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Scrape Lightrun dynamic logs using Datadog

Permissions

Only users with ROLE_MANAGER permissions can perform these actions.

You can use Datadog to scrape the Lightrun log file and send the log data directly to you Datadog account.

Prerequisites

Configure the Lightrun agent to output logs in JSON format - JVM

By default, the Lightrun logs are written in XML format. The Datadog agent does not know how to parse XML logs without pre-processing, but it does know how to parse JSON Logs automatically.

You can configure the aggent to output logs in JSON format in the Lightrun agent's config file, located in <PATH_TO_AGENT>/agent.config:

com.lightrun.DynamicLog.FileHandler.formatter=json

Note

You can make sure the output is set to JSON by tailing the log files (make sure your Lightrun agent is currently printing logs):

tail -f /tmp/lightrun_file_handler_logs*.log

Configure the Lightrun agent to output logs in JSON format - Node.js & Python

The Lightrun Node.js & python agents write logs out to the console/stdout by default.

There are 2 approaches you can take in order to make sure the datadog agent collects these logs:

  1. Pipe the program's output directly to a file, and add it as a file source in conf.yaml below. This can be done on unix-like systems by node app.js >> /tmp/lightrun_nodejs_logs.log or python app.py >> /tmp/lightrun_python_logs.log respectively.
  2. You can use an application-level logger to write logs to a file - i.e. by using winston in a node application or the common logging facility for Python.

Configure Datadog to scrape the log files

First you need to enable log collection in /etc/datadog-agent/datadog.yaml by uncommenting the following property:

logs_enabled: true

Now you need to configure the Datadog agent to scrape the Lightrun log file. Create the configuration folder:

mkdir /etc/datadog-agent/conf.d/lightrun.d/
Create the configuration file /etc/datadog-agent/conf.d/lightrun.d/conf.yaml:

Hint

You can change the name conf.yaml to a more indicative name

logs:
  - type: file
    path: "/tmp/lightrun_file_handler_logs*.log"
    service: "<YOUR_APPLICATION/SERVICE_NAME>"
    source: "Lightrun"

Restart your Datadog service

sudo service datadog-agent restart

View Lightrun logs in your Datadog account

Your logs should now appear in Datadog's live tail console

Live Tail console
Live Tail console

Troubleshooting

  • Make sure the Lightrun logs are continuously printed to the log files and are in JSON format
    tail -f /tmp/lightrun_file_handler_logs*.log
    
  • Make sure Datadog agent is running
    service datadog-agent status
    
  • Make sure Datadog agent successfully found the log file
    datadog-agent status
    
    Example output
    ==========
    Logs Agent
    ==========
    
        Sending compressed logs in HTTPS to agent-http-intake.logs.datadoghq.com on port 443
        BytesSent: 2.5242779e+07
        EncodedBytesSent: 738819
        LogsProcessed: 66557
        LogsSent: 66493
    
      lightrun
      --------
        - Type: file
          Path: /tmp/lightrun_file_handler_logs*.log
          Status: OK
            2 files tailed out of 2 files matching
          Inputs:
            /tmp/lightrun_file_handler_logs1.log
            /tmp/lightrun_file_handler_logs0.log
          BytesRead: 1.1758002e+07
          Average Latency (ms): 49
          24h Average Latency (ms): 49
          Peak Latency (ms): 1256
          24h Peak Latency (ms): 1256
    
  • Make sure Datadog's API key is configured and that the API key is valid
    cat /etc/datadog-agent/datadog.yaml | grep api_key:
    
    Example output
    $ cat /etc/datadog-agent/datadog.yaml | grep api_key:
    api_key: ****************************ac11
    

Last update: March 10, 2024