Efficient Log Monitoring: Amazon CloudWatch Live Tail

Overview

AWS, launched in 2006, is a comprehensive and widely used cloud computing platform provided by Amazon. It offers a broad range of scalable and cost-effective services that enable businesses and developers to build, deploy, and manage their applications and infrastructure in the cloud.

Amazon CloudWatch(CloudWatch), released in 2009, is a fully managed service by AWS that allows you to store, monitor, and access log files from various AWS resources, applications, and custom log files. CloudWatch has evolved over the years and has many features out of which I am going to take you through one of the recently released (June 6th, 2023) feature Logs Live Tail.

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Introduction

Amazon CloudWatch Logs Live Tail allows developers or system administrators to monitor log events as they happen, which can help identify problems quickly. Cross Team Members can collaborate on the same log stream which makes it easier to solve problems.

Amazon CloudWatch Logs Live Tail offers several advantages when it comes to real-time log monitoring:

Immediate visibility: Live Tail provides real-time updates, allowing you to observe log events as they occur, helping to identify issues and troubleshoot problems promptly.
Simplified log analysis: By streaming logs in real-time, Live Tail eliminates the need for manual log retrieval, saving time and effort.
Enhanced troubleshooting: Live Tail makes it easier to identify patterns, errors, or exceptions, enabling faster issue resolution and better system performance.
Centralized log management: Amazon CloudWatch Logs consolidates logs from various AWS resources, making it a central hub for log analysis and monitoring.

Steps to Set up Amazon CloudWatch Logs Live Tail

To start using CloudWatch Logs Live Tail, follow these steps:

Navigate to CloudWatch Console https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/

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Amazon CloudWatch Console

2. In the navigation pane, choose Logs, Live tail which will take you to Live Tail view.

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Amazon CloudWatch Console

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Amazon CloudWatch Log Tail View

3. From Log Tail View, you can select log groups that you want to view events from. It allows up to 10 log groups to tail.

4. You can further filter the Log Tail by selecting one or more log streams to monitor the log events.

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Filter options of Lig Stream

5. It allows to filter events based on certain words(Case Sensitive) that log events contains. Furthermore, it highlights up to 5 keywords(Case Insensitive) with different color assigned to each word provide.

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Example of filters for CloudWatch Log Live Tail

Note: Amazon CloudWatch Logs Live Tail costs $0.01 per minute

Conclusion

Amazon CloudWatch Logs Live Tail empowers customers with interactive deep-dive capabilities for their collected logs, enabling quick data exploration and analysis within the Amazon CloudWatch Logs ecosystem. This feature allows users to conveniently access and view all streaming log data from a centralized console or seamlessly integrated with their existing deployment, operation, or security investigation tools.

Originally Published Here: Medium

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding Amazon CloudWatch or any other developer tools and we will get back to you quickly.

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FAQs

1. What is Amazon CloudWatch Live Tail?

ANS: – Amazon CloudWatch Live Tail is a feature provided by Amazon CloudWatch that allows you to monitor and analyze log data in real-time. It enables you to view and analyze log events as they occur, providing immediate insights into your application or system’s behavior.

2. How does Amazon CloudWatch Live Tail work?

ANS: – Amazon CloudWatch Live Tail works by continuously streaming log data from various sources, such as EC2 instances, containers, or Lambda functions, to the CloudWatch service. It provides a live, real-time stream of log events, allowing you to monitor and react to issues or anomalies as they happen.

3. Can I apply filters and search queries to the log data in Amazon CloudWatch Live Tail?

ANS: – Yes, you can apply filters and search queries to the log data in Amazon CloudWatch Live Tail. This allows you to narrow down the log events you want to focus on and perform targeted analysis. You can use filter patterns, keywords, or expressions to refine the log stream and extract specific information.

WRITTEN BY Nisarg Desai

Nisarg Desai is a certified Lead Full Stack Developer and is heading the Consulting- Development vertical at CloudThat. With over 5 years of industry experience, Nisarg has led many successful development projects for both internal and external clients. He has led the team for development of Intelligent Quarterly Remuneration System (iQRS), Intelligent Training Execution and Analytics System (iTEAs), and Cloud Cleaner projects among many others.