docs/config/containers/logging/dual-logging.md

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---
description: Learn how to read container logs locally when using a third party logging solution.
keywords: docker, logging, driver
title: Use docker logs to read container logs for remote logging drivers
---
## Overview
Prior to Docker Engine Enterprise 18.03, the `jsonfile` and `journald` log drivers supported reading
container logs using `docker logs`. However, many third party logging drivers had no
support for locally reading logs using `docker logs`, including:
- syslog
- gelf
- fluentd
- awslogs
- splunk
- etwlogs
- gcplogs
- Logentries
This created multiple problems, especially with UCP, when attempting to gather log data in an
automated and standard way. Log information could only be accessed and viewed through the
third-party solution in the format specified by that third-party tool.
Starting with Docker Engine Enterprise 18.03.1-ee-1, you can use `docker logs` to read container
logs regardless of the configured logging driver or plugin. This capability, sometimes referred to
as dual logging, allows you to use `docker logs` to read container logs locally in a consistent format,
regardless of the remote log driver used, because the engine is configured to log information to the “local”
logging driver. Refer to [Configure the default logging driver](/config/containers/logging/configure) for additional information.
## Prerequisites
- Docker Enterprise - Dual logging is only supported for Docker Enterprise, and is enabled by default starting with
Engine Enterprise 18.03.1-ee-1.
## Usage
Dual logging is enabled by default. You must configure either the docker daemon or the container with remote logging driver.
The following example shows the results of running a `docker logs` command with and without dual logging availability:
### Without dual logging capability:
When a container or `dockerd` was configured with a remote logging driver such as splunk, an error was
displayed when attempting to read container logs locally:
- Step 1: Configure Docker daemon
```
$ cat /etc/docker/daemon.json
{
"log-driver": "splunk",
"log-opts": {
...
}
}
```
- Step 2: Start the container
```
$ docker run -d busybox --name testlog top
```
- Step 3: Read the container logs
```
$ docker logs 7d6ac83a89a0
The docker logs command was not available for drivers other than json-file and journald.
```
### With dual logging capability:
To configure a container or docker with a remote logging driver such as splunk:
- Step 1: Configure Docker daemon
```
$ cat /etc/docker/daemon.json
{
"log-driver": "splunk",
"log-opts": {
...
}
}
```
- Step 2: Start the container
```
$ docker run -d busybox --name testlog top
```
- Step 3: Read the container logs
```
$ docker logs 7d6ac83a89a0
2019-02-04T19:48:15.423Z [INFO] core: marked as sealed
2019-02-04T19:48:15.423Z [INFO] core: pre-seal teardown starting
2019-02-04T19:48:15.423Z [INFO] core: stopping cluster listeners
2019-02-04T19:48:15.423Z [INFO] core: shutting down forwarding rpc listeners
2019-02-04T19:48:15.423Z [INFO] core: forwarding rpc listeners stopped
2019-02-04T19:48:15.599Z [INFO] core: rpc listeners successfully shut down
2019-02-04T19:48:15.599Z [INFO] core: cluster listeners successfully shut down
```
Note:
For a local driver, such as json-file and journald, there is no difference in functionality
before or after the dual logging capability became available. The log is locally visible in both scenarios.
## Limitations
- You cannot specify more than one log driver.
- If a container using a logging driver or plugin that sends logs remotely suddenly has a "network" issue,
no write to the local cache occurs.
- If a write to `logdriver` fails for any reason (file system full, write permissions removed),
the cache write fails and is logged in the daemon log. The log entry to the cache is not retried.
- Some logs might be lost from the cache in the default configuration because a ring buffer is used to
prevent blocking the stdio of the container in case of slow file writes. An admin must repair these while the daemon is shut down.