Skip to main content

AWS ECS Fargate

AWS Fargate is a serverless compute engine for building applications without managing servers. This template will create a new collector container to send your AWS ECS Fargate traces and metrics to Logz.io using AWS OTel Collector. ECS logs will be sent to logz.io with aws firehose

Only awsecscontainermetrics receiver metrics are collected by default

Make your ecs fargate logs are being sent to cloudwatch

Before you begin

These are the prerequisites you’ll need before you can begin:

  • An Amazon ECS Fargate cluster
  • Applications instrumented with OpenTelemetry SDK (for Traces)

Next, you'll need to configure your CloudFormation template and point the OTLP exporter.

Deploy the CloudFormation template

Note: We support two different types of CloudFormation stacks. Option 1 collects all logs from ECS clusters and also gathers metrics and traces from one cluster. For collecting metrics and traces from multiple clusters without logs, deploy multiple instances of Option 2, which is exclusively designed for metrics and traces.

(Option 1) Cloudformation template for logs, metrics and traces:

Click on the Launch Stack button below to deploy the CloudFormation template. This template will create the required resources and configurations for the AWS OTel Collector.

RegionDeployment
us-east-1Deploy to AWS
us-east-2Deploy to AWS
us-west-1Deploy to AWS
us-west-2Deploy to AWS
eu-central-1Deploy to AWS
eu-north-1Deploy to AWS
eu-west-1Deploy to AWS
eu-west-2Deploy to AWS
eu-west-3Deploy to AWS
sa-east-1Deploy to AWS
ap-northeast-1Deploy to AWS
ap-northeast-2Deploy to AWS
ap-northeast-3Deploy to AWS
ap-south-1Deploy to AWS
ap-southeast-1Deploy to AWS
ap-southeast-2Deploy to AWS
ca-central-1Deploy to AWS
(Option 2) Cloudformation template for metrics and traces only:
RegionDeployment
us-east-1Deploy to AWS
us-east-2Deploy to AWS
us-west-1Deploy to AWS
us-west-2Deploy to AWS
eu-central-1Deploy to AWS
eu-north-1Deploy to AWS
eu-west-1Deploy to AWS
eu-west-2Deploy to AWS
eu-west-3Deploy to AWS
sa-east-1Deploy to AWS
ap-northeast-1Deploy to AWS
ap-northeast-2Deploy to AWS
ap-northeast-3Deploy to AWS
ap-south-1Deploy to AWS
ap-southeast-1Deploy to AWS
ap-southeast-2Deploy to AWS
ca-central-1Deploy to AWS

Point the OTLP exporter to the new collector container

Update the OTLP exporter configuration in your applications to point to the new collector container running in your ECS Fargate tasks.

Check Logz.io for your data

Give your data some time to get from your system to ours.

Parameters

The CloudFormation template requires the following parameters:

Traces and metrics

ParameterDescription
ClusterNameThe name of your ECS cluster from which you want to collect metrics.
TaskRoleArnSpecifies whether to create default IAM roles (True or False).
ExecutionRoleArnThe role ARN you want to use as the ECS task role. (Optional, only required if you set CreateIAMRoles to False)
SecurityGroupsThe role ARN you want to use as the ECS execution role. (Optional, only required if you set CreateIAMRoles to False)
SubnetsThe list of SecurityGroupIds in your Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).
LogzioTracingTokenYour Logz.io tracing account token.
LogzioMetricsTokenYour Logz.io metrics account token.
LogzioRegionYour Logz.io region. for example: us
LogzioListenerUrlYour Logz.io listener URL. for example: https://listener.logz.io:8053

Logs

ParameterDescription
logzioLogsTokenYour Logz.io logs account token.
LogzioListenerYour Logz.io listener URL. for example: https://aws-firehose-logs-listener.logz.io
logzioTypeThe log type you'll use with this shipping method. This can be a built-in log type, or your custom log type.
servicesA comma-separated list of services you want to collect logs from.
customLogGroupsA comma-separated list of custom log groups you want to collect logs from.
triggerLambdaTimeoutThe amount of seconds that Lambda allows a function to run before stopping it, for the trigger function.
triggerLambdaMemoryTrigger function's allocated CPU proportional to the memory configured, in MB.
triggerLambdaLogLevelLog level for the Lambda function. Can be one of: debug, info, warn, error, fatal, panic.
httpEndpointDestinationIntervalInSecondsThe length of time, in seconds, that Kinesis Data Firehose buffers incoming data before delivering it to the destination.
httpEndpointDestinationSizeInMBsThe size of the buffer, in MBs, that Kinesis Data Firehose uses for incoming data before delivering it to the destination.

Resources and Configuration

The CloudFormation template creates several resources to set up the AWS OTel Collector and send metrics and traces to Logz.io. Here is a summary of the resources created by the template and the permissions granted to the IAM policies:

AWS::ECS::TaskDefinition

The ECSTaskDefinition resource defines the container properties, such as the image, command, environment variables, and log configuration for the AWS OTel Collector container. It also sets the task and execution roles, network mode, and required compatibilities.

AWS::ECS::Service

The ECSReplicaService resource creates an Amazon ECS service with the specified task definition, desired count, scheduling strategy, and network configuration. It associates the service with the provided ECS cluster.

