Traffic Log

With TrafficLog policy you can easily set up access logs on every data-plane in a Mesh.

Configuring access logs in Kuma is a 3-step process:

• 1. Add a logging backend
• 2. Add a TrafficLog resource
• 3. Log aggregation and visualisation (kubernetes only)

Add a logging backend

A logging backend is essentially a sink for access logs.

In the current release of Kuma, a logging backend can be either a file or a TCP log collector, such as Logstash.

apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: Mesh
metadata:
  name: default
spec:
  logging:
    # TrafficLog policies may leave the `backend` field undefined.
    # In that case the logs will be forwarded into the `defaultBackend` of that Mesh.
    defaultBackend: file
    # List of logging backends that can be referred to by name
    # from TrafficLog policies of that Mesh.
    backends:
      - name: logstash
        # Use `format` field to adjust the access log format to your use case.
        format: '{"start_time": "%START_TIME%", "source": "%KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE%", "destination": "%KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE%", "source_address": "%KUMA_SOURCE_ADDRESS_WITHOUT_PORT%", "destination_address": "%UPSTREAM_HOST%", "duration_millis": "%DURATION%", "bytes_received": "%BYTES_RECEIVED%", "bytes_sent": "%BYTES_SENT%"}'
        type: tcp
        # Use `config` field to co configure a TCP logging backend.
        conf:
          # Address of a log collector.
          address: 127.0.0.1:5000
      - name: file
        type: file
        # Use `file` field to configure a file-based logging backend.
        conf:
          path: /tmp/access.log
        # When `format` field is omitted, the default access log format will be used.

type: Mesh
name: default
logging:
  # TrafficLog policies may leave the `backend` field undefined.
  # In that case the logs will be forwarded into the `defaultBackend` of that Mesh.
  defaultBackend: file
  # List of logging backends that can be referred to by name
  # from TrafficLog policies of that Mesh.
  backends:
    - name: logstash
      # Use `format` field to adjust the access log format to your use case.
      format: '{"start_time": "%START_TIME%", "source": "%KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE%", "destination": "%KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE%", "source_address": "%KUMA_SOURCE_ADDRESS_WITHOUT_PORT%", "destination_address": "%UPSTREAM_HOST%", "duration_millis": "%DURATION%", "bytes_received": "%BYTES_RECEIVED%", "bytes_sent": "%BYTES_SENT%"}'
      type: tcp
      conf: # Use `config` field to co configure a TCP logging backend.
        # Address of a log collector.
        address: 127.0.0.1:5000
    - name: file
      type: file
      # Use `config` field to configure a file-based logging backend.
      conf:
        path: /tmp/access.log
      # When `format` field is omitted, the default access log format will be used.

Add a TrafficLog resource

You need to create a TrafficLog policy to select a subset of traffic and forward its access logs into one of the logging backends configured for that Mesh.

apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: TrafficLog
metadata:
  name: all-traffic
mesh: default
spec:
  # This TrafficLog policy applies all traffic in that Mesh.
  sources:
    - match:
        kuma.io/service: '*'
  destinations:
    - match:
        kuma.io/service: '*'
  # When `backend ` field is omitted, the logs will be forwarded into the `defaultBackend` of that Mesh.

apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: TrafficLog
metadata:
  name: backend-to-database-traffic
spec:
  # This TrafficLog policy applies only to traffic from service `backend` to service `database`.
  sources:
    - match:
        kuma.io/service: backend_kuma-example_svc_8080
  destinations:
    - match:
        kuma.io/service: database_kuma-example_svc_5432
  conf:
    # Forward the logs into the logging backend named `logstash`.
    backend: logstash

type: TrafficLog
name: all-traffic
mesh: default
# This TrafficLog policy applies to all traffic in the Mesh.
sources:
  - match:
      kuma.io/service: '*'
destinations:
  - match:
      kuma.io/service: '*'
# When `backend ` field is omitted, the logs will be forwarded into the `defaultBackend` of that Mesh.

type: TrafficLog
name: backend-to-database-traffic
mesh: default
# this TrafficLog policy applies only to traffic from service `backend` to service `database`.
sources:
  - match:
      kuma.io/service: backend
destinations:
  - match:
      kuma.io/service: database
conf:
  # Forward the logs into the logging backend named `logstash`.
  backend: logstash

When backend field of a TrafficLog policy is omitted, the logs will be forwarded into the defaultBackend of that Mesh.

Log aggregation and visualisation

Kuma is presenting a simple solution to aggregate the logs of your containers and the access logs of your data-planes.

1. Install Loki

To install Loki use kumactl install logging | kubectl apply -f -. This will deploy Loki automatically in a kuma-logging namespace.

2. Update the mesh

The logging backend needs to be configured to send the access logs of your data-planes to stdout. Loki will directly retrieve the logs from stdout of your containers.

type: Mesh
metadata:
  name: default
spec:
    logging:
      defaultBackend: loki
      backends:
        - name: loki
          type: file
          conf:
            path: /dev/stdout

3. Configure Grafana to visualize the logs

If the Traffic Metrics policy is installed on your kubernetes node, you can configure a new datasource in Grafana to visualise your containers' logs and your access logs.

