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Kubernetes Container Logs

Collect container related logs from Kubernetes clusters with Elastic Agent.

What is an Elastic integration?
Version
1.57.0 (View all)
Compatible Kibana version(s)
8.12.0 or higher
Supported Serverless project types

What's this?
Security
Observability
Subscription level
What's this?
Basic

container-logs integration collects and parses logs of Kubernetes containers.

It requires access to the log files in each Kubernetes node where the container logs are stored. This defaults to /var/log/containers/*${kubernetes.container.id}.log.

By default only container parser is enabled. Additional log parsers can be added as an advanced options configuration.

Rerouting and preserve original event based on pod annotations

You can customize the routing of container logs events and sending them to different datasets and namespaces, as well as enable preserve_original_event based on using pods' annotations.

Customization can happen at:

  • pod definition time, e.g., using a deployment.
  • pod runtime, annotating pods using kubectl.

Set at pod definition time

Here is an example of an Nginx deployment where we set both elastic.co/dataset and elastic.co/namespace annotations to route the container logs to specific datasets and namespace, respectively.

# nginx-deployment.yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx-deployment
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      annotations:
        elastic.co/dataset: kubernetes.container_logs.nginx
        elastic.co/namespace: nginx
        elastic.co/preserve_original_event: "true"
      labels:
        app: nginx
        app.kubernetes.io/name: myservice
        app.kubernetes.io/version: v0.1.2
        app.kubernetes.io/instance: myservice-abcxzy
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: nginx-container
          image: nginx:latest
          ports:
            - containerPort: 80

Set at runtime

Suppose you want to change the container logs routing and enable preserve_original_event on a running container. In that case, you can annotate the pod using kubectl, and the integration will apply it immediately sending all the following documents to the new destination:

Here is an example where we route the container logs for a pod running the Elastic Agent to the kubernetes.container_logs.agents dataset:

kubectl annotate pods elastic-agent-managed-daemonset-6p22g elastic.co/dataset=kubernetes.container_logs.agents

Here's a similar example to change the namespace on a pod running Nginx:

kubectl annotate pods elastic-agent-managed-daemonset-6p22g elastic.co/namespace=nginx

Here is an example to enable preserve_original_event on a pod running Nginx:

kubectl annotate pods elastic-agent-managed-daemonset-6p22g elastic.co/preserve_original_event=true

You can restore the standard settings by removing the annotations:

kubectl annotate pods elastic-agent-managed-daemonset-6p22g elastic.co/dataset-
kubectl annotate pods elastic-agent-managed-daemonset-6p22g elastic.co/namespace-
kubectl annotate pods elastic-agent-managed-daemonset-6p22g elastic.co/preserve_original_event-

Annotations Reference

Here are the annotations available to customize routing:

LabelDescription
elastic.co/dataset
Defines the target data stream's dataset for this pod.
elastic.co/namespace
Defines the target data stream's namespace for this pod.
elastic.co/preserve_original_event
Enables 'preserve_original_event' for this pod. Use string 'true' (case-insensitive) to enable

Changelog

VersionDetailsKibana version(s)

1.57.0

Enhancement View pull request
Container logs preserve original content based on pod annotations.

8.12.0 or higher

1.56.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add new fields to API server, state_node and persistent volume claim data streams.

8.12.0 or higher

1.55.1

Enhancement View pull request
Modify the field definitions to reference ECS.

8.11.0 or higher

1.55.0

Enhancement View pull request
Remove extra base fields from state data streams.

8.11.0 or higher

1.54.0

Enhancement View pull request
Expand condition support to remaining inputs

8.11.0 or higher

1.53.0

Enhancement View pull request
Update size of the metric visualizations

8.11.0 or higher

1.52.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add new data stream state_namespace.

8.11.0 or higher

1.51.0

Enhancement View pull request
Migrate Deployments dashboard visualizations to lens.

8.10.2 or higher

1.50.0

Enhancement View pull request
Migrate Cronjobs dashboard visualizations to lens

8.10.2 or higher

1.49.0

Enhancement View pull request
Migrate DaemonSets dashboard visualizations to lens.

8.10.2 or higher

1.48.0

Enhancement View pull request
Migrate StatefulSets dashboard visualizations to lens.

8.10.2 or higher

1.47.0

Enhancement View pull request
Migrate Jobs dashboard visualizations to lens.

8.10.2 or higher

1.46.0

Enhancement View pull request
Adapt fields for changes in file system info

8.10.1 or higher

1.45.0

Enhancement View pull request
Reroute container logs based on pod annotations.

