Traffic Log

With the Traffic Log policy you can easily set up access logs on every data plane in a mesh.

This policy only records outbound traffic. It doesn’t record inbound traffic.

To configure access logs in Kong Mesh you need to:

1. Add a logging backend
2. Add a TrafficLog resource

In the rest of this page we assume you have already configured your observability tools to work with Kong Mesh. If you haven’t already read the observability docs.

Add a logging backend

A logging backend is essentially a sink for access logs.

Currently, it can be either a file or a TCP log collector, such as Logstash, Splunk or other.

Kubernetes

Universal

apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: Mesh
metadata:
  name: default
spec:
  logging:
    # TrafficLog policies may leave the `backend` field undefined.
    # In that case the logs will be forwarded into the `defaultBackend` of that Mesh.
    defaultBackend: file
    # List of logging backends that can be referred to by name
    # from TrafficLog policies of that Mesh.
    backends:
      - name: logstash
        # Use `format` field to adjust the access log format to your use case.
        format: '{"start_time": "%START_TIME%", "source": "%KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE%", "destination": "%KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE%", "source_address": "%KUMA_SOURCE_ADDRESS_WITHOUT_PORT%", "destination_address": "%UPSTREAM_HOST%", "duration_millis": "%DURATION%", "bytes_received": "%BYTES_RECEIVED%", "bytes_sent": "%BYTES_SENT%"}'
        type: tcp
        # Use `config` field to co configure a TCP logging backend.
        conf:
          # Address of a log collector (like logstash, splunk or other).
          address: 127.0.0.1:5000
      - name: file
        type: file
        # Use `file` field to configure a file-based logging backend.
        conf:
          path: /tmp/access.log
        # When `format` field is omitted, the default access log format will be used.

type: Mesh
name: default
logging:
  # TrafficLog policies may leave the `backend` field undefined.
  # In that case the logs will be forwarded into the `defaultBackend` of that Mesh.
  defaultBackend: file
  # List of logging backends that can be referred to by name
  # from TrafficLog policies of that Mesh.
  backends:
    - name: logstash
      # Use `format` field to adjust the access log format to your use case.
      format: '{"start_time": "%START_TIME%", "source": "%KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE%", "destination": "%KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE%", "source_address": "%KUMA_SOURCE_ADDRESS_WITHOUT_PORT%", "destination_address": "%UPSTREAM_HOST%", "duration_millis": "%DURATION%", "bytes_received": "%BYTES_RECEIVED%", "bytes_sent": "%BYTES_SENT%"}'
      type: tcp
      conf: # Use `config` field to configure a TCP logging backend.
        # Address of a log collector.
        address: 127.0.0.1:5000
    - name: file
      type: file
      # Use `config` field to configure a file-based logging backend.
      conf:
        path: /tmp/access.log
      # When `format` field is omitted, the default access log format will be used.

Add a TrafficLog resource

You need to create a TrafficLog policy to select a subset of traffic and write its access logs into one of the backends configured for that mesh.

Kubernetes

Universal

apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: TrafficLog
metadata:
  name: all-traffic
mesh: default
spec:
  # This TrafficLog policy applies all traffic in that Mesh.
  sources:
    - match:
        kuma.io/service: "*"
  destinations:
    - match:
        kuma.io/service: "*"

apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
kind: TrafficLog
metadata:
  name: backend-to-database-traffic
mesh: default
spec:
  # This TrafficLog policy applies only to traffic from service `backend` to service `database`.
  sources:
    - match:
        kuma.io/service: backend_kuma-example_svc_8080
  destinations:
    - match:
        kuma.io/service: database_kuma-example_svc_5432
  conf:
    # Forward the logs into the logging backend named `logstash`.
    backend: logstash

type: TrafficLog
name: all-traffic
mesh: default
# This TrafficLog policy applies to all traffic in the Mesh.
sources:
  - match:
      kuma.io/service: "*"
destinations:
  - match:
      kuma.io/service: "*"

type: TrafficLog
name: backend-to-database-traffic
mesh: default
# this TrafficLog policy applies only to traffic from service `backend` to service `database`.
sources:
  - match:
      kuma.io/service: backend
destinations:
  - match:
      kuma.io/service: database
conf:
  # Forward the logs into the logging backend named `logstash`.
  backend: logstash

When backend field is omitted, the logs will be forwarded into the defaultBackend of that Mesh.

