Use IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA to add log management capabilities to your IBM Cloud architecture. IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA is operated by LogDNA in partnership with IBM.
You can use IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA to manage system and application logs in the IBM Cloud.
IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA offers administrators, DevOps teams, and developers advanced features to filter, search, and tail log data, define alerts, and design custom views to monitor application and system logs.
Features
IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA provides the following features.
Troubleshooting logs in real time to diagnose issues and identify problems
By using the live streaming tail feature, developers and DevOps teams can diagnose issues, analyze stack traces and exceptions, identify the source of errors, and monitor different log sources through a single view.
Issuing alerts to be notified of important actions
DevOps teams can configure the system so critical or warning alert notifications are sent to email, Slack, webHook, or PagerDuty. This helps DevOps teams to act promptly on important application and services events.
Exporting logs to a local file for analysis or to an archive service to meet auditing requirements
You can export specific log lines to a local copy or archive logs from IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA to IBM Cloud Object Storage. Log lines are exported in JSON line format. Logs are archived in JSON format with the metadata that is associated with each line.
Controlling logging infrastructure costs by customizing IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA managed logs
You can control the cost of your IBM Cloud logging infrastructure by configuring the log sources that are collecting and managing logs.
Overview
IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA is a service hosted on the IBM Cloud and operated by LogDNA. The log data is stored on the IBM Cloud.
Because IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA is part of the IBM Cloud users must have the following permissions:
- Your users must have platform permissions to create, view, and delete an instance of a service in the IBM Cloud.
- Your users must have platform permissions to create resources within the context of the resource group where the LogDNA instance is provisioned.
To add logging features with LogDNA in the IBM Cloud, you must provision an instance of IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA.
An IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA instance is provisioned within the context of a resource group. Your services are organized for access control and billing purposes by using resource groups. You can provision the instance in the default resource group or in a custom resource group.
After provisioning an instance of IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA, an account is created in LogDNA, and you receive the ingestion key for your account.
After you've your ingestion key, you can configure your log sources:
- You can enable a LogDNA instance per region to host logs from enabled IBM Cloud services. For example, to collect logs from an IBM Cloud Foundry app, you can enable the service platform logs flag. Learn more. When this feature is enabled, logs are collected automatically.
- You can configure a LogDNA agent for a log source. A log source is a Cloud or on-prem resource that generates logs. For example, a log source can be a Kubernetes cluster. You use the ingestion key to configure the LogDNA agent that is responsible for collecting and forwarding logs to your IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA instance. After the LogDNA agent is deployed in a log source, logs are collected and forwarded automatically to the IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA instance. Learn more.
You can launch the IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA Web UI to view, monitor, and manage your logs from the IBM Cloud Menu 
> Observability > Logging page.
The following figure shows the components comprising the IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA service that is running on IBM Cloud:
Step 1. Before you begin
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Check the regions where the IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA service is available.
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If you don't have an IBM Cloud account, register an IBM Cloud account. You need an IBMid to work in IBM Cloud.
Step 2. Get started
Choose a log resource. Then, complete the get started section:
| Log source | Get started |
|---|---|
| IBM Cloud service | Collecting and analyzing logs from IBM Cloud service logs in your account |
| Standard Kubernetes cluster | Collecting and analyzing logs from a Kubernetes cluster |
| Linux Ubuntu Linux Debian |
Collecting and analyzing logs from a Linux environment |
| Cloud Foundry [1] | Collecting and analyzing logs from CF resources |
[1] If your CF resources run on IBM Cloud public, you can choose to automatically collect these logs and monitor them through the IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA instance that is provisioned in the same region, and that is enabled to host platform logs. Alternatively, you can choose to configure a custom user provided (CUPS) service for your app, so system and application logs are collected and streamed to a custom logging instance.
Step 3. Upgrade the plan
Enable more logging features.
Upgrade the IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA service plan to a paid plan to be able to filter logs, search logs, define views, and configure alerts. For more information about IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA service plans, see Pricing plans.
Step 4. Manage logs
Complete the following steps:
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Launch the LogDNA web UI.
Step 5. Next steps
Next, you can manage user access with IAM.
Identify the IAM policies that a user needs to work with the IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA service.
To learn more about IAM integration with the IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA service, see Managing IAM policies and access groups.
For example, choose one user role to learn how to grant permissions to that user to work with the IBM Log Analysis with LogDNA service.
| User role in the IBM Cloud | For more information |
|---|---|
| Account owner | Granting permissions to a user to become an administrator of the service in the IBM Cloud account |
| Platform service administrator in the account | Granting permissions to a user to become an administrator of the service in the IBM Cloud account |
| Platform service administrator in a resource group | Granting permissions to a user to become an administrator of the service within a resource group |
| Platform DevOps operator in the account | Granting permissions to a DevOps user to manage the service in the IBM Cloud account |
| Platform DevOps operator in a resource group | Granting permissions to a DevOps user to manage the service within a resource group |
| Service administrator in LogDNA | Granting permissions to manage logs and configure alerts in LogDNA |
| User / Developer | Granting permissions to a user to view and manage logs in LogDNA |