Setting Up Cloud Logging for Go

Stay organized with collections Save and categorize content based on your preferences.

We provide a standard library-compatible logging package. The Cloud Logging library for Go exposes a higher-level layer for working with Cloud Logging.

The Cloud Logging agent does not have to be installed to use the Cloud Logging library for Go on a Compute Engine VM instance.

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.

    Go to project selector

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

  4. Enable the Cloud Logging API.

    Enable the API

    5.

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

    Go to project selector

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

  7. Enable the Cloud Logging API.

    Enable the API

    8.

Installing the package

go get cloud.google.com/go/logging

Using the Go logger


// Sample stdlogging writes log.Logger logs to the Cloud Logging.
package main

import (
	"context"
	"log"

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

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

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

	// Creates a client.
	client, err := logging.NewClient(ctx, projectID)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Failed to create client: %v", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	// Sets the name of the log to write to.
	logName := "my-log"

	logger := client.Logger(logName).StandardLogger(logging.Info)

	// Logs "hello world", log entry is visible at
	// Cloud Logs.
	logger.Println("hello world")
}

For more information on installation, see the documentation for the Cloud Logging library for Go. You can also report issues using the issue tracker.

Write logs with the Cloud Logging client library

For information on using the Cloud Logging client library for Go directly, see Cloud Logging Client Libraries.

Run on Google Cloud

Using Cloud Logging library for Go requires the IAM Logs Writer role on Google Cloud. Most Google Cloud environments provide this role by default.

App Engine

Cloud Logging is automatically enabled for App Engine, and your app's default service account has the IAM permissions by default to write log entries.

For more information, see Writing and viewing logs.

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

GKE grants the Logs Writer role by default.

If needed, you can also use the following command to add the logging.write access scope when creating the cluster:

gcloud container clusters create example-cluster-name \
    --scopes https://www.googleapis.com/auth/logging.write

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 Logs Writer role in the IAM & Admin section of the Google Cloud console.

Run locally and elsewhere

To use the Cloud Logging library 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 Cloud Logging library for Go.

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

View the logs

After deployment, you can view the logs in the Logs Explorer.

Go to the Logs Explorer

In the Logs Explorer, you must specify one or more resources, but the resource selection might not be obvious. Here are some tips to help you get started:

  • If you are deploying your application to App Engine or using the App Engine-specific libraries, set your resource to GAE Application.

  • If you are deploying your application on Compute Engine, set the resource to GCE VM Instance.

  • If you are deploying your application on Google Kubernetes Engine, your cluster's logging configuration determines the resource type of the log entries. For a detailed discussion on the Legacy Google Cloud's operations suite and the Google Cloud's operations suite Kubernetes Monitoring solutions, and how those options affect the resource type, see Migrating to Google Cloud's operations suite Kubernetes Monitoring.

  • If your application is using the Cloud Logging API directly, the resource is dependent on the API and your configuration. For example, in your application, you can specify a resource or use a default resource.

  • If you don't see any logs in the Logs Explorer, to see all log entries, switch to the advanced query mode and use an empty query.

    1. To switch to the advanced query mode, click menu (▾) at the top of the Logs Explorer and then select Convert to advanced filter.
    2. Clear the content that appears in the filter box.
    3. Click Submit Filter.

    You can examine the individual entries to identify your resources.

For additional information, see Using the Logs Explorer.