Explore logs

View and search logs to monitor performance and troubleshoot issues.

This page describes Cloud Observability’s logs tab. You can also explore logs with Cloud Observability’s Unified Query Builder and Unified Query Language.

As of March 12, 2024, all non-logging customers have trial access to Cloud Observability logs. Use trial access to explore logging before committing to a full subscription. To get full access, contact Customer Success.

Access the logs tab

To access the logs tab, go to Cloud Observability and click Logs in the sidebar.

You can also access the logs tab from many charts in alerts, dashboards, and notebooks. To open the tab and view logs from your chart’s time range, click data in the chart and select Search logs.

Select time ranges

Use the time picker

By default, Cloud Observability shows data from the past 60 minutes. To change the time range, click the time-picker drop-down and:

• Set relative time ranges in minutes, hours, days, or weeks.

• Enter custom time ranges.

  The time picker saves custom time ranges and shows them under Recently used.

You can also click the < > controls next to the drop-down to move back and forward in time.

The image below shows how to select time ranges in the chart. To see the number of logs in a bar, hover over that bar.

View live logs

Live tail auto-refreshes the logs tab with incoming logs. Use it to view and troubleshoot logs in near real time.

To use Live tail, click Play next to the time picker. To stop live tailing logs, click Pause.

Search logs

Search body attributes

Search for words, phrases, and numbers in the body attribute.

Cloud Observability tokenizes the body attribute to improve search performance and help you find information. To search the body attribute in the logs tab, enter a word, phrase, or number in the search box. Combine several search terms with OR (||) or AND (&&).

body searches rely on UQL’s phrase_match logic, but the syntax is different for ease of use. For example, instead of entering filter phrase_match(body, "cosmo") in the logs tab, enter cosmo.

Examples

The examples below work with these sample logs:

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body: cosmo the cat, user: galaxy   
body: spacecat/cosmology, user: star
body: spacecat, user: cosmos  

Basic search i

Find logs where cosmo appears in the body attribute.

This search returns the first two sample logs. The search only covers the body attribute, so the log with user: cosmos isn’t in the results.

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cosmo

Basic search ii

Find logs where cosmo the appears in the body attribute. This search returns only the first sample log.

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"cosmo the"

Combine searches with OR

Find logs where cosmo or spacecat appears in the body attribute. This search returns all three sample logs.

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cosmo || spacecat

Combine searches with AND

Find logs where cosmo and spacecat appear in the body attribute. This search only returns the second sample log.

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cosmo && spacecat

No results example

Find logs where star appears in the body attribute. This search returns no results because star is only in the user attribute. star never appears in the body attribute.

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star

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Filter other attributes

Explore and filter log attributes other than the body attribute.

Cloud Observability displays log attributes other than body in the sidebar. To search those attributes, add filters to the search box using comparison operators (==, !=, <, <=, >, >=) or regular expressions (=~, !~). Combine several filters with OR (||) or AND (&&).

Examples

The examples below work with these sample logs:

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body: cosmo the cat, user: galaxy, hostname: abc-light-years
body: spacecat/cosmology, user: star, hostname: def-ship
body: spacecat, user: cosmos, hostname: abc-light-years

Basic filter i

Find logs where the hostname attribute equals abc-light-years. This filter returns the first and last sample logs.

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hostname==abc-light-years

Basic filter ii

Find logs where the hostname attribute doesn’t equal abc-light-years. This filter returns the second sample log.

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hostname!=abc-light-years

Combine filters with OR and AND

Find logs where the hostname attribute equals abc-light-years or def-ship, and the user attribute equals star. This filter returns the second sample log.

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(hostname==abc-light-years || hostname==def-ship) && user==star

Filter logs and search body

Find logs where the hostname attribute equals abc-light-years or def-ship, and the body attribute contains cosmo. This search returns the first two sample logs.

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(hostname==abc-light-years || hostname==def-ship) && cosmo 

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You can also use the log tab’s sidebar to do the following:

• Click to filter logs - Hover over attribute values and click only or exclude to add filters to the search box.
• Sort attribute values - Click Sort to organize attribute values by frequency, rarity, or name.
• Pin attributes - Click the pin icon to move the attribute to the top of the sidebar and keep it there.

Get log and trace details

Cloud Observability has several features to help you further explore logs:

See also

Notebooks

View traces

Investigate deviations

Updated Mar 7, 2024