Configure log views on a log bucket

This document describes how to create and manage log views on your Cloud Logging buckets by using the gcloud CLI. Log views give you advanced and granular control over who has access to the logs within your log buckets.

For general information about the Logging storage model, see Routing and storage overview.

About log views

Log views let you grant a user access to only a subset of the logs stored in a log bucket. For example, consider a scenario in which you store your organization's logs in a central project. You might create one log view for each project that contributes logs to the log bucket. You can then grant each user access to one or more log views, and thereby restrict which logs the users can view.

You can create a maximum of 30 log views per log bucket.

Control access to a log view

Cloud Logging uses IAM policies to control who has access to log views. IAM policies can exist at the resource, project, folder, and organization levels. For Cloud Logging, you can create an IAM policy for each log view. To determine whether a principal is authorized for an action, IAM evaluates all applicable policies, with the first evaluation at the resource level.

Principals with the role of roles/logging.viewAccessor on a Google Cloud project can access views and logs in any log bucket in the project.

To grant a principal access to only a specific log view, do one of the following:

• Create an IAM policy for the log view, and then add an IAM binding to that policy which grants the principal access to the log view.

  If you create large numbers of log views, then we recommend this approach.

• Grant the principal the IAM role of roles/logging.viewAccessor on the project that contains the log view, but attach an IAM condition to restrict the grant to the specific log view. If you omit the condition, then you grant the principal access to all log views. There is a limit of 20 role bindings in the policy file for a Google Cloud project that include the same role and the same principal, but different condition expressions.

For more information, see the section of this document titled Grant access to a log view.

Automatically created log views

Cloud Logging automatically creates an _AllLogs view for every log bucket and a _Default view for the _Default log bucket:

• _AllLogs view: You can view all logs in the log bucket.
• _Default view: You can view all non-Data Access audit logs in the log bucket.

You can't modify views that are automatically created by Cloud Logging; however, you can delete the _AllLogs view.

Log view filter

Each log view contains a filter that determines which log entries that are visible in the view. Filters can contain logical AND and NOT operators; however, they can't include logical OR operators. Filters can compare any of the following values:

• A data source using the source function. The source function returns log entries from a particular resource in the organizations, folders, and Google Cloud projects hierarchy.

• A log ID using the log_id function. The log_id function returns log entries that match the given LOG_ID argument from the logName field.

• A valid resource type using the resource.type= FIELD_NAME comparison.

For example, the following filter captures Compute Engine stdout log entries from a Google Cloud project called myproject:

source("projects/myproject") AND resource.type = "gce_instance" AND log_id("stdout")

For details about the filtering syntax, see Comparisons.

Before you begin

Before you create or update a log view, complete the following steps:

1. If you haven't already done so, in the appropriate Google Cloud project, create a Logging bucket for which you want to configure a custom log view.

2. To get the permissions that you need to create and manage log views and to grant access to log views, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on your project:

   • Logs Configuration Writer (roles/logging.configWriter)
   • To add a role binding to a project: Project IAM Admin (roles/resourcemanager.projectIamAdmin)
   • To add a role binding to a log view: Logging Admin (roles/logging.admin)

   For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

   You might also be able to get the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.

3. In the Google Cloud console, activate Cloud Shell.

   Activate Cloud Shell

   At the bottom of the Google Cloud console, a Cloud Shell session starts and displays a command-line prompt. Cloud Shell is a shell environment with the Google Cloud CLI already installed and with values already set for your current project. It can take a few seconds for the session to initialize.

4. Determine which logs you want to include in the view. You use this information to specify the filter of the log view.

5. Determine who should have access to the log view and whether you want to add bindings to the IAM policy of the log view or the Google Cloud project. For more information, see Control access to a log view.

Create a log view

To create a log view, use the gcloud logging views update command. You can create a maximum of 30 log views per log bucket.