8.10.0 or higher

1.44.0

Enhancement View pull request
Introducing kubernetes.deployment.status.* metrics

8.10.0 or higher

1.43.1

Enhancement View pull request
Updating index pattern for adHocDataviews for CCS use case

8.8.0 or higher

1.43.0

Enhancement View pull request
Expand index pattern for adHocDataviews for CCS use case

8.8.0 or higher

1.42.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add permissions to reroute events to logs-- for container_logs datastream

8.8.0 or higher

1.41.0

Enhancement View pull request
Enable time series data streams for the metrics datasets. This improves storage usage and query performance. For more details, see https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/tsds.html

8.8.0 or higher

1.40.0

Bug fix View pull request
Fix system tests for kubernetes integration for k8s v1.27.0

8.8.0 or higher

1.40.0-beta.2

Bug fix View pull request
Fix volume dashboard.

—

1.40.0-beta.1

Bug fix View pull request
Fix proxy and scheduler visualization with missing sort field.

—

1.40.0-beta

Enhancement View pull request
Enable TSDS for metrics data_streams, except events for beta testing

—

1.39.0

Enhancement View pull request
Remove container.name as a dimension.

8.6.1 or higher

1.38.1

Enhancement View pull request
Switch max to last value on counter formulas and add missing sort field to proxy, controller manager and scheduler dashboard.

8.6.1 or higher

1.38.0

Enhancement View pull request
Fix Pod dashboard and remove some visualisations from Api Server dashboard to support TSDB migration

8.6.1 or higher

1.37.0

Enhancement View pull request
Update proxy, controller manager and scheduler dashboard to support TSDB.

8.6.1 or higher

1.36.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add container.name dimension to container data stream

8.6.1 or higher

1.35.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add NetworkUnavailable condition to state node

8.6.1 or higher

1.34.1

Enhancement View pull request
Add support for TSDB on all metric data streams except the state ones

8.6.1 or higher

1.34.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add support for TSDB on all state metric data streams

8.6.1 or higher

1.33.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add data_stream.dataset setting and custom yaml input.

8.6.1 or higher

1.32.2

Enhancement View pull request
Added link to docs for condition filter

8.6.1 or higher

1.32.1

Enhancement View pull request
Added categories and/or subcategories.

8.6.1 or higher

1.32.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add documentation for how to install alerts

8.6.1 or higher

1.31.2

Enhancement View pull request
Add system testing for state service datastream

8.6.1 or higher

1.31.1

Enhancement View pull request
Update controller manager, proxy and scheduler metrics and dashboards

8.6.1 or higher

1.31.0

Enhancement View pull request
Use datas_tream.dataset as pre filters for dashboards and remove tags

8.6.0 or higher

1.30.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add missing namespace_uid and namespace_labels fields

8.6.0 or higher

1.29.2

Bug fix View pull request
Fix function for memory node usage

8.5.0 or higher

1.29.1

Bug fix View pull request
Fix removed condition setting for container_logs

8.5.0 or higher

1.29.0

Bug fix View pull request
Remove "Control Plane" column from Node Information table

8.5.0 or higher

1.28.2

Bug fix View pull request
Fix Pod Memory usage panel title

8.5.0 or higher

1.28.1

Enhancement View pull request
Delete statefulset, job and cronjob visualizations from Cluster Overview dashboard

8.5.0 or higher

1.28.0

Enhancement View pull request
Adding banner for Kube-state metrics

8.5.0 or higher

1.27.1

Enhancement View pull request
Fix typo in cluster overview dashboard

8.5.0 or higher

1.27.0

Enhancement View pull request
New cluster overview dashboard

8.5.0 or higher

1.26.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add processors configuration option for Kubernetes data_streams

8.4.0 or higher

1.25.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add condition configuration option to container logs data stream

8.4.0 or higher

1.24.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add fields to audit logs data stream

8.4.0 or higher

1.23.1

Enhancement View pull request
Add missing dimension fields

8.4.0 or higher

1.23.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add fields to audit logs data stream

8.4.0 or higher

1.22.1

Enhancement View pull request
Fix overlapping fields in state_job data stream

8.4.0 or higher

1.22.0

Enhancement View pull request
Update apiserver and controllermanaged deprecated fields and dashboards

8.4.0 or higher

1.21.2

Bug fix View pull request
add container ID and pod name as part of Kubernetes Cotainer Logs filestream input

8.3.0 or higher

1.21.1

Enhancement View pull request
improved the wording of the link to Kubernetes documentation

8.3.0 or higher

1.21.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add new dashboards

8.3.0 or higher

1.20.0

Enhancement View pull request
Change fields type for audit_logs data_stream to use requestObject and responseObject fields of audit events. Disable dynamic mapping for audit_logs data_stream. Drop kubernetes.audit.responseObject.metadata and kubernetes.audit.requestObject.metadata

8.2.0 or higher

1.19.1

Enhancement View pull request
Add documentation for volume field

8.2.0 or higher

1.19.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add missed ecs fields

8.2.0 or higher

1.18.1

Enhancement View pull request
Add documentation for multi-fields

8.2.0 or higher

1.18.0

Enhancement View pull request
Fix k8s overview dashboard

8.2.0 or higher

1.17.3

Bug fix View pull request
Remove incorrectly tagged boolean dimension

7.16.0 or higher
8.0.0 or higher

1.17.2

Bug fix View pull request
Add missing metadata fields

7.16.0 or higher
8.0.0 or higher

1.17.1

Enhancement View pull request
Improve default ndjson parser configuration

—

1.17.0

Enhancement View pull request
Disable audit logs collection by default

—

1.16.0

Enhancement View pull request
Documentation improvements

—

1.15.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add ssl.certificate_authorities configuration

