KubeSphere Logging System

What is KubeSphere Logging System

KubeSphere provides a powerful, holistic and easy-to-use logging system for log collection, query and management. It covers logs at varied levels, including tenants, infrastructure resources, and applications. Users can search logs from different dimensions, such as project, workload, Pod and keyword. Compared with Kibana, the tenant-based logging system of KubeSphere features better isolation and security among tenants as each tenant can only view his or her own logs. Apart from KubeSphere’s own logging system, the container platform also allows users to add third-party log collectors, such as Elasticsearch, Kafka and Fluentd.

For more information, see Logging, Events and Auditing.

Enable Logging before Installation

Installing on Linux

When you install KubeSphere on Linux, you need to create a configuration file, which lists all KubeSphere components.

  1. In the tutorial of Installing KubeSphere on Linux, you create a default file config-sample.yaml. Modify the file by executing the following command:
  1. vi config-sample.yaml

Note

If you adopt All-in-one Installation, you do not need to create a config-sample.yaml file as you can create a cluster directly. Generally, the all-in-one mode is for users who are new to KubeSphere and look to get familiar with the system. If you want to enable Logging in this mode (e.g. for testing purpose), refer to the following section to see how Logging can be installed after installation.

  1. In this file, navigate to logging and change false to true for enabled. Save the file after you finish.
  1. logging:
  2.     enabled: true # Change "false" to "true"

Note

By default, KubeKey will install Elasticsearch internally if Logging is enabled. For a production environment, it is highly recommended that you set the following value in config-sample.yaml if you want to enable Logging, especially externalElasticsearchUrl and externalElasticsearchPort. Once you provide the following information before installation, KubeKey will integrate your external Elasticsearch directly instead of installing an internal one.

  1. es:  # Storage backend for logging, tracing, events and auditing.
  2.   elasticsearchMasterReplicas: 1   # total number of master nodes, it's not allowed to use even number
  3.   elasticsearchDataReplicas: 1     # total number of data nodes
  4.   elasticsearchMasterVolumeSize: 4Gi   # Volume size of Elasticsearch master nodes
  5.   elasticsearchDataVolumeSize: 20Gi    # Volume size of Elasticsearch data nodes
  6.   logMaxAge: 7                     # Log retention time in built-in Elasticsearch, it is 7 days by default.
  7.   elkPrefix: logstash              # The string making up index names. The index name will be formatted as ks-<elk_prefix>-log
  8.   externalElasticsearchUrl: # The URL of external Elasticsearch
  9.   externalElasticsearchPort: # The port of external Elasticsearch
  1. Create a cluster using the configuration file:
  1. ./kk create cluster -f config-sample.yaml

Installing on Kubernetes

When you install KubeSphere on Kubernetes, you need to download the file cluster-configuration.yaml for cluster setting. If you want to install Logging, do not use kubectl apply -f directly for this file.

  1. In the tutorial of Installing KubeSphere on Kubernetes, you execute kubectl apply -f first for the file kubesphere-installer.yaml. After that, to enable Logging, create a local file cluster-configuration.yaml.
  1. vi cluster-configuration.yaml
  1. Copy all the content in the file cluster-configuration.yaml and paste it to the local file just created.
  2. In this local cluster-configuration.yaml file, navigate to logging and enable Logging by changing false to true for enabled. Save the file after you finish.
  1. logging:
  2.     enabled: true # Change "false" to "true"

Note

By default, ks-installer will install Elasticsearch internally if Logging is enabled. For a production environment, it is highly recommended that you set the following value in cluster-configuration.yaml if you want to enable Logging, especially externalElasticsearchUrl and externalElasticsearchPort. Once you provide the following information before installation, ks-installer will integrate your external Elasticsearch directly instead of installing an internal one.

  1. es:  # Storage backend for logging, tracing, events and auditing.
  2.   elasticsearchMasterReplicas: 1   # total number of master nodes, it's not allowed to use even number
  3.   elasticsearchDataReplicas: 1     # total number of data nodes
  4.   elasticsearchMasterVolumeSize: 4Gi   # Volume size of Elasticsearch master nodes
  5.   elasticsearchDataVolumeSize: 20Gi    # Volume size of Elasticsearch data nodes
  6.   logMaxAge: 7                     # Log retention time in built-in Elasticsearch, it is 7 days by default.
  7.   elkPrefix: logstash              # The string making up index names. The index name will be formatted as ks-<elk_prefix>-log
  8.   externalElasticsearchUrl: # The URL of external Elasticsearch
  9.   externalElasticsearchPort: # The port of external Elasticsearch
  1. Execute the following command to start installation:
  1. kubectl apply -f cluster-configuration.yaml

Enable Logging after Installation

  1. Log in the console as admin. Click Platform in the top-left corner and select Clusters Management.

clusters-management

  1. Click CRDs and enter clusterconfiguration in the search bar. Click the result to view its detailed page.

Info

A Custom Resource Definition (CRD) allows users to create a new type of resources without adding another API server. They can use these resources like any other native Kubernetes objects.

  1. In Resource List, click the three dots on the right of ks-installer and select Edit YAML.

edit-yaml

  1. In this yaml file, navigate to logging and change false to true for enabled. After you finish, click Update in the bottom-right corner to save the configuration.
  1. logging:
  2.     enabled: true # Change "false" to "true"

Note

By default, Elasticsearch will be installed internally if Logging is enabled. For a production environment, it is highly recommended that you set the following value in this yaml file if you want to enable Logging, especially externalElasticsearchUrl and externalElasticsearchPort. Once you provide the following information, KubeSphere will integrate your external Elasticsearch directly instead of installing an internal one.

  1. es:  # Storage backend for logging, tracing, events and auditing.
  2.   elasticsearchMasterReplicas: 1   # total number of master nodes, it's not allowed to use even number
  3.   elasticsearchDataReplicas: 1     # total number of data nodes
  4.   elasticsearchMasterVolumeSize: 4Gi   # Volume size of Elasticsearch master nodes
  5.   elasticsearchDataVolumeSize: 20Gi    # Volume size of Elasticsearch data nodes
  6.   logMaxAge: 7                     # Log retention time in built-in Elasticsearch, it is 7 days by default.
  7.   elkPrefix: logstash              # The string making up index names. The index name will be formatted as ks-<elk_prefix>-log
  8.   externalElasticsearchUrl: # The URL of external Elasticsearch
  9.   externalElasticsearchPort: # The port of external Elasticsearch
  1. You can use the web kubectl to check the installation process by executing the following command:
  1. kubectl logs -n kubesphere-system $(kubectl get pod -n kubesphere-system -l app=ks-install -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') -f

Tip

You can find the web kubectl tool by clicking the hammer icon in the bottom-right corner of the console.

Verify the Installation of Component

Go to Components and check the status of Logging. You may see an image as follows:

logging

Execute the following command to check the status of pods:

  1. kubectl get pod -n kubesphere-logging-system

The output may look as follows if the component runs successfully:

  1. NAME                                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
  2. elasticsearch-logging-data-0                  1/1     Running   0          9m33s
  3. elasticsearch-logging-data-1                  1/1     Running   0          5m12s
  4. elasticsearch-logging-discovery-0             1/1     Running   0          9m33s
  5. fluent-bit-qpvrf                              1/1     Running   0          4m56s
  6. fluentbit-operator-5bf7687b88-z7bgg           1/1     Running   0          9m26s
  7. logsidecar-injector-deploy-667c6c9579-662pm   2/2     Running   0          8m56s
  8. logsidecar-injector-deploy-667c6c9579-tjckn   2/2     Running   0          8m56s