Stackdriver

The Stackdriver output plugin lets you ingest your records into the Google Cloud Stackdriver Logging service.

Before getting started with the plugin configuration, be sure to obtain the proper credentials to get access to the service. For best results, use a common JSON credentials file that can be referenced by the Stackdriver plugin.

Configuration parameters

This plugin uses the following configuration parameters. For more details about Stackdriver-specific parameters, see the Google Cloud LogEntry API documentation.

Key

Description

Default

google_service_credentials

Absolute path to a Google Cloud credentials JSON file.

Value of environment variable $GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS

service_account_email

Account email associated with the service. Only available if no credentials file has been provided.

Value of environment variable $SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL

service_account_secret

Private key content associated with the service account. Only available if no credentials file has been provided.

Value of environment variable $SERVICE_ACCOUNT_SECRET

metadata_server

Prefix for a metadata server.

Value of environment variable $METADATA_SERVER, or http://metadata.google.internal if unset.

location

The GCP or AWS region in which to store data about the resource. If the resource type is either generic_node or generic_task, this field is required.

none

namespace

A namespace identifier, such as a cluster name or environment. If the resource type is either generic_node or generic_task, this field is required.

none

node_id

A unique identifier for the node within the namespace, such as a hostname or IP address. If the resource type is generic_node, this field is required.

none

job

An identifier for a grouping of related task, such as the name of a microservice or distributed batch. If the resource type is generic_task, this field is required.

none

task_id

A unique identifier for the task within the namespace and job, such as a replica index identifying the task within the job. If the resource type is generic_task, this field is required.

none

export_to_project_id

The GCP project that should receive these logs.

The project_id in the google_service_credentials file, or the project_id from Google's metadata.google.internal server.

resource

Set resource type of data. Supported resource types: k8s_container, k8s_node, k8s_pod, global, generic_node, generic_task, and gce_instance.

global, gce_instance

k8s_cluster_name

The name of the cluster that the container (node or pod based on the resource type) is running in. If the resource type is k8s_container, k8s_node, or k8s_pod, this field is required.

none

k8s_cluster_location

The physical location of the cluster that contains (node or pod based on the resource type) the container. If the resource type is k8s_container, k8s_node, or k8s_pod, this field is required.

none

labels_key

The name of the key from the original record that contains the LogEntry's labels.

logging.googleapis.com/labels

labels

Optional list of comma-separated of strings specifying key=value pairs. The resulting labels will be combined with the elements obtained from labels_key to set the LogEntry Labels. Elements from labels will override duplicate values from labels_key.

none

log_name_key

The name of the key from the original record that contains the logName value.

logging.googleapis.com/logName

tag_prefix

Set the tag_prefix used to validate the tag of logs with Kubernetes resource type. Without this option, the tag of the log must be in format of k8s_container(pod/node).* to use the k8s_container resource type. Now the tag prefix is configurable by this option (note the ending dot).

k8s_container., k8s_pod., k8s_node.

severity_key

The name of the key from the original record that contains the severity.

logging.googleapis.com/severity

project_id_key

The value of this field is used by the Stackdriver output plugin to find the GCP projectID from jsonPayload and then extract the value of it to set the PROJECT_ID within LogEntry logName, which controls the GCP project that should receive these logs.

logging.googleapis.com/projectId. See Stackdriver Special Fields for more info.

autoformat_stackdriver_trace

Rewrite the trace field to include the projectID and format it for use with Cloud Trace. When this flag is enabled, the user can get the correct result by printing only the traceID (usually 32 characters).

false

workers

The number of workers to perform flush operations for this output.

1

custom_k8s_regex

Set a custom regular expression to extract field like pod_name, namespace_name, container_name, and docker_id from the local_resource_id in logs. This is helpful if the value of pod or node name contains dots.

