Access logs - Global Accelerator - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

Overview

You can enable access logging for one or more endpoint groups of a Global Accelerator (GA) instance. Collected logs are delivered to a Simple Log Service (SLS) Logstore in the same region as the endpoint group. Each log entry includes fields such as client source IP address, client source port, destination IP address, destination port, and acceleration region. For details about all fields, see Log fields.

Use cases

Troubleshoot issues

Use access logs to quickly identify and resolve issues.

For example, you can query the status field to view the status of GA response packets and investigate why requests did not receive the expected response.
Business planning

Access log data helps you plan business resources.

For example, you can analyze traffic trends in acceleration regions to plan bandwidth upgrades for business growth or downgrades to reduce costs. You can also use the http_host field to view hosts that accessed your application during a specific period, helping you prepare for application updates.

Billing

The access log feature for Global Accelerator (GA) is free of charge. You pay only for your Simple Log Service (SLS) usage. For more information, see Billing of Simple Log Service.

Limitations

The access log feature is available only in regions where Simple Log Service (SLS) is available. For more information, see Supported regions.
Only standard GA instances support the access log feature. Basic GA instances do not. All operations described in this topic apply to standard GA instances.
Access logs are not available for endpoint groups deployed in an Alibaba Cloud point of presence (PoP).
You cannot query the domain names of endpoints from access logs.
If you cannot use the access log feature, your instance version may not support it. To use this feature, contact your business manager to upgrade the instance.

Create an access log

Before you create an access log, make sure you have added listeners and endpoint groups to your GA instance. For more information, see Add and manage an intelligent routing type listener.

Log on to the GA console.
On the Instances page, click the ID of the target GA instance.
On the instance details page, click the Access Log tab.

On the Access Log tab, click Create Access Log. In the Storage Configuration dialog box, configure the following parameters and click OK.

Parameter		Description
Select Source	Listener ID/Name	Select an existing listener.
Select Source	Endpoint Group ID/Name	Select the target endpoint group.
Storage Settings	Region	Defaults to the region where the endpoint group is located.
	Project	A Project is a resource management unit in Simple Log Service (SLS) for resource isolation and control. You can Select Project or Create Project.
	Logstore	A Logstore is a unit in Simple Log Service (SLS) for collecting, storing, and querying log data. You can Select Logstore or Create Logstore.
Custom Headers	Enable Custom Headers	When enabled, GA records the specified HTTP headers in the `ga_headers` field of the access log. Note The custom header feature for access logs is in a phased rollout. To use this feature, contact your account manager to enable it. By default, the maximum size of custom headers is 1 KB. You can contact your account manager to increase the limit to 4 KB. Enabling this feature may increase your log data volume and incur additional SLS fees. For more information, see Billing of Simple Log Service.
Custom Headers	header name	Enter the name of the custom header to record. To specify multiple header names, separate them with semicolons (;). If you leave this field blank, all headers are recorded.

Note

When you enable access logging, the system checks whether the AliyunServiceRoleForGaFlowlog service-linked role exists.

If the role does not exist, the system automatically creates it and attaches the AliyunServiceRolePolicyForGaFlowlog permission policy. This grants GA the permissions to access SLS and deliver logs to SLS.
If the role already exists, the system does not create it again.

For more information, see AliyunServiceRoleForGaFlowlog.

After you create the access log, it appears on the Access Log tab with a status of Bound. In the Actions column, you can click View Log to view details or click Delete to remove the access log configuration.

More actions

Actions	Description
View an access log	On the Access Log tab, find the target access log and click View Log in the Actions column to open the SLS console. View and analyze the access log. For more information, see Usage examples.
Edit Custom Header	On the Access Log tab, find the target access log and click Edit Custom Header in the Actions column. Modify the configuration and click OK.
Delete an access log	On the Access Log tab, find the target access log and click Delete in the Actions column. In the Delete Log dialog box, click OK.

After SLS collects access logs, you can download, deliver, and process the logs, or create alerts. For more information, see Common operations on logs of Alibaba Cloud services.

Usage examples

View raw access logs

The Original Log tab in the Logstore displays log details.

For example, click the client_ip field to view access request information from a specific client source IP address. The log includes the following fields: accelerator_region, client_ip, client_port, egress_bytes, endpoint_group_id, endpoint_group_region, endpoint_ip, endpoint_port, ga_id, http_host, http_referer, ingress_bytes, listener_id, protocol, request_method, request_uri, status, and time. You can filter logs by field using a query statement, such as * and client_ip : "118.123.xxx", and view the distribution of values for each field in the Quick Analytics panel on the left.

Query specific access logs

Enter an SQL statement in the search and analysis box on the Logstore page to query specific access logs.

For example, follow these steps to query the distribution of client IP addresses. In the Properties panel, select Map as the chart type, set Latitude and Longitude to address, and set Value Column to count.

Step	Description
1	Enter the following SQL statement to identify the top 10 regions by client IP address distribution. This information helps with business planning. `* \| select ip_to_geo(client_ip) as address, count(1) as count group by address order by count desc limit 10`
2	Select the time range for the access logs you want to view and click Search & Analyze.
3	On the Graph > Properties tab, click the icon to view the geographic distribution of client IP addresses.

Log fields

The following table describes the access log fields available in SLS.

Field	Description
accelerator_region	The acceleration region.
client_ip	The client source IP address.
client_port	The client source port.
egress_bytes	The volume of egress traffic, in bytes, during the sampling period.
endpoint_group_id	The ID of the endpoint group.
endpoint_group_region	The region where the endpoint group is deployed.
endpoint_ip	The endpoint IP address, which is the destination IP address.
endpoint_port	The endpoint port, which is the destination port.
ga_id	The ID of the GA instance.
ingress_bytes	The volume of inbound traffic, in bytes, during the sampling period.
listener_id	The ID of the listener.
protocol	The network transport protocol used by the listener.
status	The status of the GA response packet.
time	The time when the log was recorded.
upstream_connect_time	The connection duration.
upstream_first_byte_time	The time to first byte.

For HTTP and HTTPS listeners, the following fields are also supported.

Field	Description
http_host	The content of the `host` header in the request.
http_referer	The content of the `referer` header in the request received by GA.
request_method	The request method.
request_uri	The URI of the request received by GA.
ga_headers	The content of custom headers. After you enable the custom header feature, GA records the specified HTTP headers in this field.