Fluentd Logging

The BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes Fluentd logging Pod is an open source data collector that can be configured to receive logging data from the BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes, Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM), and Distributed Session State Management (dSSM) Pods. To create log file directories for each of the BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes Pods, Fluentd must bind to a Kubernetes Persistent Volumes.

Fluentd Service

After installing Fluentd, a Service object is created to receive logging data on TCP service port 54321, and forward the data to Fluentd on TCP service port 24224. Ensure the Service port is available, and the cluster has CoreDNS enabled. In this example, the BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes components will need to resolve the f5-toda-fluentd.f5-utils hostname:

Example Fluentd Service:

Name:              f5-toda-fluentd
Namespace:         f5-utils
IP:                10.109.102.215
Port:              <unset>  54321/TCP
Endpoints:         10.244.1.75:24224

Log file locations

Fluentd collects logging data in the following log files:

Container Log file
f5-dssm-sentinel /var/log/f5/f5-dssm-sentinel-0/sentinel.log
f5-dssm-db /var/log/f5/f5-dssm-db-0/dssm.log
f5ingress /var/log/f5/helm_release-f5ingress/pod_name/f5ingress.log
f5-tmm /var/log/f5/f5-tmm/pod_name/f5-fsm-tmm.log
f5-tmm-routing /var/log/f5/f5-tmm/pod_name/f5-tmm-routing.log

Note: To modify the TMM logging level, review the bdt_cli section of the Debug Sidecar overview.

Viewing logs

After installing the BIG-IP Next for Kuberneters with the Controller and dSSM Pods, you can use the following steps to view the logs in the f5-fluentd container:

  1. Run the following command to list the logging directories.

    kubectl -n f5-utils exec -it deploy/f5-toda-fluentd -- ls /var/log/f5

    Sample Output:

    f5-afm f5-crdconversion-6dd74cd5-m6mp9 f5-dssm-sentinel-0 f5-ipam-ctlr-5cb9546595-x42q9 f5-rabbit
f5-cne-controller f5-dssm-db-0 f5-dssm-sentinel-1 f5-observer-0 f5-spk-csrc
f5-coremond f5-dssm-db-1 f5-dssm-sentinel-2 f5-observer-operator f5-spk-cwc
f5-crdconversion-6dd74cd5-dd8r4 f5-dssm-db-2 f5-ipam-ctlr-5cb9546595-6lnvd f5-observer-receiver-0 f5-tmm

  2. View the logs using the more/cat command:

    Example more command to view logs:

    kubectl -n f5-utils exec -it deploy/f5-toda-fluentd -- more -d /var/log/f5/f5-dssm-db-0/dssm.log

    Example cat command to view logs:

    kubectl -n f5-utils exec -it deploy/f5-toda-fluentd -- cat /var/log/f5/f5-dssm-db-0/dssm.log

Supplemental