Apache Web Server (httpd)

The Apache Web Server integration collects traffic-related metrics, such as the number of open connections or incoming requests. The integration also collects access and error logs. Access logs are parsed into a JSON payload focused on request details, and error logs are parsed for their error code and message.

For more information about Apache Web Server, see the Apache Web Server (httpd) documentation.

Prerequisites

To collect Apache Web Server telemetry, you must install the Ops Agent:

  • For metrics, install version 2.7.0 or higher.
  • For logs, install version 2.4.0 or higher.

This integration supports Apache Web Server version 2.4.

Configure your Apache Web Server instance

To collect telemetry from your Apache Web Server, you must configure the server's httpd.conf file to enable the mod_status plugin.

Many Apache installations enable this plugin by default. To see if the plugin is enabled on your VM instance, run:

curl localhost:80/server-status?auto

If the plugin is enabled, then the output includes lines similar to the following:

Total Accesses: 2
Total kBytes: 1
BusyWorkers: 1
IdleWorkers: 4

If you get a 404 Not Found page instead, then the mod_status plugin is not enabled.

Configure the Ops Agent for Apache Web Server

Following the guide to Configure the Ops Agent, add the required elements to collect telemetry from Apache Web Server instances, and restart the agent.

Example configuration

The following commands create the configuration to collect and ingest telemetry for Apache Web Server and restart the Ops Agent.

# Configures Ops Agent to collect telemetry from the app and restart Ops Agent.

set -e

# Create a back up of the existing file so existing configurations are not lost.
sudo cp /etc/google-cloud-ops-agent/config.yaml /etc/google-cloud-ops-agent/config.yaml.bak

# Configure the Ops Agent.
sudo tee /etc/google-cloud-ops-agent/config.yaml > /dev/null << EOF
metrics:
  receivers:
    apache:
      type: apache
  service:
    pipelines:
      apache:
        receivers:
          - apache
logging:
  receivers:
    apache_access:
      type: apache_access
    apache_error:
      type: apache_error
  service:
    pipelines:
      apache:
        receivers:
          - apache_access
          - apache_error
EOF

sudo service google-cloud-ops-agent restart
sleep 60

Configure logs collection

To ingest logs from Apache Web Server, you must create a receiver for the logs that Apache Web Server produces and then create a pipeline for the new receiver.

To configure a receiver for your apache_access logs, specify the following fields:

Field Default Description
exclude_paths A list of filesystem path patterns to exclude from the set matched by include_paths.
include_paths [/var/log/apache2/access.log,/var/log/apache2/access_log,/var/log/httpd/access_log] A list of filesystem paths to read by tailing each file. A wild card (*) can be used in the paths; for example, /var/log/apache*/*.log.
record_log_file_path false If set to true, then the path to the specific file from which the log record was obtained appears in the output log entry as the value of the agent.googleapis.com/log_file_path label. When using a wildcard, only the path of the file from which the record was obtained is recorded.
type This value must be apache_access.
wildcard_refresh_interval 60s The interval at which wildcard file paths in include_paths are refreshed. Given as a time duration, for example 30s or 2m. This property might be useful under high logging throughputs where log files are rotated faster than the default interval.

To configure a receiver for your apache_error logs, specify the following fields:

Field Default Description
exclude_paths A list of filesystem path patterns to exclude from the set matched by include_paths.
include_paths [/var/log/apache2/error.log,/var/log/apache2/error_log,/var/log/httpd/error_log] A list of filesystem paths to read by tailing each file. A wild card (*) can be used in the paths; for example, /var/log/apache*/*.log.
record_log_file_path false If set to true, then the path to the specific file from which the log record was obtained appears in the output log entry as the value of the agent.googleapis.com/log_file_path label. When using a wildcard, only the path of the file from which the record was obtained is recorded.
type This value must be apache_error.
wildcard_refresh_interval 60s The interval at which wildcard file paths in include_paths are refreshed. Given as a time duration, for example 30s or 2m. This property might be useful under high logging throughputs where log files are rotated faster than the default interval.

What is logged

The logName is derived from the receiver IDs specified in the configuration. Detailed fields inside the LogEntry are as follows.

The apache_access logs contain the following fields in the LogEntry:

Field Type Description
httpRequest object See HttpRequest
jsonPayload.host string Contents of the Host header
jsonPayload.user string Authenticated username for the request
severity string (LogSeverity) Log entry level (translated).

The apache_error logs contain the following fields in the LogEntry:

Field Type Description
jsonPayload.client string Client IP address (optional)
jsonPayload.errorCode string Apache error code
jsonPayload.level string Log entry level
jsonPayload.message string Log message
jsonPayload.module string Apache module where the log originated
jsonPayload.pid string Process ID
jsonPayload.tid string Thread ID
severity string (LogSeverity) Log entry level (translated).