Use the kubectl port-forward command to access Grafana.

At this point you can visualize your containers' logs and your access logs in Grafana by choosing the loki datasource in the explore section.

1. Install Loki

To install Loki use the instructions on the official Loki Github repository (opens new window).

2. Update the mesh

The logging backend needs to be configured to send the access logs of your data-planes to stdout. Loki will directly retrieve the logs from stdout of your containers.

type: Mesh
name: default
logging:
  defaultBackend: loki
  backends:
    - name: loki
      type: file
      conf:
        path: /dev/stdout

3. Configure Grafana to visualize the logs

To visualise your containers' logs and your access logs you need to have a Grafana up and running. If you don't have Grafana you can install it by following the informations of the official page (opens new window)

With Granana installed you can configure a new datasource so Grafana will be able to retrieve the logs from Loki.

At this point you can visualize your containers' logs and your access logs in Grafana by choosing the loki datasource in the explore section.

Nice to have

If you are also using the Traffic Trace policy you can configure a new datasource for Jaeger to visualise your traces directly into Grafana.

Having your Logs and Traces in the same visualisation tool can come really handy. By adding the traceId in your app logs you can visualize your logs and the related Jaeger traces. To learn more about it go read this article (opens new window)

You can also forward the access logs to a collector (such as logstash) that can further transmit them into systems like Splunk, ELK and Datadog.

Access Log Format

Kuma gives you full control over the format of access logs.

The shape of a single log record is defined by a template string that uses command operators (opens new window) to extract and format data about a TCP connection or an HTTP request.

E.g.,

%START_TIME% %KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE% => %KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE% %DURATION%

where %START_TIME% and %KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE% are examples of available command operators.

A complete set of supported command operators consists of:

1. All command operators supported by Envoy (opens new window)
2. Command operators unique to Kuma

The latter include:

Command Operator	Description
%KUMA_MESH%	name of the mesh in which traffic is flowing
%KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE%	name of a service that is the source of traffic
%KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE%	name of a service that is the destination of traffic
%KUMA_SOURCE_ADDRESS_WITHOUT_PORT%	address of a Dataplane that is the source of traffic
%KUMA_TRAFFIC_DIRECTION%	direction of the traffic, INBOUND, OUTBOUND or UNSPECIFIED

Access Logs for TCP and HTTP traffic

All access log command operators are valid to use with both TCP and HTTP traffic.

If a command operator is specific to HTTP traffic, such as %REQ(X?Y):Z% or %RESP(X?Y):Z%, it will be replaced by a symbol "-" in case of TCP traffic.

Internally, Kuma determines traffic protocol based on the value of kuma.io/protocol tag on the inbound interface of a destination Dataplane.

The default format string for TCP traffic is:

[%START_TIME%] %RESPONSE_FLAGS% %KUMA_MESH% %KUMA_SOURCE_ADDRESS_WITHOUT_PORT%(%KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE%)->%UPSTREAM_HOST%(%KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE%) took %DURATION%ms, sent %BYTES_SENT% bytes, received: %BYTES_RECEIVED% bytes

The default format string for HTTP traffic is:

[%START_TIME%] %KUMA_MESH% "%REQ(:METHOD)% %REQ(X-ENVOY-ORIGINAL-PATH?:PATH)% %PROTOCOL%" %RESPONSE_CODE% %RESPONSE_FLAGS% %BYTES_RECEIVED% %BYTES_SENT% %DURATION% %RESP(X-ENVOY-UPSTREAM-SERVICE-TIME)% "%REQ(X-FORWARDED-FOR)%" "%REQ(USER-AGENT)%" "%REQ(X-REQUEST-ID)%" "%REQ(:AUTHORITY)%" "%KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE%" "%KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE%" "%KUMA_SOURCE_ADDRESS_WITHOUT_PORT%" "%UPSTREAM_HOST%"

To provide different format for TCP and HTTP logging you can define two separate logging backends with the same address and different format. Then define two TrafficLog entity, one for TCP and one for HTTP with kuma.io/protocol: http selector.

Access Logs in JSON format

If you need an access log with entries in JSON format, you have to provide a template string that is a valid JSON object, e.g.

{
  "start_time":          "%START_TIME%",
  "source":              "%KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE%",
  "destination":         "%KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE%",
  "source_address":      "%KUMA_SOURCE_ADDRESS_WITHOUT_PORT%",
  "destination_address": "%UPSTREAM_HOST%",
  "duration_millis":     "%DURATION%",
  "bytes_received":      "%BYTES_RECEIVED%",
  "bytes_sent":          "%BYTES_SENT%"
}

To use it with Logstash, use json_lines codec and make sure your JSON is formatted into one line.

Logging external services

When running Kuma on Kubernetes you can also log the traffic to external services. To do it, the matched TrafficPermission destination section has to have wildcard * value. In such case %KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE% will have value external and %UPSTREAM_HOST% will have an IP of the service.

Matching

TrafficLog is an Outbound Connection Policy. The only supported value for destinations.match is kuma.io/service.