Logging Architecture
This section summarizes the architecture of the Rancher logging application.
For more details about how the Logging operator works, see the official documentation.
How the Logging Operator Works
The Logging operator automates the deployment and configuration of a Kubernetes logging pipeline. It deploys and configures a Fluent Bit DaemonSet on every node to collect container and application logs from the node file system.
Fluent Bit queries the Kubernetes API and enriches the logs with metadata about the pods, and transfers both the logs and the metadata to Fluentd. Fluentd receives, filters, and transfers logs to multiple Outputs
.
The following custom resources are used to define how logs are filtered and sent to their Outputs
:
- A
Flow
is a namespaced custom resource that uses filters and selectors to route log messages to the appropriateOutputs
. - A
ClusterFlow
is used to route cluster-level log messages. - An
Output
is a namespaced resource that defines where the log messages are sent. - A
ClusterOutput
defines anOutput
that is available from allFlows
andClusterFlows
.
Each Flow
must reference an Output
, and each ClusterFlow
must reference a ClusterOutput
.
The following figure from the Logging Operator documentation shows the new logging architecture: