Exporting with the Logs Viewer

This page explains how to export log entries using the GCP Console. You can also export log entries in the Stackdriver Logging API and in the gcloud logging command-line tool.

If you are not familiar with exporting logs in Logging, see Overview of Logs Export. In summary, you export logs by creating one or more sinks that include a logs filter and an export destination. As Stackdriver Logging receives new log entries, they are compared against each sink. If a log entry matches a sink's filter, then a copy of the log entry is written to the export destination.

To learn how exported logs are formatted and organized, see Using Exported Logs.

Getting started

1. Go to the Stackdriver Logging > Logs Exports page in the GCP Console:

   Go to Logs Exports

2. Select an existing GCP project at the top of the page. You see the list of logs exports in your GCP project.

   The following screenshot shows an example of the Logs Exports page, where several log sinks are already configured:

You will see the message No Log sinks are configured, instead of the list shown above, if you have not yet configured any log sinks.

Before you begin

• Project: You must have a Google Cloud Platform project with logs that you can see in the Logs Viewer.
  

  You must also have the Owner or the Logging/Logs Configuration Writer IAM roles in the project to create, delete, or modify a sink. See Permissions and roles for more information.

• Destination service: To export logs, you must sign up for the service to which you will write your logs: Cloud Storage, BigQuery, or Cloud Pub/Sub.

Logs Exports user interface

The Logs Exports interface contains a table summary of exports. Each table row contains information corresponding to some of the sink properties described in Overview of Logs Export:

• Sink Name: The sink's identifier in the current project.
• Destination: Where the exported log entries will go.
• Writer Identity: The service account that Logging uses to write log entries to the destination. This service account must have permission to write to the sink's export destination.

Each table row has an overflow menu on the far right and features the following options:

• Edit sink: Opens an Edit Export panel where you can change the sink's parameters.
• Delete sink: Lets you delete the sink and stop the logs export.
• View filter: Displays the sink's filter. Clicking Edit lets you change the sink's properties or filter.

The search-filter box above the table lets you filter your sinks by text search or the sink properties Sink Name, Destination, and Writer Identity. For example, the following screenshot shows a search on Destination bigquery and options to concatenate other sink properties to the argument by OR (AND is the default):

In addition, clicking on any of the column names lets you sort data in ascending or descending order. At the bottom of the table, you can also select the number of rows that you wish to display.

Creating sinks

To create an export sink, click the Create Export button at the top of the Logs Exports page. You can also access this button at the top of the Logs Viewer page.

If your account lacks permission to create exports for the project, this button is disabled. See the Before you begin section above for more information.

The following screenshot shows the Edit Export panel with some fields filled in:

To create a sink, fill in the Edit Export panel as follows:

1. (filter): Enter an advanced logs filter. You don't need quotation marks around the filter and you can use multiple lines. The initial filter is determined by the log entries being displayed when you click Create Export.

   Whenever you edit the filter, press Submit Filter, found under the filter box, to display the matched log entries. Click the Jump to newest logs icon at the top of the page to fetch the most recent logs.

   If you wish to use the basic viewing interface to select the logs, use the ▾ menu at the right side of the search-filter box.

2. Sink name: Enter the identifier you want to assign to the sink.

3. Sink Service: Select a destination service: Cloud Storage, Cloud Pub/Sub, BigQuery or Custom Destination.

   A custom export destination still has to be in Cloud Storage, BigQuery, or Cloud Pub/Sub, but allows you to send logs to a sink in a different project.

4. Sink Destination:

   1. Cloud Storage: Select or create the particular bucket to receive the exported logs.
   2. Cloud Pub/Sub: Select or create the particular topic to receive the exported logs.
   3. BigQuery: Select or create the particular dataset to receive the exported logs.
   4. Custom Destination: Add the Cloud Storage, Cloud Pub/Sub, or BigQuery project as a string. For information on project name formatting, see Sink properties.

5. Click Update Sink to create the sink.

   As part of creating the sink, Logging attempts to grant the sink's writer identity permission to write to your destination. If you are exporting to a destination in a project other than the one owning your logs, then an administrator of the new destination must grant permission. You should send the administrator the sink's writer identity, which is listed with the sink in the Exports page.

New log entries that match your sink will start being exported. Log entries going to BigQuery or Cloud Pub/Sub are streamed to those export destinations immediately. Log entries going to Cloud Storage are batched and sent out approximately every hour. For more information, see Using exported logs.

If Logging encounters errors when trying to export logs to your export destination, the errors appear in your project's Activity Stream. Select Activity at the top of your project's home page in Google Cloud Platform Console. To diagnose common errors, see Troubleshooting.

Updating sinks

To update a sink, select the Edit sink command in the More menu to the right of the sink's name. You can change any of the following parameters:

• Destination
• Filter

To change other parameters of your sinks, use the projects.sinks.update API method.

Deleting sinks

To delete a sink, select the sink in the Exports page and press Delete at the top of the page. Alternatively, select Delete sink from the More menu to the right of the sink's name.

Destination permissions

This section describes how you can grant Logging permission to write exported logs to your sink's export destination.

When you create a sink, Logging creates a new service account for the sink, called a unique writer identity. You cannot manage this service account directly as it is owned and managed by Stackdriver Logging. The service account is deleted if the sink gets deleted.

Your export destination must permit this service account to write log entries. To set up this permission, follow these steps:

1. Create the new sink in the GCP Console, the gcloud logging command-line interface, or the Logging API.

2. If you created your sink in the GCP Console and you have Owner access to the destination, then Stackdriver Logging should have set up the necessary permissions on your behalf. If it did so, you are done. If not, continue.

