Agents Administration - Tests
 

Configuration of AWSCldWatchLogsTest

This test automatically discovers the log groups that have been configured on AWS. A log group can have one or multiple log streams in it. Each of these streams will share the same retention policy, monitoring setting or access control permissions. For each log group, the test tracks the log events and log data that is forwarded by each group to AWS service destinations such as Amazon Kinesis stream, Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose stream, or AWS Lambda. In the process, the test promptly captures and reports delivery errors and also brings to light instances where delivery has been throttled. This way, the test reveals bottlenecks in the delivery of logs to AWS services, pinpoints the log groups experiencing the bottlenecks, and thus hastens appropriate corrective action.

The default parameters associated with this test are:

  • The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed.

  • Specify the host for which the test is to be configured in the HOST text box.

  • To monitor an Amazon EC2 instance, the eG agent has to be configured with the access key and secret key of a user with a valid AWS account. For this purpose, we recommend that you create a special user on the AWS cloud, obtain the access and secret keys of this user, and configure this test with these keys. To know the procedure for this, click here. Specify the access key and secret key so obtained in the AWS ACCESS KEY and AWS SECRET KEY text boxes. Make sure you reconfirm the access and secret keys you provide here by retyping it in the CONFIRM AWS ACCESS KEY and CONFIRM AWS SECRET KEY text boxes.

  • In some environments, all communication with the AWS EC2 cloud and its regions could be routed through a proxy server. In such environments, you should make sure that the eG agent connects to the cloud via the proxy server and collects metrics. To enable metrics collection via a proxy, specify the IP address of the proxy server and the port at which the server listens against the PROXY HOST and PROXY PORT parameters. By default, these parameters are set to none, indicating that the eG agent is not configured to communicate via a proxy, by default.

  • If the proxy server requires authentication, then, specify a valid proxy user name and password in the PROXY USER NAME and PROXY PASSWORD parameters, respectively. Then, confirm the password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box. By default, these parameters are set to none, indicating that the proxy sever does not require authentication by default.

  • If a Windows NTLM proxy is to be configured for use, then additionally, you will have to configure the Windows domain name and the Windows workstation name required for the same against the PROXY DOMAIN and PROXY WORKSTATION parameters. If the environment does not support a Windows NTLM proxy, set these parameters to none.

  • In the EXCLUDE REGION text box, you can provide a comma-separated list of region names or patterns of region names that you do not want to monitor. For instance, to exclude regions with names that contain ‘east’ and ‘west’ from monitoring, your specification should be: *east*,*west*.

  • By default, the LOGS FILTER NAME parameter is set to LogGroupName. This means that by default, this test will report metrics for log group. Log groups define groups of log streams that share the same retention, monitoring, and access control settings. Each log stream has to belong to one log group. A log stream is a sequence of log events that share the same source. For example, a log stream may be associated with an Apache access log on a specific host.

    If required, you can override this default setting by setting the LOGS FILTER NAME parameter to one of the following:

    • FilterName - If you want this test to report metrics for every subscription filter, select the FilterName option from the LOGS FILTER NAME drop-down list.

      Subscriptions are used to get access to a real-time feed of log events from CloudWatch Logs and have it delivered to other services such as an Amazon Kinesis stream, Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose stream, or AWS Lambda for custom processing, analysis, or loading to other systems. To begin subscribing to events, you need to create subscription filters. A subscription filter defines the filter pattern to use for filtering which log events get delivered to your AWS resource, as well as information about where to send matching log events to.

    • DestinationType - If you want this test to report metrics for every destination for your log events (eg., Amazon Kinesis stream, Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose stream, or AWS Lambda), select the DestinationType option from the LOGS FILTER NAME drop-down list.

  • If multiple components of the same component type are awaiting configuration, then an APPLY TO OTHER COMPONENTS check box will appear in this page. Clicking on this check box will allow you to apply the configuration to all/selected components of that type.

  • Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the UPDATE button will register the changes made.

When changing the configuration for specific servers, a “*” beside the text box corresponding to the parameter signifies that these values have to be manually configured by the user. The parameter values that require to be configured will typically be prefixed with a “$” or contain a series of “*”. A value of "none" in the parameter value indicates that the corresponding parameter value can be changed if required.