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Getting started with IBM Log Analysis

Getting started with IBM Log Analysis

Use IBM® Log Analysis to add log management capabilities to your IBM Cloud architecture.

As of 28 March 2024 the IBM Log Analysis and IBM Cloud Activity Tracker services are deprecated and will no longer be supported as of 30 March 2025. Customers will need to migrate to IBM Cloud Logs, which replaces these two services, prior to 30 March 2025. For information about IBM Cloud Logs, see the IBM Cloud Logs documentation.

You can use IBM Log Analysis to manage operating system logs, application logs, and platform logs in the IBM Cloud. IBM Log Analysis offers administrators, DevOps teams, and developers advanced features to filter, search, and tail log data, define alerts, and design custom views to monitor application and system logs.

Step 1. Before you begin

  1. Check the regions where the IBM Log Analysis service is available.

  2. If you don't have an IBM Cloud account, register an IBM Cloud account. You need an IBMid to work in IBM Cloud.

Step 2. Provision an instance

  1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.

    Click Log in to IBM Cloud to sign in to the IBM Cloud.

    After you log in with your user ID and password, the IBM Cloud console opens.

  2. Click Catalog. The list of the services that are available in IBM Cloud opens.

  3. To filter the list of services that is displayed, click Services and select the Logging and Monitoring category.

  4. Click the IBM Log Analysis tile.

  5. Select a region for the service instance.

  6. Select the Lite service plan.

    By default, the Lite plan is set.

    For more information about other service plans, see Pricing plans.

  7. Specify a Service name for your IBM Log Analysis service instance.

  8. Select the Default resource group.

    By default, the Default resource group is set.

  9. To provision the IBM Log Analysis service in the IBM Cloud selected resource group, click Create.

After you provision an instance, the IBM Log Analysis dashboard opens.

To provision an instance of logging through the CLI, see Provisioning logging through the IBM Cloud CLI.

Step 3. Choose your logging source

Choose a source for your log data. Then, complete the steps:

Tutorials to get started working with the IBM Log Analysis service
Log source Steps
IBM Cloud service Configuring IBM Cloud platform logs
Standard Kubernetes cluster Collecting and analyzing logs from a Kubernetes cluster
Linux Collecting and analyzing logs from a Linux environment
Windows Server Collecting and analyzing logs from Windows Server systems

Step 3. Upgrade the plan

By upgrading your plan, you can enable additional logging features.

Upgrade the IBM Log Analysis service plan to a paid plan to be able to filter logs, search logs, define views, and configure alerts. For more information about IBM Log Analysis service plans, see Pricing plans.

Step 4. Manage logs

To start managing logs, complete the following steps:

  1. Launch the logging web UI.

  2. View and manage your logs.

Step 5. Next steps

Next, you can manage user access with IAM.

Identify the IAM policies that a user needs to work with the IBM Log Analysis service.

To learn more about IAM integration with the IBM Log Analysis service, see Managing IAM policies and access groups.