Collect EC2 Application/Server Logs

Overview

This guide explains how to collect application and server logs from your EC2 instances using the OpenTelemetry Collector.

Prerequisites

• A Linux-based EC2 instance
• OpenTelemetry Collector installed and running
• Access to modify the collector's configuration file (usually config.yaml)

Setup

To collect logs from your EC2 instance, you will need to configure the filelog receiver in your OpenTelemetry Collector.

For complete configuration instructions, follow the Collect Logs from File guide.

The setup involves:

1. Defining the input: Specifying the path to your log files (e.g., /var/log/myapp.log) in the filelog receiver configuration.
2. Enabling the pipeline: Adding the receiver to a logs pipeline in the config.yaml file.
3. Restarting the Collector: Applying the new configuration.

Validate

Once you have updated the configuration and restarted the collector:

1. Generate some logs in your application or log file.
2. Go to the Logs Explorer in SigNoz.
3. You should see your logs appearing. You can filter by host.name (which usually defaults to the EC2 instance ID or hostname) to find logs from this specific instance.

Next Steps

• Collect Logs from File
• OpenTelemetry Collector Configuration