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

• VIEW_ID: The identifier of the log view.
• BUCKET_NAME: The name of the log bucket.
• LOCATION: The location of the log bucket.
• FILTER: A filter that defines the log view. When empty, the log view includes all logs. For example, to filter by Compute Engine VM instances logs, enter "resource.type=gce_instance".
• DESCRIPTION: A description of the log view. For example, you might enter the following for the description "Compute logs".

Execute the gcloud logging views create command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

gcloud logging views create VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION --log-filter=FILTER --description=DESCRIPTION

Windows (PowerShell)

gcloud logging views create VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION --log-filter=FILTER --description=DESCRIPTION

Windows (cmd.exe)

gcloud logging views create VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION --log-filter=FILTER --description=DESCRIPTION

This command doesn't provide a response. To confirm the changes, you can run the gcloud logging views list command.

Next, grant principals access to your log view.

Grant access to a log view

To restrict a principal to a specific log view on a user-defined log bucket, there are two approaches that you can use:

• You can use the IAM policy file of the log view.

• You can use the IAM policy file of the Google Cloud project that stores the log bucket, along with an IAM condition.

When you create a large number of log views, we recommend that you control access by using the IAM policy file of the log view.

Log view: Add role bindings

This section describes how to use the IAM policy file for a log view to control who has access to the log entries in that log view. When you use this approach, you add a binding to the log view's policy file, the binding grants the specified principal access to the log view.

This section also describes how to list the role binding contained in the IAM policy file for a log view.

Add a role binding to a log view

To update the IAM policy file of a log view, complete the following steps.

gcloud

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

• VIEW_ID: The identifier of the log view.
• PRINCIPAL: An identifier for the principal that you want to grant the role to. Principal identifiers usually have the following form: PRINCIPAL-TYPE:ID. For example, user:[e-mail]. For a full list of the formats that PRINCIPAL can have, see Principal identifiers.
• BUCKET_NAME: The name of the log bucket.
• LOCATION: The location of the log bucket.

Execute the gcloud logging views add-iam-policy-binding command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

gcloud logging views add-iam-policy-binding VIEW_ID --member=PRINCIPAL --role='roles/logging.viewAccessor' --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION 

Windows (PowerShell)

gcloud logging views add-iam-policy-binding VIEW_ID --member=PRINCIPAL --role='roles/logging.viewAccessor' --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION 

Windows (cmd.exe)

Note: If this command uses ' for quoting content, replace these single quotes with double quotes. If quoting is nested, use \" to escape the inner quotes.

gcloud logging views add-iam-policy-binding VIEW_ID --member=PRINCIPAL --role='roles/logging.viewAccessor' --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION 

The following illustrates the response when a single binding is added:

Updated IAM policy for logging view [projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/buckets/BUCKET_NAME/views/VIEW_ID].
bindings:
- members:
  - PRINCIPAL
  role: roles/logging.viewAccessor
etag: BwYXfSd9-Gw=
version: 1

Terraform

To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands. For more information, see the Terraform provider reference documentation.

To provision IAM associations for a log view by using Terraform, several different resources are available:

• google_logging_log_view_iam_policy
• google_logging_log_view_iam_binding
• google_logging_log_view_iam_member

For more information, see IAM policy for Cloud Logging LogView.

Console

Not supported. To add bindings to a log view, use the Google Cloud CLI.

List role bindings on a log view

To list the IAM bindings for a log view, complete the following steps.

gcloud

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

• VIEW_ID: The identifier of the log view.
• BUCKET_NAME: The name of the log bucket.
• LOCATION: The location of the log bucket.

Execute the gcloud logging views get-iam-policy command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

gcloud logging views get-iam-policy VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION 

Windows (PowerShell)

gcloud logging views get-iam-policy VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION 

Windows (cmd.exe)

gcloud logging views get-iam-policy VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION 

When a log view doesn't contain any bindings, the response contains only an etag field. The following illustrates the response when a log view contains a single binding:

bindings:
- members:
  - PRINCIPAL
  role: roles/logging.viewAccessor
etag: BwYXfSd9-Gw=
version: 1

Terraform

To list IAM associations for log views by using Terraform, use the data source google_logging_log_view_iam_policy.

