Kubernetes Metadata Module (mmkubernetes)

Module Name: mmkubernetes
Author: Tomáš Heinrich Rich Megginson <rmeggins@redhat.com>

Purpose

This module is used to add Kubernetes <https://kubernetes.io/> metadata to log messages logged by containers running in Kubernetes. It will add the namespace uuid, pod uuid, pod and namespace labels and annotations, and other metadata associated with the pod and namespace.

Note

This only works with log files in /var/log/containers/*.log (docker –log-driver=json-file), or with journald entries with message properties CONTAINER_NAME and CONTAINER_ID_FULL (docker –log-driver=journald), and when the application running inside the container writes logs to stdout/stderr. This does not currently work with other log drivers.

For json-file logs, you must use the imfile module with the addmetadata=”on” parameter, and the filename must match the liblognorm rules specified by the filenamerules (filenamerules) or filenamerulebase (filenamerulebase) parameter values.

For journald logs, there must be a message property CONTAINER_NAME which matches the liblognorm rules specified by the containerrules (containerrules) or containerrulebase (containerrulebase) parameter values. The record must also have the message property CONTAINER_ID_FULL.

This module is implemented via the output module interface. This means that mmkubernetes should be called just like an action. After it has been called, there will be two new message properties: kubernetes and docker. There will be subfields of each one for the various metadata items: $!kubernetes!namespace_name $!kubernetes!labels!this-is-my-label, etc. There is currently only 1 docker subfield: $!docker!container_id. See https://github.com/ViaQ/elasticsearch-templates/blob/master/namespaces/kubernetes.yml and https://github.com/ViaQ/elasticsearch-templates/blob/master/namespaces/docker.yml for more details.

Configuration Parameters

Note

Parameter names are case-insensitive.

Module Parameters and Action Parameters

KubernetesURL

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
word none yes none

The URL of the Kubernetes API server. Example: https://localhost:8443

tls.cacert

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
word none yes none

Full path and file name of file containing the CA cert of the Kubernetes API server cert issuer. Example: /etc/rsyslog.d/mmk8s-ca.crt

tokenfile

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
word none yes none

The file containing the token to use to authenticate to the Kubernetes API server. Either tokenfile or token is required. Example: /etc/rsyslog.d/mmk8s.token

token

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
word none yes none

The token to use to authenticate to the Kubernetes API server. Either token or tokenfile is required. Example: UxMU46ptoEWOSqLNa1bFmH

annotation_match

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
array none no none

By default no pod or namespace annotations will be added to the messages. This parameter is an array of patterns to match the keys of the annotations field in the pod and namespace metadata to include in the $!kubernetes!annotations (for pod annotations) or the $!kubernetes!namespace_annotations (for namespace annotations) message properties. Example: [“k8s.*master”,”k8s.*node”]

srcmetadatapath

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
word $!metadata!filename no none

When reading json-file logs, with imfile and addmetadata=”on”, this is the property where the filename is stored.

dstmetadatapath

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
word $! no none

This is the where the kubernetes and docker properties will be written. By default, the module will add $!kubernetes and $!docker.

allowunsignedcerts

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
boolean off no none

If “on”, this will set the curl CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER option to 0. You are strongly discouraged to set this to “on”. It is primarily useful only for debugging or testing.

de_dot

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
boolean on no none

When processing labels and annotations, if this parameter is set to “on”, the key strings will have their . characters replaced with the string specified by the de_dot_separator parameter.

de_dot_separator

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
word _ no none

When processing labels and annotations, if the de_dot parameter is set to “on”, the key strings will have their . characters replaced with the string specified by the string value of this parameter.

filenamerules

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
word SEE BELOW no none

Note

This directive is not supported with liblognorm 2.0.2 and earlier.

When processing json-file logs, these are the lognorm rules to use to match the filename and extract metadata. The default value is:

rule=:/var/log/containers/%pod_name:char-to:.%.%container_hash:char-to:_%_%names\
pace_name:char-to:_%_%container_name:char-to:-%-%container_id:char-to:.%.log
rule=:/var/log/containers/%pod_name:char-to:_%_%namespace_name:char-to:_%_%conta\
iner_name:char-to:-%-%container_id:char-to:.%.log

Note

In the above rules, the slashes \ ending each line indicate line wrapping - they are not part of the rule.

There are two rules because the container_hash is optional.

filenamerulebase

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
word /etc/rsyslog.d/k8s_filename.rulebase no none

When processing json-file logs, this is the rulebase used to match the filename and extract metadata. For the actual rules, see below filenamerules.

containerrules

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
word SEE BELOW no none

Note

This directive is not supported with liblognorm 2.0.2 and earlier.

For journald logs, there must be a message property CONTAINER_NAME which has a value matching these rules specified by this parameter. The default value is:

rule=:%k8s_prefix:char-to:_%_%container_name:char-to:.%.%container_hash:char-to:\
_%_%pod_name:char-to:_%_%namespace_name:char-to:_%_%not_used_1:char-to:_%_%not_u\
sed_2:rest%
rule=:%k8s_prefix:char-to:_%_%container_name:char-to:_%_%pod_name:char-to:_%_%na\
mespace_name:char-to:_%_%not_used_1:char-to:_%_%not_used_2:rest%

Note

In the above rules, the slashes \ ending each line indicate line wrapping - they are not part of the rule.

There are two rules because the container_hash is optional.

containerrulebase

type default mandatory obsolete legacy directive
word /etc/rsyslog.d/k8s_container_name.rulebase no none

When processing json-file logs, this is the rulebase used to match the CONTAINER_NAME property value and extract metadata. For the actual rules, see containerrules.

Example

This is an example of a configuration file /etc/rsyslog.d/mmk8s.conf for a setup which reads Docker container logs from /var/log/containers/*.log, and looks for Docker container logs in the journal, annotates those log records with Kubernetes metadata, and writes them to /var/log/k8s.log.

module(load="imfile" mode="inotify")
module(load="imjournal")
module(load="mmkubernetes" kubernetesurl="https://localhost:8443"
       tls.cacert="/etc/rsyslog.d/mmk8s.ca.crt"
       tokenfile="/etc/rsyslog.d/mmk8s.token" annotation_match=["."])

template(name="tpl" type="list") {
         property(name="jsonmesg")
         constant(value="\n")
}

ruleset(name="k8s") {
        action(type="mmkubernetes")
        action(type="omfile" file="/var/log/k8s.log" template="tpl")
}

input(type="imfile" file="/var/log/containers/*.log"
      tag="kubernetes" addmetadata="on" ruleset="k8s")

if ($!_SYSTEMD_UNIT == "docker.service") and (strlen($!CONTAINER_NAME) > 0) then {
    call k8s
}

This assumes the files /etc/rsyslog.d/k8s_filename.rulebase and /etc/rsyslog.d/k8s_container_name.rulebase exist, as well as the files specified by tls.cacert and tokenfile.

Credits

This work is based on https://github.com/fabric8io/fluent-plugin-kubernetes_metadata_filter and has many of the same features.

See also

Help with configuring/using Rsyslog:

  • Mailing list - best route for general questions
  • GitHub: rsyslog source project - detailed questions, reporting issues that are believed to be bugs with Rsyslog
  • Stack Exchange (View, Ask) - experimental support from rsyslog community

See also

Contributing to Rsyslog: