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Provisioning an instance

Provisioning an instance

Before you can monitor and manage log data with IBM Log Analysis, you must first provision an instance of the service in IBM Cloud.

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.

To provision an IBM Log Analysis instance in a Public Cloud region, you must select the service plan that is associated with the instance, the location where logs are collected, and the plan that determines the retention period for your logs. You can choose from 7, 14, or 30-day retention periods.

Alternatively, IBM Log Analysis offers a Lite plan that you can use to view your logs as they pass through the system. You can view logs by using log tailing. You can also design filters to prepare for upgrading to a longer retention period plan. This plan has a 0-day retention period.

You must also decide if you want your instance to be accessible through both public and private endpoints, or only private endpoints.

Provisioning an instance through the Observability dashboard

To provision an instance from the Observability dashboard in the IBM Cloud, complete the following steps:

  1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.

    After you log in, the IBM Cloud UI opens.

  2. Click the Menu icon Menu icon > Observability to access the Observability dashboard.

  3. Click Logging, then click Options > Create.

  4. Enter a name for the service instance.

  5. Select the location where you plan to provision the instance.

  6. Select a resource group.

    By default, the default resource group is set.

    Note: If you are not able to select a resource group, check that you have editing permissions on the resource group where you want to provision the instance.

  7. Select the Lite service plan.

    By default, the lite plan is set.

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

  8. Click Create.

After you provision an instance, the Logging dashboard opens.

Next, configure a log source by adding a logging agent. This agent is responsible for collecting and forwarding logs to your instance.

Provisioning an instance through the catalog

To provision an instance of IBM Log Analysis through the IBM Cloud catalog, complete the following steps:

  1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.

    After you log in, the IBM Cloud UI 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, select the Logging and Monitoring category.

  4. Click the IBM Log Analysis tile.

  5. Select the location where you plan to provision the instance.

  6. Enter a name for the service instance.

  7. Select a resource group.

    By default, the Default resource group is set.

    Note: If you are not able to select a resource group, check that you have editing permissions on the resource group where you want to provision the instance.

  8. Select the Lite service plan.

    By default, the lite plan is set.

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

  9. Click Create.

After you provision an instance, the Logging dashboard opens.

Next, configure a log source by adding a logging agent. This agent is responsible for collecting and forwarding logs to your instance.

Configuring your instance to be accessible to private endpoints only

After provisioning your instance through the Observability dashboard or catalog, you can configure the instance to be accessibile by private endpoints only.

If you configure your instance to use private endpoints only, this will block the public endpoints. All ingestion and API usage that may be in progress on the public endpoints will be blocked when the configuration change is made.

Unless otherwise specified when provisioning an instance, the default is for the instance to be accessible by both public and private endpoints.

  1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.

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

  2. Click the Menu icon Menu icon > Observability.

  3. Select Logging.

    The list of IBM Log Analysis instances is displayed.

  4. Select the instance in the region where you want to view events. Then, click Open Dashboard.

  5. Select the settings icon.

  6. Click Organization > General.

  7. For Private endpoints only select on to limit access to the instance to only private endpoints. Select off to allow the instance to be accessed by both public and private endpoints.

Provisioning an instance through the CLI

To provision an instance of IBM Log Analysis through the command line, you must provision an instance, and create the credentials for that instance.

Step 1. Provision an instance

  1. [Pre-requisite] Installation of the IBM Cloud CLI.

    For more information, see Installing the IBM Cloud CLI.

    If the CLI is installed, continue with the next step.

  2. Log in to the region in the IBM Cloud where you want to provision the instance. Run the following command: ibmcloud login

  3. Set the resource group where you want to provision the instance. Run the following command: ibmcloud target

    By default, the default resource group is set.

  4. Create the instance. Run the ibmcloud resource service-instance-create command:

    ibmcloud resource service-instance-create NAME logdna SERVICE_PLAN_NAME LOCATION -p '{"private_endpoints_only": PRIVATE_ENDPOINT}'

    Where

    NAME is the name of the instance

    SERVICE_PLAN_NAME is the type of plan. Valid values are lite, 7-day, 14-day, 30-day.

    LOCATION is the region where the logging instance is created. To get the latest list of locations that are available for the IBM Log Analysis service, see Locations.

    • PRIVATE_ENDPOINT is either true or false. If true only private endpoints can be used to access the instance.

      Unless otherwise specified when provisioning an instance, the default is for the instance to be accessible by both public and private endpoints.

    For example, to provision an instance with the 7 days retention plan that can be accessed only by private endpoints, run the following command:

    ibmcloud resource service-instance-create my-instance logdna 7-day us-south -p '{"private_endpoints_only": true}'

    To provision an instance with the 14 days retention plan that can be accessed only by both public and private endpoints, run one of the following commands:

    ibmcloud resource service-instance-create my-instance logdna 14-day us-south -p '{"private_endpoints_only": false}'

    or

    ibmcloud resource service-instance-create my-instance logdna 14-day us-south

Step 2. Create the credentials for your instance

Run the following command to create a service ID:

ibmcloud resource service-key-create NAME ROLE_NAME --instance-name SERVICE_INSTANCE_NAME

Where

  • SERVICE_INSTANCE_NAME is the name of the instance that you provisioned in the previous step.
  • NAME is the name of the service ID. Use the following format to name the key <SERVICE_INSTANCE_NAME>-key-admin
  • ROLE_NAME is the permission that you grant this service ID. Set it to Manager.

For example, you can run the following command:

ibmcloud resource service-key-create my-instance-key-admin Manager --instance-name my-instance