(?<pod_name>[a-z0-9](?:[-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?(?:\.[a-z0-9]([-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?)*)_(?<namespace_name>[^_]+)_(?<container_name>.+)-(?<docker_id>[a-z0-9]{64})\.log$

resource_labels

An optional list of comma-separated strings specifying resource label plain text assignments (new=value) and mappings from an original field in the log entry to a destination field (destination=$original). Nested fields and environment variables are also supported using the record accessor syntax. If configured, all resource labels will be assigned using this API only, with the exception of project_id. See Resource Labels for more details.

none

http_request_key

The name of the key from the original record that contains the LogEntry's httpRequest. Be aware that the default value erroneously uses an underscore; users will likely need to set this to logging.googleapis.com/httpRequest.

logging.googleapis.com/http_request

compress

Set payload compression mechanism. The only available option is gzip. If no value is specified, no compression is applied.

none

cloud_logging_base_url

Set the base Cloud Logging API URL to use for the /v2/entries:write API request.

https://logging.googleapis.com

Configuration file

If you are using a Google Cloud Credentials File, the following configuration is enough to get started:

pipeline:
  inputs:
    - name: cpu
      tag: cpu

  outputs:
    - name: stackdriver
      match: '*'

[INPUT]
  Name  cpu
  Tag   cpu

[OUTPUT]
  Name        stackdriver
  Match       *

Example configuration file for Kubernetes resource types

The local_resource_id value is used by the Stackdriver output plugin to set the labels field for different Kubernetes resource types. Stackdriver plugin will try to find the local_resource_id field in the log entry. If there is no field logging.googleapis.com/local_resource_id in the log, the plugin will then construct it by using the tag value of the log.

The local_resource_id should be in format:

k8s_container.<namespace_name>.<pod_name>.<container_name>
k8s_node.<node_name>
k8s_pod.<namespace_name>.<pod_name>

This implies that if there is no local_resource_id in the log entry then the tag of logs should match this format. Be aware that there is a tag_prefix option, so it's not mandatory to use k8s_container(node/pod) as the prefix for tag.

pipeline:
  inputs:
    - name: tail
      tag_regex: 'var.log.containers.(?<pod_name>[a-z0-9](?:[-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?(?:\\.[a-z0-9]([-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?)*)_(?<namespace_name>[^_]+)_(?<container_name>.+)-(?<docker_id>[a-z0-9]{64})\.log$'
      tag: custom_tag.<namespace_name>.<pod_name>.<container_name>
      path: /var/log/containers/*.log
      parser: docker
      db: /var/log/fluent-bit-k8s-container.db

  outputs:
    - name: stackdriver
      match: 'custom_tag.*'
      resource: k8s_container
      k8s_cluster_name: test_cluster_name
      k8s_cluster_location: test_cluster_location
      tag_prefix: 'custom_tag.'

[INPUT]
  Name               tail
  Tag_Regex          var.log.containers.(?<pod_name>[a-z0-9](?:[-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?(?:\\.[a-z0-9]([-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?)*)_(?<namespace_name>[^_]+)_(?<container_name>.+)-(?<docker_id>[a-z0-9]{64})\.log$
  Tag                custom_tag.<namespace_name>.<pod_name>.<container_name>
  Path               /var/log/containers/*.log
  Parser             docker
  DB                 /var/log/fluent-bit-k8s-container.db

[OUTPUT]
  Name                  stackdriver
  Match                 custom_tag.*
  Resource              k8s_container
  k8s_cluster_name      test_cluster_name
  k8s_cluster_location  test_cluster_location
  tag_prefix            custom_tag.

Resource labels

Fluent Bit uses the following methods to assign fields to the resource/labels section:

Resource Labels API
Monitored Resource API
Local Resource ID
Credentials / Config Parameters

If resource_labels is correctly configured, then Fluent Bit will attempt to populate all resource labels using the entries specified. Otherwise, Fluent Bit will attempt to use the monitored resource API. Similarly, if the monitored resource API can't be used, then Fluent Bit will attempt to populate resource/labels using configuration parameters and credentials specific to the resource type. As mentioned in the configuration file section, Fluent Bit will attempt to use or construct a local resource ID for a Kubernetes resource type that doesn't use the resource labels or monitored resource API.

The project_id resource label will always be set from the service credentials or fetched from the metadata server. It can't be overridden.

