IBM Cloud Docs
Log Analysis Integration

Log Analysis Integration

Cloud Databases are integrated with IBM Cloud® Log Analysis, so you can view database platform logs.

Currently, IBM Cloud® Log Analysis integration is available for Cloud Databases instances according to the following table.

Table 1. Log Analysis regions
Instance Region Log Analysis Region
us-south us-south
jp-tok jp-tok
eu-gb eu-gb
che01 che01
eu-de eu-de
au-syd au-syd
us-east us-east
ca-tor ca-tor
jp-osa jp-tok
br-sao br-sao
par01 eu-de
eu-es eu-de

Platform logs from your instances appear in a Log Analysis instance in the same region, except for jp-osa and eu-es. Instances in jp-osa have their logs forwarded to jp-tok. Instances in eu-es have their logs forwarded to eu-de If you have instances in multiple regions, you must set up Log Analysis in multiple regions.

Provisioning IBM Cloud® Log Analysis

Platform log information from your databases is automatically forwarded to IBM Log Analysis, but to access it you must enable platform logging by provisioning a Log Analysis service in your IBM Cloud account and configuring the service to receive IBM Cloud platform logs.

This setting enables platform logs from ALL IBM Cloud services on your account that have IBM Log Analysis integration to send logs to your IBM Log Analysis service. A list of the integrated services is available.

IBM Log Analysis has a lite plan that is free to use, but it offers only streaming events. To take advantage of the tagging, export, retention, and other features, you need to use one of the paid plans.

HIPAA

IBM Log Analysis offers a HIPAA-compliant plan for the service. For more information, see Provisioning a HIPAA Compliance instance.

Use caution when configuring the platform service logs, since this setting can impact other services that require HIPAA compliance.

Using IBM Cloud® Log Analysis

You can access Log Analysis through the Observability tab of your deployment's Manage page. The Manage Log Analysis button links to the main list of all Log Analysis instances in your IBM Cloud account. Select the instance where you set your database platform logs to be forwarded. Click View Log Analysis to view the logs.

Each log line can be expanded to a detailed view by clicking the arrow to the left of the timestamp. The expanded view has some handy, color-coded fields to help you parse your logs.

  • Line Identifiers

    • Source - the region the logs are being sent from
    • App - the ID of the application that sent the log. It is the last part of your deployment ID and CRN.
  • Tags

    • # - all of the logs that come from a Cloud Databases deployment are tagged with ibm-cloud-databases
  • Labels

    • database - the database type that this log is from
    • member - the member ID for which node in the cluster generated the log
    • CRN - the full deployment ID of your deployment.

Log Analysis offers searching, filtering to help you navigate your logs.

Export and archiving are available so you can customize retention (and cost) for your use-case.

To set up logging alerts, see Working with Alerts

For more information,see IBM Log Analysis.

Internal Log Retention

Database platform logs for all Cloud Databases instances are kept internally for 30 days and then purged. If your Log Analysis plan is for a shorter period, logs are only accessible by you for the length of your plan. Regardless of the plan that you choose, all database logs are deleted after 30 days.