—

1.14.3

Bug fix View pull request
Add missing job.name and cronjob.name fields to state_container datastream

—

1.14.2

Bug fix View pull request
Add missing job.name and cronjob.name fields to container related datastreams

—

1.14.1

Bug fix View pull request
Add missing job.name and cronjob.name fields added by metadata generators

—

1.14.0

Enhancement View pull request
Tune state_metrics settings

—

1.13.0

Enhancement View pull request
Update to ECS 8.0

—

1.12.0

Enhancement View pull request
Expose add_recourse_metadata configuration option

—

1.11.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add memory.working_set.limit.pct for pod and container data streams

—

1.10.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add leader election in state_job data stream

—

1.9.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add missing fields

7.16.0 or higher
8.0.0 or higher

1.8.1

Bug fix View pull request
Set kubernetes.volume.fs.used.pct to scaled_float

7.16.0 or higher
8.0.0 or higher

1.8.0

Enhancement View pull request
Support json logs parsing

7.16.0 or higher
8.0.0 or higher

1.7.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add new audit logs data stream in kubernetes integration

7.16.0 or higher
8.0.0 or higher

1.6.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add skip_older option for event datastream

7.16.0 or higher
8.0.0 or higher

1.5.0

Enhancement View pull request
Revert Kubernetes namespace field breaking change

7.16.0 or higher
8.0.0 or higher

1.4.2

Enhancement View pull request
Add dimension fields

—

1.4.1

Enhancement View pull request
Remove overriding of index pattern on the Kubernetes overview dashboard

8.0.0 or higher

1.4.0

Enhancement View pull request
Use filestream input for container_logs data stream

—

1.3.3

Bug fix View pull request
Fix conditions of data_streams that are based on k8s labels & add condition in pipelines

—

1.3.2

Enhancement View pull request
Set default host for proxy to localhost

—

1.3.1

Enhancement View pull request
Uniform with guidelines

—

1.3.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add container_logs ecs fields

—

1.2.1

Bug fix View pull request
Update Kubernetes cluster_ip field type

—

1.2.0

Enhancement View pull request
Update Kubernetes namespace field

—

1.1.1

Bug fix View pull request
Update Kubernetes integration Readme

—

1.1.0

Enhancement View pull request
Update to ECS 1.12.0

7.15.0 or higher

1.0.0

Enhancement View pull request
Release Kubernetes as GA

—

0.14.1

Enhancement View pull request
Update default host in kubernetes proxy data stream in kubernetes integration

—

0.14.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add new container logs data stream in kubernetes integration

—

0.13.0

Enhancement View pull request
Leverage dynamic kubernetes provider for controller and scheduler datastream

—

0.12.2

Bug fix View pull request
Add missing field "kubernetes.daemonset.name" field for pod and container data streams

—

0.12.1

Bug fix View pull request
Add missing cluster filter for "orchestrator.cluster.name" field in [Metrics Kubernetes] Overview dashboard and Dashboard section in the integration overview page

—

0.12.0

Enhancement View pull request
Update kubernetes package ecs fields with orchestrator.cluster.url and orchestrator.cluster.name

—

0.11.1

Enhancement View pull request
Escape special characters in docs

—

0.11.0

Enhancement View pull request
Update documentation to fit mdx spec

—

0.10.0

Enhancement View pull request
Update integration description

—

0.9.1

Bug fix View pull request
Add missing field "kubernetes.daemonset.name" field for state_pod and state_container

—

0.9.0

Enhancement View pull request
Enhance kubernetes package with state_job data stream

—

0.8.0

Enhancement View pull request
Leverage leader election in kubernetes integration

—

0.7.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add _meta information to Kubernetes fields

—

0.6.0

Enhancement View pull request
Introduce kubernetes package granularity using input_groups

—

0.5.3

Enhancement View pull request
Add missing field "kubernetes.statefulset.replicas.ready"

—

0.5.2

Bug fix View pull request
Fix stack compatability

—

0.5.1

Bug fix View pull request
Fix references to env variables

—

0.5.0

Enhancement View pull request
Add missing field "kubernetes.selectors.*" and extra https settings for controllermanager and scheduler datastreams

—

0.4.5

Enhancement View pull request
Add missing field "kubernetes.pod.ip"

—

0.4.4

Enhancement View pull request
Updating package owner

—

0.4.3

Bug fix View pull request
Correct sample event file.

—

0.4.2

Bug fix View pull request
Change kibana.version constraint to be more conservative.

—

0.4.1

Enhancement View pull request
Add missing fields

—

0.1.0

Enhancement View pull request
initial release

—

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