3. Obtain the sink's writer identity—an email address—from the new sink:

   • If you are using the GCP Console, you can see the writer identity in the sink listing on the Exports page.
   • If you are using the Logging API, you can get the writer identity from the LogSink object.
   • If you are using gcloud logging, you can see the writer identities when you list your sinks.

4. If you have Owner access to the destination, then add the service account to the destination in the following way:

   • For Cloud Storage destinations, add the sink's writer identity to your bucket and give it the Storage Object Creator role.
   • For BigQuery destinations, add the sink's writer identity to your dataset and give it the BigQuery Data Editor role.
   • For Cloud Pub/Sub, add the sink's writer identity to your topic and give it the Pub/Sub Publisher role.

   This completes the authorization.

5. If you do not have Owner access to the export destination, then send the writer identity service account name to someone who has that ability. That person should then follow the instructions in the previous step to add the writer identity to the export destination.

Authorization delays

If a sink tries to export a log entry but does not have the needed permission to the export destination, it will report an error and skip the log entry. This will continue until the permission is granted, at which time the sink begins exporting new log entries.

There is an unavoidable delay between creating the sink and using the sink's new service account to authorize writing to the export destination. You can choose to simply ignore any error messages from the sink during the delay.

Advantages and limitations

The GCP Console has the following advantages over using the Logging API:

• The GCP Console shows all of your sinks in one place.
• The GCP Console shows you which log entries are matched by your sink filter before your create a sink.
• The GCP Console can create and authorize export destinations for your sinks.

However, the GCP Console can only create or view sinks in projects. To create sinks in organizations, folders, or billing accounts, see Aggregated Exports.

Troubleshooting

This section lists some possible errors and unexpected results, and explains what to do about them.

Errors from sinks appear in the Activity Stream for the project or other resource where the sink was created. See the Activity Stream in the resource's home page in GCP Console.

General problems

Problem	Cause	Solution
Your new log entries are exported but your older log entries are not exported.	Logging only exports log entries that are received after the export has been set up.	Use the entries.list API method to retrieve your older log entries and then write them to the export destination using the destination service's API. You can only retrieve log entries that have not reached their expiration date in Stackdriver Logging. For more information, see Logs Retention Limits.

Errors exporting to Cloud Storage

The following table lists the most common errors when you configure Logging to export logs to Cloud Storage:

Error	Cause	Solution
Permissions on bucket [YOUR_BUCKET] do not allow the logs group to create new objects.	The sink's writer identity does not have enough permissions to the bucket.	Add the necessary permissions to the bucket or update your sink to use a different bucket. See Destination permissions.
No bucket with name: [YOUR_BUCKET].	There might be an error in the bucket name, or the bucket might have been deleted.	Update your sink with the correct bucket destination.

Errors exporting to BigQuery

The following table lists the most common errors when you configure Logging to export logs to BigQuery:

Error	Cause	Solution
Permissions on dataset [YOUR_DATASET] do not allow the logs group to create new tables.	The sink's writer identity does not have enough permissions to the dataset.	Add the permission to the dataset. See Destination permissions.
No dataset with name: [YOUR_DATASET].	You might have an error in your sink's destination or someone might have deleted the dataset.	Either re-create the dataset or update the export sink to use a different dataset.
Logs streamed to table [YOUR_TABLE] in dataset [YOUR_DATASET] do not match the table schema.	You are trying to export logs that are incompatible with the current table's schema.	Make sure that your log entries match the table's schema. Common issues include sending log entries with different data types. For example, one of the fields in the log entry is an integer, while a corresponding column in the schema has a string type. The activity stream contains a link to one of the invalid log entries. After you fix the source of the error, you can rename your current table and let Logging create the table again.
Per-table streaming insert quota has been exceeded for table [YOUR_TABLE] in dataset [YOUR_DATASET].	You are exporting too many log entries too quickly. See the BigQuery default quota limits, which apply to logs streaming.	Decrease the amount of log data your sink generates. You can update your sink's filter to match fewer log entries or use the sample() function.
Logs streamed to partitioned table [YOUR_TABLE] are outside the permitted time boundaries.	BigQuery does not accept logs that are too far in the past or future.	Logs outside permitted time boundaries cannot be exported with sinks. You can export those logs to Cloud Storage and use a BigQuery load job instead. See BigQuery documentation for further instructions.
Logs cannot be streamed to dataset [YOUR_DATASET] because that operation is prohibited by an organization policy.	An organization policy exists that prevents writes to the selected dataset. See documentation for more details on organization policies.	Modify your export sink to use a compliant dataset.

Errors exporting logs to Cloud Pub/Sub

The following table lists the most common errors when you configure Logging to export logs to Cloud Pub/Sub:

Error	Cause	Solution
[ACCOUNT] needs edit permission on [PROJECT] to publish to [TOPIC]	The sink's writer identity does not have enough permissions to the topic.	Add the necessary permissions to your project. See Destination permissions.
Topic [TOPIC] does not exist.	You might have deleted the topic that was configured to receive your exported logs.	Either re-create the topic with the same name, or change the export configuration to use a different topic.

What's next

• To export logs using the command-line SDK, see the gcloud logging command-line tool.
• To export logs using the Logging API, see Exporting Logs in the API, and the projects.sinks methods.
• To learn how exported logs are formatted and organized, see Exported Logs.