Console

Not supported. To list the bindings for a log view, use the Google Cloud CLI.

Google Cloud project: Add role bindings

This section describes how to add a role binding to a Google Cloud project, and how to list the bindings attached to a project. When you use this approach, to restrict a principal to having access to the log entries stored in a specific log view, you must add an IAM condition to the grant.

Note: If you have a large number of log views, then we recommend that you add a role binding to the policy file of the log view.

Add a role binding to a project

To add a role binding to the IAM policy file of a Google Cloud project, complete the following steps.

gcloud

1. Create a JSON or yaml file with your condition.

   For example, you might create a file named condition.yaml with the following contents:

   expression: "resource.name == \"projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/buckets/BUCKET_NAME/views/VIEW_ID\""
   title: "My title"
   description: "My description"
   

2. Optional: To verify that the JSON or yaml file is properly formatted, run the following command:

   gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file=condition.yaml
   

3. Update the IAM policy on the Google Cloud project by calling the gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding method.

   Before using the following command, make the following replacements:

   • PROJECT_ID: The identifier of the project.
   • PRINCIPAL: An identifier for the principal that you want to grant the role to. Principal identifiers usually have the following form: PRINCIPAL-TYPE:ID. For example, user:[e-mail]. For a full list of the formats that PRINCIPAL can have, see Principal identifiers.

   Execute the gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding command:

   gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID --member=PRINCIPAL --role='roles/logging.viewAccessor' --condition-from-file=condition.yaml
   

   The response to the previous command includes all role bindings.

   - condition:
       description: My description
       expression: resource.name == "projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/buckets/BUCKET_NAME/views/VIEW_ID"
       title: My title
     members:
     - PRINCIPAL
     role: roles/logging.viewAccessor
   

Terraform

To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands. For more information, see the Terraform provider reference documentation.

To provision IAM associations for projects by using Terraform, several different resources are available:

• google_project_iam_policy
• google_project_iam_binding
• google_project_iam_member

For more information, see IAM policy for projects.

Console

In the project where you created the log bucket, do the following:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the IAM page:

   Go to IAM

   If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is IAM & Admin.

2. Click Grant access.

3. In the New principals field, add the user's email account.

4. In the Select a role drop-down menu, select Logs View Accessor.

   This role provides users with read access to all views. To limit user access to a specific view, add a condition based on the resource name.

   1. Click Add IAM condition.

   2. Enter a Title and Description for the condition.

   3. In the Condition type drop-down menu, select Resource > Name.

   4. In the Operator drop-down menu, select is.

   5. In the Value field, enter the ID of the log view, including the full path to the view.

      For example:

      projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/buckets/BUCKET_NAME/views/VIEW_ID

   6. Click Save to add the condition.

5. Click Save to set the permissions.

List role binding on a project

To list the role bindings on a Google Cloud project, complete the following steps.

gcloud

Before using the following command, make the following replacements:

• PROJECT_ID: The identifier of the project.

Execute the gcloud projects get-iam-policy command:

gcloud projects get-iam-policy PROJECT_ID

The response to the previous command includes all role bindings.

- condition:
    description: My description
    expression: resource.name == "projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/buckets/BUCKET_NAME/views/VIEW_ID"
    title: My title
  members:
  - PRINCIPAL
  role: roles/logging.viewAccessor

Terraform

To list IAM associations for projects by using Terraform, use the data source google_project_iam_policy.

Console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the IAM page:

Go to IAM

If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is IAM & Admin.

The IAM page lists all principals, their IAM roles, and any conditions attached to those roles.

List log views on a log bucket

To list the log views created for a log bucket, use the gcloud logging views list command.

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

• BUCKET_NAME: The name of the log bucket.
• LOCATION: The location of the log bucket.