Use the `resource_labels` parameter

The resource_labels configuration parameter offers an alternative API for assigning the resource labels. To use, input a list of comma-separated strings specifying resource labels plain text assignments (new=value), mappings from an original field in the log entry to a destination field (destination=$original) and environment variable assignments (new=${var}).

For instance, consider the following log entry:

{
  "keyA": "valA",
  "toplevel": {
    "keyB": "valB"
  }
}

Combined with the following Fluent Bit Stackdriver output plugin configuration:

pipeline:

  outputs:
    - name: stackdriver
      match: '*'
      resource_labels: keyC=$keyA,keyD=$toplevel['keyB'],keyE=valC

[OUTPUT]
  Name             stackdriver
  Match            *
  Resource_Labels  keyC=$keyA,keyD=$toplevel['keyB'],keyE=valC

This will produce the following log:

{
  "resource": {
    "type": "global",
    "labels": {
      "project_id": "fluent-bit",
      "keyC": "valA",
      "keyD": "valB",
      "keyE": "valC"
    }
  },
  "entries": [
    {
      "jsonPayload": {
        "keyA": "valA",
        "toplevel": {
           "keyB": "valB"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

This makes the resource_labels API the recommended choice for supporting new or existing resource types that have all resource labels known before runtime or available on the payload during runtime.

For instance, for a Kubernetes resource type, resource_labels can be used in tandem with the Kubernetes filter to pack all six resource labels. The following example shows what this could look like for a k8s_container resource:

pipeline:

  outputs:
    - name: stackdriver
      match: '*'
      resource: k8s_container
      resource_labels: cluster_name=my-cluster,location=us-central1-c,container_name=$kubernetes['container_name'],namespace_name=$kubernetes['namespace_name'],pod_name=$kubernetes['pod_name']

[OUTPUT]
  Name            stackdriver
  Match           *
  Resource        k8s_container
  Resource_Labels cluster_name=my-cluster,location=us-central1-c,container_name=$kubernetes['container_name'],namespace_name=$kubernetes['namespace_name'],pod_name=$kubernetes['pod_name']

The resource_labels parameter also supports validation for required labels based on the input resource type. This allows Fluent Bit to check if all specified labels are present for a given configuration before runtime. If validation isn't supported for a resource type that you want to use this API with, open a pull request for it. Adding validation for a new resource type involves specifying the resources associated with the type alongside the required labels.

Log names

By default, the plugin will write to the following log name:

/projects/<project ID>/logs/<log tag>

You might be in a scenario where being more specific about the log name is important (for example, integration with Log Router rules or controlling cardinality of log based metrics). You can control the log name directly on a per-log basis by using the logging.googleapis.com/logName special field. You can configure a log_name_key if you'd like to use something different from logging.googleapis.com/logName. For example, if the log_name_key is set to mylognamefield will extract the log name from mylognamefield in the log.

Troubleshooting

Upstream connection error

An upstream connection error means Fluent Bit wasn't able to reach Google services. In that case, the error message looks like this:

[2019/01/07 23:24:09] [error] [oauth2] could not get an upstream connection

This is due to a network issue in the environment where Fluent Bit is running. Ensure that the Host, Container, or Pod can reach the Google API endpoints.

For more details, see GitHub reference: #761

Fail to process `local_resource_id`

The error looks like this:

[2020/08/04 14:43:03] [error] [output:stackdriver:stackdriver.0] fail to process local_resource_id from log entry for k8s_container

Check the following:

If the log entry doesn't contain the local_resource_id field, does the tag of the log match for format?
If tag_prefix is configured, does the prefix of tag specified in the input plugin match the tag_prefix?

Other Implementations

Stackdriver officially supports a logging agent based on Fluentd.

Fluent Bit plans to support some special fields in structured payloads. For more information, see the documentation about special fields.

Last updated 1 day ago

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Configuration parameters

Configuration file

Example configuration file for Kubernetes resource types

Resource labels

Use the resource_labels parameter

Log names

Troubleshooting

Upstream connection error

Fail to process local_resource_id

Other Implementations

Use the `resource_labels` parameter

Fail to process `local_resource_id`