Matching

TrafficLog is an Outbound Connection Policy. For this reason the only supported value for destinations.match is kuma.io/service.

Logging external services

When running Kong Mesh on Kubernetes you can also log the traffic to external services. To do it, the matched destination section has to have wildcard * value. In such case %KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE% will have value external and %UPSTREAM_HOST% will have an IP of the service.

Builtin Gateway support

Traffic Log is a Kong Mesh outbound connection policy, so Kong Mesh chooses a Traffic Log policy by matching the service tag of the data plane’s outbounds. Since a builtin gateway data plane does not have outbounds, Kong Mesh always uses the builtin service name pass_through to match the Traffic Log policy for Gateways.

Access Log Format

Kong Mesh gives you full control over the format of the access logs.

The shape of a single log record is defined by a template string that uses command operators to extract and format data about a TCP connection or an HTTP request.

E.g.,

%START_TIME% %KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE% => %KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE% %DURATION%

where %START_TIME% and %KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE% are examples of available command operators.

All command operators defined by Envoy are supported, along with additional command operators defined by Kong Mesh:

Command Operator	Description
`%KUMA_MESH%`	name of the mesh in which traffic is flowing
`%KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE%`	name of a `service` that is the `source` of traffic
`%KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE%`	name of a `service` that is the `destination` of traffic
`%KUMA_SOURCE_ADDRESS_WITHOUT_PORT%`	address of a `Dataplane` that is the `source` of traffic
`%KUMA_TRAFFIC_DIRECTION%`	direction of the traffic, `INBOUND`, `OUTBOUND` or `UNSPECIFIED`

Access Logs for TCP and HTTP traffic

All access log command operators are valid to use with both TCP and HTTP traffic.

If a command operator is specific to HTTP traffic, such as %REQ(X?Y):Z% or %RESP(X?Y):Z%, it will be replaced by a symbol “-” in case of TCP traffic.

Internally, Kong Mesh determines traffic protocol based on the value of kuma.io/protocol tag on the inbound interface of a destination Dataplane.

The default format string for TCP traffic is:

[%START_TIME%] %RESPONSE_FLAGS% %KUMA_MESH% %KUMA_SOURCE_ADDRESS_WITHOUT_PORT%(%KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE%)->%UPSTREAM_HOST%(%KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE%) took %DURATION%ms, sent %BYTES_SENT% bytes, received: %BYTES_RECEIVED% bytes

The default format string for HTTP traffic is:

[%START_TIME%] %KUMA_MESH% "%REQ(:METHOD)% %REQ(X-ENVOY-ORIGINAL-PATH?:PATH)% %PROTOCOL%" %RESPONSE_CODE% %RESPONSE_FLAGS% %BYTES_RECEIVED% %BYTES_SENT% %DURATION% %RESP(X-ENVOY-UPSTREAM-SERVICE-TIME)% "%REQ(X-FORWARDED-FOR)%" "%REQ(USER-AGENT)%" "%REQ(X-REQUEST-ID)%" "%REQ(:AUTHORITY)%" "%KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE%" "%KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE%" "%KUMA_SOURCE_ADDRESS_WITHOUT_PORT%" "%UPSTREAM_HOST%"

To provide different format for TCP and HTTP logging you can define two separate logging backends with the same address and different format. Then define two TrafficLog entity, one for TCP and one for HTTP with matching kuma.io/protocol selector.

JSON format

If you need an access log with entries in JSON format, you have to provide a template string that is a valid JSON object, e.g.

{
  "start_time":          "%START_TIME%",
  "source":              "%KUMA_SOURCE_SERVICE%",
  "destination":         "%KUMA_DESTINATION_SERVICE%",
  "source_address":      "%KUMA_SOURCE_ADDRESS_WITHOUT_PORT%",
  "destination_address": "%UPSTREAM_HOST%",
  "duration_millis":     "%DURATION%",
  "bytes_received":      "%BYTES_RECEIVED%",
  "bytes_sent":          "%BYTES_SENT%"
}