Execute the gcloud logging views list command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

gcloud logging views list --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION

Windows (PowerShell)

gcloud logging views list --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION

Windows (cmd.exe)

gcloud logging views list --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION

The response data is a list of log views. For each log view, the filter is shown along with the create and last update dates. When the create and update dates are empty, the log view was created when the Google Cloud project was creatd. The following example output shows that ther are two view IDs, _AllLogs and compute, on the log bucket that was queried:

VIEW_ID: _AllLogs
FILTER:
CREATE_TIME:
UPDATE_TIME:

VIEW_ID: compute
FILTER: resource.type="gce_instance"
CREATE_TIME: 2024-02-20T17:41:17.405162921Z
UPDATE_TIME: 2024-02-20T17:41:17.405162921Z

Update a log view

Note: You can't update the _Default and _AllLogs views for any log bucket.

To update or modify a log view, use the gcloud logging views update command. If you don't know the view ID, then see List log views.

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

• VIEW_ID: The identifier of the log view.
• BUCKET_NAME: The name of the log bucket.
• LOCATION: The location of the log bucket.
• FILTER: A filter that defines the log view. When empty, the log view includes all logs. For example, to filter by Compute Engine VM instances logs, enter "resource.type=gce_instance".
• DESCRIPTION: A description of the log view. For example, you might enter the following for the description "New description for the log view".

Execute the gcloud logging views update command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

gcloud logging views update VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION --log-filter=FILTER --description=DESCRIPTION

Windows (PowerShell)

gcloud logging views update VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION --log-filter=FILTER --description=DESCRIPTION

Windows (cmd.exe)

gcloud logging views update VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION --log-filter=FILTER --description=DESCRIPTION

This command doesn't provide a response. To confirm the changes, you can run the gcloud logging views describe command.

Delete a log view

When you no longer need a log view that you created, you can delete it. However, before you delete a log view, we recommend that you verify that the log view isn't being referenced by another resource, such as a saved query.

You can't delete the _Default log view on the _Default log bucket.

Note: Be thoughtful about deleting the _AllLogs view on a log bucket, because you can't create a log view with the name _AllLogs.

To delete a log view, do the following:

1. Recommended: Review your Google Cloud project to ensure that the log view isn't being referenced. Consider examining the following:

   • Queries run from the Logs Explorer or Log Analytics pages that were saved or shared.
   • Custom dashboards.

2. Use the gcloud logging views delete command. If you don't know the view ID, then see List log views.

   Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

   • VIEW_ID: The identifier of the log view.
   • BUCKET_NAME: The name of the log bucket.
   • LOCATION: The location of the log bucket.

   Execute the gcloud logging views delete command:

   Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

   gcloud logging views delete VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION

   Windows (PowerShell)

   gcloud logging views delete VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION

   Windows (cmd.exe)

   gcloud logging views delete VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION

   The response confirms the deletion. For example, the following shows the response to deleting a log view named tester:

   Deleted [tester].
   

Describe a log view

To retrieve detailed information about a log view, use the gcloud logging views describe command. If you don't know the view ID, then see List log views.

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

• VIEW_ID: The identifier of the log view.
• BUCKET_NAME: The name of the log bucket.
• LOCATION: The location of the log bucket.

Execute the gcloud logging views describe command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

gcloud logging views describe VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION

Windows (PowerShell)

gcloud logging views describe VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION

Windows (cmd.exe)

gcloud logging views describe VIEW_ID --bucket=BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATION

The response always includes the description and the fully-qualified name of the log view. It also includes the filter, when the filter field isn't empty. The following is a sample response:

createTime: '2024-02-20T17:41:17.405162921Z'
filter: resource.type="gce_instance"
name: projects/my-project/locations/global/buckets/my-bucket/views/compute
updateTime: '2024-02-20T17:41:17.405162921Z'

View logs associated with a log view

To view logs in a log view, ensure you have the Logs View Accessor (roles/logging.viewAccessor) role for the log view:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Logs Explorer page:

   Go to Logs Explorer

   If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Logging.

2. In the toolbar, click Refine scope, click Log view, and then select the log views.

For more information, see the Logs Explorer documentation.

What's next

To learn how to control access to specific fields in a log entry, see Configure field-level access.