Configure metrics collection

To ingest metrics from Apache Web Server, you must create a receiver for the metrics that Apache Web Server produces and then create a pipeline for the new receiver.

This receiver does not support the use of multiple instances in the configuration, for example, to monitor multiple endpoints. All such instances write to the same time series, and Cloud Monitoring has no way to distinguish among them.

To configure a receiver for your apache metrics, specify the following fields:

Field Default Description
collection_interval 60s A time duration value, such as 30s or 5m.
server_status_url http://localhost:80/server-status?auto The URL exposed by the mod_status module.
type This value must be apache.

What is monitored

The following table provides the list of metrics that the Ops Agent collects from the Apache Web Server instance.

Metric type 
Kind, Type
Monitored resources		 Labels
workload.googleapis.com/apache.current_connections
GAUGE, INT64
gce_instance 		server_name
workload.googleapis.com/apache.requests
CUMULATIVE, INT64
gce_instance 		server_name
workload.googleapis.com/apache.scoreboard
GAUGE, INT64
gce_instance 		server_name
state
workload.googleapis.com/apache.traffic
CUMULATIVE, INT64
gce_instance 		server_name
workload.googleapis.com/apache.workers
GAUGE, INT64
gce_instance 		server_name
state

Verify the configuration

This section describes how to verify that you correctly configured the Apache Web Server receiver. It might take one or two minutes for the Ops Agent to begin collecting telemetry.

To verify that Apache Web Server logs are being sent to Cloud Logging, do the following:

  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. Enter the following query in the editor, and then click Run query: 
    resource.type="gce_instance"
(log_id("apache_access") OR log_id("apache_error"))

To verify that Apache Web Server metrics are being sent to Cloud Monitoring, do the following:

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

    Go to Metrics explorer

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

  2. In the toolbar of the query-builder pane, select the button whose name is either  MQL or  PromQL.
  3. Verify that MQL is selected in the Language toggle. The language toggle is in the same toolbar that lets you format your query.
  4. Enter the following query in the editor, and then click Run query: 
    fetch gce_instance
| metric 'workload.googleapis.com/apache.requests'
| every 1m

View dashboard

To view your Apache Web Server metrics, you must have a chart or dashboard configured. The Apache Web Server integration includes one or more dashboards for you. Any dashboards are automatically installed after you configure the integration and the Ops Agent has begun collecting metric data.

You can also view static previews of dashboards without installing the integration.

To view an installed dashboard, do the following:

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

    Go to Dashboards

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

  2. Select the Dashboard List tab, and then choose the Integrations category.
  3. Click the name of the dashboard you want to view.

If you have configured an integration but the dashboard has not been installed, then check that the Ops Agent is running. When there is no metric data for a chart in the dashboard, installation of the dashboard fails. After the Ops Agent begins collecting metrics, the dashboard is installed for you.

To view a static preview of the dashboard, do the following:

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

    Go to Integrations

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

  2. Click the Compute Engine deployment-platform filter.
  3. Locate the entry for Apache Web Server and click View Details.
  4. Select the Dashboards tab to see a static preview. If the dashboard is installed, then you can navigate to it by clicking View dashboard.

For more information about dashboards in Cloud Monitoring, see Dashboards and charts.

For more information about using the Integrations page, see Manage integrations.

Install alerting policies

Alerting policies instruct Cloud Monitoring to notify you when specified conditions occur. The Apache Web Server integration includes one or more alerting policies for you to use. You can view and install these alerting policies from the Integrations page in Monitoring.

To view the descriptions of available alerting policies and install them, do the following:

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

    Go to Integrations

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

  2. Locate the entry for Apache Web Server and click View Details.
  3. Select the Alerts tab. This tab provides descriptions of available alerting policies and provides an interface for installing them.
  4. Install alerting policies. Alerting policies need to know where to send notifications that the alert has been triggered, so they require information from you for installation. To install alerting policies, do the following:
    1. From the list of available alerting policies, select those that you want to install.

    2. In the Configure notifications section, select one or more notification channels. You have the option to disable the use of notification channels, but if you do, then your alerting policies fire silently. You can check their status in Monitoring, but you receive no notifications.

      For more information about notification channels, see Manage notification channels.

    3. Click Create Policies.

For more information about alerting policies in Cloud Monitoring, see Introduction to alerting.

For more information about using the Integrations page, see Manage integrations.

What's next

For a walkthrough on how to use Ansible to install the Ops Agent, configure a third-party application, and install a sample dashboard, see the Install the Ops Agent to troubleshoot third-party applications video.