Overview

In a separator log, the entire log data can be structured according to the specified separator, and each complete log ends with a line break \n. When CLS processes separator logs, you need to define a unique key for each separate field.

Prerequisites

Assume the raw data of a log is as follows:

10.20.20.10 - ::: [Tue Jan 22 14:49:45 CST 2019 +0800] ::: GET /online/sample HTTP/1.1 ::: 127.0.0.1 ::: 200 ::: 647 ::: 35 ::: http://127.0.0.1/

If the separator for log parsing is specified as :::, the log will be segmented into eight fields, and a unique key will be defined for each of them as shown below:

IP: 10.20.20.10 -
bytes: 35
host: 127.0.0.1
length: 647
referer: http://127.0.0.1/
request: GET /online/sample HTTP/1.1
status: 200
time: [Tue Jan 22 14:49:45 CST 2019 +0800]

Directions

Logging in to the console

1. Log in to the CLS console.
2. In the left sidebar, click Log Topic to go to the log topic management page.

Creating a log topic

1. Click Create Log Topic.
2. In the pop-up, enter test-separator as Log Topic Name and click OK.

Managing the machine group

1. After the log topic is created successfully, click its name to go to the log topic management page.
2. Click the Collection Configuration tab and click the format in which you need to collect logs.
3. On the Machine Group Management page, select the machine group to which to bind the current log topic and click Next to proceed to collection configuration.
   For more information, please see Machine Group Management.

Configuring collection

On the Collection Configuration page, set Collection Path according to the log collection path format as shown below:
Log collection path format: [directory prefix expression]/**/[filename expression].

After the log collection path is entered, LogListener will match all common prefix paths that meet the [directory prefix expression] rule and listen for all log files in the directories (including subdirectories) that meet the [filename expression] rule. The parameters are as detailed below:

Parameter	Description
Directory prefix	Directory structure of the log file prefix. Only wildcards \* and ? are supported. \* indicates to match any multiple characters. ? indicates to match any single character.
/**/	Current directory and all its subdirectories.
Filename	Log filename. Only wildcards \* and ? are supported. \* indicates to match any multiple characters. ? indicates to match any single character.

Common configuration modes are as follows:

• [Common directory prefix]/**/[common filename prefix]*
• [Common directory prefix]/**/*[common filename suffix]
• [Common directory prefix]/**/[common filename prefix]*[common filename suffix]
• [Common directory prefix]/**/*[common string]*

Below are examples:

No.	Directory Prefix Expression	Filename Expression	Description
1.	/var/log/nginx	access.log	In this example, the log path is configured as /var/log/nginx/**/access.log. LogListener will listen for log files named access.log in all subdirectories in the /var/log/nginx prefix path.
2.	/var/log/nginx	*.log	In this example, the log path is configured as /var/log/nginx/**/*.log. LogListener will listen for log files suffixed with .log in all subdirectories in the /var/log/nginx prefix path.
3.	/var/log/nginx	error*	In this example, the log path is configured as /var/log/nginx/**/error*. LogListener will listen for log files prefixed with error in all subdirectories in the /var/log/nginx prefix path.

Note：

• Only LogListener 2.3.9 and above support adding multiple collection paths.
• The system does not support uploading logs with contents in multiple text formats, which may cause write failures, such as key:"{"substream":XXX}".
• You are advised to configure the collection path as log/*.log and rename the old file after log rotation as log/*.log.xxxx.
• By default, a log file can only be collected by one log topic. If you want to have multiple collection configurations for the same file, please add a soft link to the source file and add it to another collection configuration.

Configuring the separator mode

1. Set Extraction Mode to Separator.
2. Select a separator.
   The system segments the sample log according to the selected separator and displays it in the extraction result box. You need to define a unique key for each field. Currently, log collection supports a variety of separators. Common separators include space, tab, comma, semicolon, and vertical bar. If your log data uses other separators such as :::, it can also be parsed through custom delimiter.

Configuring the collection policy

• Full collection: when LogListener collects a file, it starts reading data from the beginning of the file.
• Incremental collection: when LogListener collects a file, it starts reading data 1 MB ahead of the end of the file (for a file less than 1 MB, incremental collection is equivalent to full collection).

Configuring the collection time

Note：

• The log time is measured in seconds. If the log time is entered in an incorrect format, the collection time is used as the log time.
• The time attribute of a log is defined in two ways: collection time and original timestamp.
• Collection time: the time attribute of a log is determined by the time when CLS collects the log.
• Original timestamp: the time attribute of a log is determined by the timestamp in the raw log.

• Using the collection time as the time attribute of logs
  Keep Collection Time enabled as shown below:

• Using the original timestamp as the time attribute of logs
  Disable Collection Time and enter the time key of the original timestamp and the corresponding time parsing format in Time Key and Time Parsing Format respectively. For more information on the time parsing format, please see Configuring Time Format.

Below are examples of how to enter a time parsing format:
Example 1: the parsing format of the original timestamp 10/Dec/2017:08:00:00 is %d/%b/%Y:%H:%M:%S.
Example 2: the parsing format of the original timestamp 2017-12-10 08:00:00 is %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.
Example 3: the parsing format of the original timestamp 12/10/2017, 08:00:00 is %m/%d/%Y, %H:%M:%S.

Note：

Second can be used as the unit of log time. If the time is entered in a wrong format, the collection time is used as the log time.

Configuring filter rules

Filters are designed to help you extract valuable log data by adding log collection filter rules based on your business needs. If the filter rule is a Perl regular expression, the created filter rule will be used for matching; in other words, only logs that match the regular expression will be collected and reported.

For separator-formatted logs, you need to configure a filter rule according to the defined custom key-value pair. For example, if you want to collect all log data with a status field whose value is 400 or 500 after the sample log is parsed in separator mode, you need to configure key as status and the filter rule as 400|500.

Note：

The relationship logic between multiple filter rules is "AND". If multiple filter rules are configured for the same key name, previous rules will be overwritten.

Related Operations

Log search

1. Log in to the CLS console.
2. In the left sidebar, click Search and Analysis to enter the search and analysis page.
3. Select the region, logset, and log topic as needed, and click Search and Analysis to search for logs according to the set query rules.