Logging

The calico-node container

The components in the calico/node container all log to the directories under /var/log/calico inside the container. By default this is mapped to the /var/log/calico directory on the host but can be changed by specifying a --log-dir parameter on the calicoctl node run command.

Each component (described below) logs to its own directory. Files are automatically rotated, and by default 10 files of 1MB each are kept. The current log file is called current and rotated files have @ followed by a timestamp detailing when the files was rotated in tai64n format.

All logging is done using svlogd. Each component can be configured by dropping a file named config into that component’s logging directory.

svlogd can be configured to forward logs to syslog, to prefix each line and to filter logs. See the documentation for further details.

e.g. to configure bird to only log 4 files of 10KB each, create a file called config in the /var/log/calico/bird directory containing

#/var/log/calico/bird/config
s10000
n4

e.g. to configure bird to drop logs with the suffix Netlink: File exists, create a file called config in the /var/log/calico/bird directory containing

-*Netlink: File exists

See the following subsections for details on configuring the log level for each calico/node component.

Bird/Bird6

Bird and Bird6 are used for distributing IPv4 and IPv6 routes between Calico enabled hosts. The logs are output in the bird and bird6 sub-directories of the calico/node logging directory.

Use the calicoctl config set loglevel command on any host to change the log level across all Calico nodes, or use the same command with the --node option to run the command for that specific node. This command affects the logging level for both Bird/Bird6 and Felix.

Valid log levels are: debug, info, warning, error, critical, none.

• The debug level enables “debug all” logging for bird.
• The info level only enabled “debug {states}” logging. This is for protocol state changes (protocol going up, down, starting, stopping etc.)
• The warning, error, critical and none levels all turn off bird debug logging completely.

For example:

    calicoctl config set logLevel error
    calicoctl config set logLevel debug --node=Calico-Node-1

Felix

Felix is the primary Calico agent that runs on each machine that hosts endpoints. Felix is responsible for the programming of iptables rules on the host. The logs are output in the felix sub-directory of the calico/node logging directory.

Use the calicoctl config set loglevel command on any host to change the log level across all Calico nodes, or use the same command with the --node option to run the command for that specific node. This command affects the logging level for both Bird/Bird6 and Felix.

Valid log levels are: none, debug, info, warning, error, critical. For example:

    calicoctl config set logLevel none
    calicoctl config set logLevel error --node=Calico-Node-1

confd

The confd agent generates configuration files for Felix and Bird using configuration data present in the etcd datastore. The logs are output in the confd sub-directory of the calico/node logging directory.

By default, the confd logging level is “debug” and cannot be changed without editing configuration within the node image.

For more information on the allowed levels, see the documentation

Docker network and IPAM driver

When running Calico as a Docker network plugin, the Calico network driver runs inside the calico/node container. The logs are output in the libnetwork sub-directory of the calico/node logging directory.