Instrument Go apps for Error Reporting

You can send error reports to Error Reporting from Go applications by using the Error Reporting package for Go.

Error Reporting is integrated with some Google Cloud services, such as App Engine, Compute Engine, and Google Kubernetes Engine. Error Reporting displays the errors that are logged to Cloud Logging by applications running on those services. For more information, go to Running on Google Cloud Platform on this page.

You can also send error data to Error Reporting using Logging. For information on the data formatting requirements, read Formatting error messages in Logging.

Before you begin

1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

2. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

3. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project. Learn how to check if billing is enabled on a project.

4. Enable the Error Reporting API .

   Enable the API

5. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

6. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project. Learn how to check if billing is enabled on a project.

7. Enable the Error Reporting API .

   Enable the API

Installing the client library

Error Reporting package for Go lets you monitor and view errors reported by Go applications running nearly anywhere.

1. Use go get to install the package:

   go get cloud.google.com/go/errorreporting

For more information on installation, read the documentation for the Error Reporting package for Go. You can also report issues using the issue tracker.

Configuring the client library

You can customize the behavior of the Error Reporting package for Go. See the godoc.

Reporting errors

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// Sample errorreporting_quickstart contains is a quickstart
// example for the Google Cloud Error Reporting API.
package main

import (
	"context"
	"log"
	"net/http"

	"cloud.google.com/go/errorreporting"
)

var errorClient *errorreporting.Client

func main() {
	ctx := context.Background()

	// Sets your Google Cloud Platform project ID.
	projectID := "YOUR_PROJECT_ID"

	var err error
	errorClient, err = errorreporting.NewClient(ctx, projectID, errorreporting.Config{
		ServiceName: "myservice",
		OnError: func(err error) {
			log.Printf("Could not log error: %v", err)
		},
	})
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	defer errorClient.Close()

	resp, err := http.Get("not-a-valid-url")
	if err != nil {
		logAndPrintError(err)
		return
	}
	log.Print(resp.Status)
}

func logAndPrintError(err error) {
	errorClient.Report(errorreporting.Entry{
		Error: err,
	})
	log.Print(err)
}

See the godoc for more examples of how to report panics and errors.

Running on Google Cloud

Using the Error Reporting package for Go requires the Identity and Access Management Error Reporting Writer role. Most Google Cloud computing platforms provide this role by default.

You can configure Error Reporting for Go on the following Google Cloud environments.

App Engine flexible environment

App Engine grants the Error Reporting Writer role by default.

The Error Reporting package for Go can be used without needing to explicitly provide credentials.

Error Reporting is automatically enabled for App Engine flexible environment applications. No additional setup is required.

Note: Error logs written to stderr are processed automatically by Error Reporting, without needing to use the Error Reporting package for Go directly.

Google Kubernetes Engine

On GKE, you must add the cloud-platform access scope when creating the cluster, as the following example command shows:

gcloud container clusters create example-cluster-name --scopes https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform

Compute Engine

When using Compute Engine VM instances, add the cloud-platform access scope to each instance. When creating a new instance through the Google Cloud console, you can do this in the Identity and API access section of the Create Instance panel. Use the Compute Engine default service account or another service account of your choice, and select Allow full access to all Cloud APIs in the Identity and API access section. Whichever service account you select, ensure that it has been granted the Error Reporting Writer role in the IAM & admin section of the Google Cloud console.

Running locally and elsewhere

To use the Error Reporting package for Go outside of Google Cloud, including running the library on your own workstation, on your data center's computers, or on the VM instances of another cloud provider, you must supply your Google Cloud project ID and appropriate service account credentials directly to the Error Reporting package for Go.

You can create and obtain service account credentials manually. When specifying the Role field, use the Error Reporting Writer role. For more information on Identity and Access Management roles, go to Access control guide.

Viewing error reports

After deployment, you can view error reports in the Google Cloud console Error Reporting dashboard.

Go to the Error Reporting dashboard

For more information, see Viewing Errors.