How to: Access the BIG-IP Next Central Manager application logs¶

The BIG-IP Next Central Manager application log aggregates log entries generated by the various microservices that make up the application.

Summary¶

Use this procedure and the command line interface (CLI) to access the BIG-IP Next Central Manager application logs.

Prerequisites¶

Access to the Kubernetes Pods that house the BIG-IP Next Central Manager for which you want to view the application logs.

Procedures¶

Access the BIG-IP Next Central Manager application logs
Application log examples

Access the BIG-IP Next Central Manager application logs¶

Use the following procedure to view the application logs for BIG-IP Next Central Manager.

Log in (via SSH or the console) to the virtual machine (VM) on which your BIG-IP Next Central Manager resides.

To view the correct application logs, you must first identify which fluentd pod is running. Run the following command:

kubectl get pods | grep fluentd

You will see an output similar to this:

fluentd-0                                       2/2     Running   8 (40h ago)    6d22h
fluentd-1                                       2/2     Running   8 (40h ago)    6d22h

Note: Ensure you choose the fluentd pod in the Running state. In this example, both fluentd-0 and fluentd-1 are running, so you can select either one.

View Application Logs. Once you have identified the running fluentd pod, use the pod name in the following command to view the BIG-IP Next Central Manager application logs. Replace <POD_NAME> with the pod you selected (e.g., fluentd-0 or fluentd-1):
```
kubectl logs <POD_NAME> fluentd | grep nats.fluent_log
```
For example, if you selected fluentd-0, the command would be:
```
kubectl logs fluentd-0 fluentd | grep nats.fluent_log
```
This command will display the application logs for BIG-IP Next Central Manager.
To continuously monitor the logs, you can use the -f flag. This will show a live feed of the logs, displaying new actions on the virtual machine as they happen:
```
kubectl logs <POD_NAME> fluentd -f | grep nats.fluent_log
```
For example:
```
kubectl logs fluentd-0 fluentd -f | grep nats.fluent_log
```
Note: If one of the fluentd pods is not in the “Running” state, do not use that pod. Only select a pod that is marked as “Running.” This ensures that the correct logs are retrieved from the running pod.

The application logs for this BIG-IP Next Central Manager virtual machine will display; and any new actions on this virtual machine will display as well.

For examples of the kind of information a typical application log entry provides, refer to Application log examples.

Application log examples¶

Each log entry has one of the following levels:

trace
debug
info
warning
error
fatal
panic

The log level communicates the severity of the log entry… ranging from normal execution (informational) to failure. Here are a few entries followed by an explanation of the kind of information you can extract from them.

Example log entries:

{“action”:””,”level”:”error”,”msg”:”DEVICE-00017: Unable to find device group”,”source”:”Device DeviceModel”}
{“action”:”Created device group”,”level”:”info”,”msg”:”DEVICE-00016: Successfully created a device group : default”,”source”:”Device DeviceModel”}
{“action”:”Login”,”level”:”info”,”msg”:”Login succeeded for user admin”,”source”:”Gateway Authentication”}

Action	Level	Description
Get device group	Error	Unable to find device group
Created device group	Information	Successfully created a device group
Login	Information	Login succeeded for user admin