Logging for Cloud Databases

IBM Cloud® services, such as Cloud Databases, generate platform logs that you can use to investigate abnormal activity and critical actions in your account, and troubleshoot problems.

You can use IBM® Cloud Logs Routing, a platform service, to route platform logs in your account to a destination of your choice by configuring a tenant that defines where platform logs are sent. For more information, see About logs routing.

You can use IBM® Cloud Logs to visualize and alert on platform logs that are generated in your account and routed by IBM Cloud Logs Routing to an IBM Cloud Logs instance.

As of 28 March 2024, the IBM Log Analysis service is deprecated and will no longer be supported as of 30 March 2025. Customers will need to migrate to IBM Cloud Logs before 30 March 2025. During the migration period, customers can use IBM Log Analysis along with IBM Cloud Logs. Logging is the same for both services. For information about migrating from IBM Log Analysis to IBM Cloud Logs and running the services in parallel, see migration planning.

Locations where platform logs are generated

Locations where logs are sent to IBM Log Analysis

Cloud Databases sends platform logs to IBM Log Analysis in the regions indicated in the following table.

Regions where platform logs are sent in Americas locations
Dallas (`us-south`)	Washington (`us-east`)	Toronto (`ca-tor`)	Sao Paulo (`br-sao`)
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Regions where platform logs are sent in Asia Pacific locations
Tokyo (`jp-tok`)	Sydney (`au-syd`)	Osaka (`jp-osa`)	Chennai (`in-che`)
Yes	Yes	No	Yes

Regions where platform logs are sent in Europe locations
Frankfurt (`eu-de`)	London (`eu-gb`)	Madrid (`eu-es`)	Paris (`eu-par01`)
Yes	Yes	No	No

Locations where logs are sent by IBM Cloud Logs Routing

Cloud Databases sends logs by IBM Cloud Logs Routing in the regions that are indicated in the following table.

Regions where platform logs are sent in Americas locations
Dallas (`us-south`)	Washington (`us-east`)	Toronto (`ca-tor`)	Sao Paulo (`br-sao`)
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Regions where platform logs are sent in Asia Pacific locations
Tokyo (`jp-tok`)	Sydney (`au-syd`)	Osaka (`jp-osa`)	Chennai (`in-che`)
Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Regions where platform logs are sent in Europe locations
Frankfurt (`eu-de`)	London (`eu-gb`)	Madrid (`eu-es`)	Paris (`eu-par01`)
Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Platform logs that are generated

Cloud Databases generates platform logs for the severity types debug, error, info, warning, and critical.

Platform logs from your database instances can be routed to any region supported as per the table above. Logs from Chennai (in-che) is routed to Tokyo (jp-tok) and Paris (eu-par01) is routed to Frankfurt (eu-de).

Enabling logging

Create IBM Cloud Logs and configure routing by setting the target between source location to target instance.

Viewing logs

Cloud Databases logs can be viewed in on the IBM Cloud Logs instance created. Go to the Logging instance page and click on Dashboard.

Launching IBM Cloud Logs from the Cloud Databases page

Users can visit the Cloud Databases instance. Click on Overview and scroll to the Observability section. Click on IBM Cloud Logs to view your logging instances. Click on Dashboard to access the logs.

Launching IBM Cloud Logs from the Observability page

For more information about launching the IBM Cloud Logs UI, see Launching the UI in the IBM Cloud Logs documentation.

Fields by log type

For information about fields included in every platform log, see Fields for platform logs.

Cloud Databases logs include the following fields.

Log record fields
Field	Type	Description
`logSourceCRN`	Required	Defines the account and flow log instance where the log is published.
`saveServiceCopy`	Required	Defines whether IBM saves a copy of the record for operational purposes.
`message`	Required	Description of the log that is generated.
`messageID`	Required	ID of the log that is generated.

Cloud Databases sends audit events as platform logs. For more information, see Activity tracking for Cloud Databases.

Analyzing Cloud Databases logs

In the IBM Cloud Logs Dashboard, users can filter based on Application, Subsystem, Severity to find logs specific to an instance. Users can also create a custom dashboard, view logs or write a query to search for a log data. example label.region:"us-south"

They can also create alerts in the IBM Cloud Logs.