istio.io/content/en/docs/tasks/observability/logs/access-log/index.md

title	description	weight	keywords	aliases	test
Getting Envoy's Access Logs	This task shows you how to configure Envoy proxies to print access logs to their standard output.	10	telemetry	/docs/tasks/telemetry/access-log /docs/tasks/telemetry/logs/access-log/	yes

The simplest kind of Istio logging is Envoy's access logging. Envoy proxies print access information to their standard output. The standard output of Envoy's containers can then be printed by the kubectl logs command.

{{< boilerplate before-you-begin-egress >}}

{{< boilerplate start-httpbin-service >}}

Enable Envoy's access logging

Edit the istio configuration map:

{{< tip >}} In the example below, replace demo with the name of the profile you used when you installed Istio. {{< /tip >}}

{{< text bash >}} $ istioctl install --set profile=demo --set meshConfig.accessLogFile="/dev/stdout" ...

• Processing resources for Istiod. ✔ Istiod installed ...
• Pruning removed resources ✔ Installation complete {{< /text >}}

You can also choose between JSON and text by setting accessLogEncoding to JSON or TEXT.

You may also want to customize the format of the access log by editing accessLogFormat.

{{< tip >}} All three of these parameters may also be configured via install options: {{< /tip >}}

• meshConfig.accessLogFile
• meshConfig.accessLogEncoding
• meshConfig.accessLogFormat

Test the access log

1. Send a request from sleep to httpbin:

   {{< text bash >}} $ kubectl exec "$SOURCE_POD" -c sleep -- curl -v httpbin:8000/status/418 ... < HTTP/1.1 418 Unknown < server: envoy ... -=[ teapot ]=-

      _...._
    .'  _ _ `.
   | ."` ^ `". _,
   \_;`"---"`|//
     |       ;/
     \_     _/
       `"""`
   

   {{< /text >}}

2. Check sleep's log:

   {{< text bash >}} $ kubectl logs -l app=sleep -c istio-proxy [2019-03-06T09:31:27.354Z] "GET /status/418 HTTP/1.1" 418 - "-" 0 135 11 10 "-" "curl/7.60.0" "d209e46f-9ed5-9b61-bbdd-43e22662702a" "httpbin:8000" "172.30.146.73:80" outbound|8000||httpbin.default.svc.cluster.local - 172.21.13.94:8000 172.30.146.82:60290 - {{< /text >}}

3. Check httpbin's log:

   {{< text bash >}} $ kubectl logs -l app=httpbin -c istio-proxy [2019-03-06T09:31:27.360Z] "GET /status/418 HTTP/1.1" 418 - "-" 0 135 5 2 "-" "curl/7.60.0" "d209e46f-9ed5-9b61-bbdd-43e22662702a" "httpbin:8000" "127.0.0.1:80" inbound|8000|http|httpbin.default.svc.cluster.local - 172.30.146.73:80 172.30.146.82:38618 outbound_.8000_._.httpbin.default.svc.cluster.local {{< /text >}}

Note that the messages corresponding to the request appear in logs of the Istio proxies of both the source and the destination, sleep and httpbin, respectively. You can see in the log the HTTP verb (GET), the HTTP path (/status/418), the response code (418) and other request-related information.

Cleanup

Shutdown the [sleep]({{< github_tree >}}/samples/sleep) and [httpbin]({{< github_tree >}}/samples/httpbin) services:

{{< text bash >}} $ kubectl delete -f @samples/sleep/sleep.yaml@ $ kubectl delete -f @samples/httpbin/httpbin.yaml@ {{< /text >}}

Disable Envoy's access logging

Edit the istio configuration map and set accessLogFile to "".

{{< tip >}} In the example below, replace demo with the name of the profile you used when you installed Istio. {{< /tip >}}

{{< text bash >}} $ istioctl install --set profile=demo

• Applying manifest for component Base... ✔ Finished applying manifest for component Base.
• Applying manifest for component Pilot... ✔ Finished applying manifest for component Pilot.
• Applying manifest for component EgressGateways...
• Applying manifest for component IngressGateways...
• Applying manifest for component AddonComponents... ✔ Finished applying manifest for component EgressGateways. ✔ Finished applying manifest for component IngressGateways. ✔ Finished applying manifest for component AddonComponents.

✔ Installation complete {{< /text >}}