Store Nginx Access Logs in Grafana Loki with Logging operator

This guide describes how to collect application and container logs in Kubernetes using the Logging operator, and how to send them to Grafana Loki.

The following figure gives you an overview about how the system works. The Logging operator collects the logs from the application, selects which logs to forward to the output, and sends the selected log messages to the output. For more details about the Logging operator, see the Logging operator overview.

Deploy Loki and Grafana

  1. Add the chart repositories of Loki and Grafana using the following commands:

    helm repo add grafana https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts
    helm repo add loki https://grafana.github.io/loki/charts
    helm repo update
    
  2. Install Loki into the logging namespace:

    helm upgrade --install --create-namespace --namespace logging loki loki/loki
    

    Grafana Loki Documentation

  3. Install Grafana into the logging namespace:

     helm upgrade --install --create-namespace --namespace logging grafana grafana/grafana \
     --set "datasources.datasources\\.yaml.apiVersion=1" \
     --set "datasources.datasources\\.yaml.datasources[0].name=Loki" \
     --set "datasources.datasources\\.yaml.datasources[0].type=loki" \
     --set "datasources.datasources\\.yaml.datasources[0].url=http://loki:3100" \
     --set "datasources.datasources\\.yaml.datasources[0].access=proxy"
    

Deploy the Logging operator and a demo application

Install the Logging operator and a demo application to provide sample log messages.

Deploy the Logging operator with Helm

To install the Logging operator using Helm, complete these steps.

Note: For the Helm-based installation you need Helm v3.2.1 or later.

  1. Add the chart repository of the Logging operator using the following commands:

    helm repo add kube-logging https://kube-logging.dev/helm-charts
    helm repo update
    
  2. Install the Logging operator into the logging namespace:

    helm upgrade --install --wait --create-namespace --namespace logging logging-operator kube-logging/logging-operator
    
  3. Create the logging resource.

    kubectl -n logging apply -f - <<"EOF"
    apiVersion: logging.banzaicloud.io/v1beta1
    kind: Logging
    metadata:
      name: default-logging-simple
    spec:
      fluentd: {}
      fluentbit: {}
      controlNamespace: logging
    EOF
    

    Note: You can use the ClusterOutput and ClusterFlow resources only in the controlNamespace.

  4. Create a Loki output definition.

    kubectl -n logging apply -f - <<"EOF"
    apiVersion: logging.banzaicloud.io/v1beta1
    kind: Output
    metadata:
     name: loki-output
    spec:
     loki:
       url: http://loki:3100
       configure_kubernetes_labels: true
       buffer:
         timekey: 1m
         timekey_wait: 30s
         timekey_use_utc: true
    EOF
    

    Note: In production environment, use a longer timekey interval to avoid generating too many objects.

  5. Create a flow resource.

    kubectl -n logging apply -f - <<"EOF"
    apiVersion: logging.banzaicloud.io/v1beta1
    kind: Flow
    metadata:
      name: loki-flow
    spec:
      filters:
        - tag_normaliser: {}
        - parser:
            remove_key_name_field: true
            reserve_data: true
            parse:
              type: nginx
      match:
        - select:
            labels:
              app.kubernetes.io/name: log-generator
      localOutputRefs:
        - loki-output
    EOF
    
  6. Install log-generator to produce logs with the label app.kubernetes.io/name: log-generator

    helm upgrade --install --wait --create-namespace --namespace logging log-generator kube-logging/log-generator
    
  7. Validate your deployment.

Validate the deployment

Grafana Dashboard

  1. Use the following command to retrieve the password of the Grafana admin user:

    kubectl get secret --namespace logging grafana -o jsonpath="{.data.admin-password}" | base64 --decode ; echo
    
  2. Enable port forwarding to the Grafana Service.

    kubectl -n logging port-forward svc/grafana 3000:80
    
  3. Open the Grafana Dashboard: http://localhost:3000

  4. Use the admin username and the password retrieved in Step 1 to log in.

  5. Select Menu > Explore, select Data source > Loki, then select Log labels > namespace > logging. A list of logs should appear.

    Sample log messages in Loki

If you don’t get the expected result you can find help in the troubleshooting section.