Service console or by using CRDs to collect container logs from Kubernetes clusters.

    Note

    If you use CRDs, resources such as projects, Logstores, indexes, machine groups, and Logtail configurations are automatically created. In addition, this mode leads to better integration with Kubernetes. We recommend that you use this mode. If you use the Simple Log Service console, you need to only perform simple operations. The first time you use Simple Log Service to collect container logs, we recommend that you use this mode.

To collect logs in Sidecar mode, perform the following steps:

  1. Install Logtail components in an ACK cluster..

  2. Install Sidecar and create a log collection configuration.

    You can create log collection configurations in the Simple Log Service console or by using CRDs to collect container logs from Kubernetes clusters.