AWS::SSM::Parameter

The CollectorConfigParameter resource creates an AWS Systems Manager (SSM) parameter to store the collector's configuration. The configuration defines the receivers, processors, exporters, and service pipelines for traces and metrics. The applied configuration will be:

receivers:
awsxray:
endpoint: 0.0.0.0:2000
transport: udp
otlp:
protocols:
grpc:
endpoint: "0.0.0.0:4317"
http:
endpoint: "0.0.0.0:4318"
awsecscontainermetrics:
processors:
batch:
send_batch_size: 10000
timeout: 1s
exporters:
logzio/traces:
account_token: ${LOGZIO_TRACING_TOKEN}
region: ${LOGZIO_REGION}
prometheusremotewrite:
endpoint: ${LOGZIO_LISTENER_URL}
external_labels:
aws_env: fargate-ecs
headers:
Authorization: "Bearer ${LOGZIO_METRICS_TOKEN}"
resource_to_telemetry_conversion:
enabled: true
target_info:
enabled: false
service:
pipelines:
traces:
receivers: [ awsxray,otlp ]
processors: [ batch ]
exporters: [ logzio/traces ]
metrics:
receivers: [ otlp, awsecscontainermetrics ]
exporters: [ prometheusremotewrite ]
telemetry:
logs:
level: "debug"

AWS::Lambda::Function

The logzioFirehoseSubscriptionFiltersFunction Lambda function is designed to handle the process of filtering log data for Logz.io, and add and remove cloudwatch logs subscription filters

AWS::Events::Rule

The logGroupCreationEvent rule listens for AWS API calls via CloudTrail, specifically focusing on CreateLogGroup events from the logs.amazonaws.com event source. When such an event occurs, it triggers the Logz.io subscription filter function.

AWS::KinesisFirehose::DeliveryStream

A Kinesis Firehose delivery stream configured to send logs to Logz.io. Logs that fail to deliver are backed up to an S3 bucket.

AWS::S3::Bucket

An S3 bucket used to store backup logs that fail to deliver via Kinesis Firehose.

IAM Roles

  1. ECSTaskRole: This role is assumed by the ECS tasks and allows them to call AWS services on your behalf. The role is created with the following properties:
    • RoleName: AWSOTelRole
  2. ECSExecutionRole: The ECS container agent assumes this role, allowing it to make calls to the Amazon ECS API on your behalf. The role is created with the following properties:
    • RoleName: AWSOTelExecutionRole
  3. firehoseSubscriptionFilterLambdaRole: This IAM role is assumed by the Lambda function when it runs. It has permissions to:
    • Create, access, and manage CloudWatch logs.
    • Manage CloudWatch Logs Subscription Filters.
    • Assume other roles.
  4. logzioS3DestinationFirehoseRole: IAM role assumed by Kinesis Firehose when interacting with the S3 bucket for backup purposes. The role has permissions to perform basic S3 operations like PutObject, GetObject, and ListBucket.

IAM Policies

  1. AWSOpenTelemetryPolicy: This policy is attached to the ECSTaskRole and grants the following permissions:

    • Allows the collector to create, describe, and put log events into CloudWatch Logs.
    • Allows the collector to send trace data to AWS X-Ray using PutTraceSegments and PutTelemetryRecords actions.
    • Allows the collector to fetch sampling rules, targets, and statistic summaries from AWS X-Ray.
    • Allows the collector to get parameters from AWS Systems Manager (SSM) Parameter Store.
  2. AmazonECSTaskExecutionRolePolicy: This managed policy is attached to the ECSExecutionRole and grants the following permissions:

    • Allows the collector to register and deregister tasks and task definitions in Amazon ECS.
    • Allows the collector to access and manage container instances, clusters, and services.
    • Allows the collector to access and manage Elastic Load Balancing resources.
  3. CloudWatchLogsFullAccess: This managed policy is attached to the ECSExecutionRole and grants full access to Amazon CloudWatch Logs.

  4. AmazonSSMReadOnlyAccess: This managed policy is attached to the ECSExecutionRole and grants read-only access to the AWS Systems Manager services and resources.

By creating and attaching these IAM roles and policies, the AWS OTel Collector is granted the necessary permissions to collect and send metrics and traces from your ECS Fargate cluster to Logz.io. The template also configures the collector to use the specified Logz.io tokens, region, and listener URL.

Ensuring Connectivity Between the Application Containers and the Collector Container

To ensure seamless connectivity between your application containers and the AWS OTel Collector container, you need to properly configure your Amazon VPC, subnets, and security groups.

Amazon VPC and Subnets

The application containers and the AWS OTel Collector container must be launched in the same Amazon VPC and share at least one common subnet. This ensures that they can communicate with each other using private IP addresses. When deploying the CloudFormation template, make sure to provide the correct VPC subnet IDs in the Subnets parameter.

Security Groups

To allow your application containers to send traces and metrics to the AWS OTel Collector container, you need to configure the security groups for both sets of containers.

  1. Application Containers Security Group: Modify the security group associated with your application containers to allow outbound traffic to the OTel Collector's ports (4317 for gRPC and 4318 for HTTP). Ensure that the rules are restricted to the IP address range of the VPC or the security group associated with the OTel Collector container. This configuration allows your application containers to send data to the collector container.

  2. AWS OTel Collector Container Security Group: Create or modify the security group for the AWS OTel Collector container to allow inbound traffic on ports 4317 (gRPC) and 4318 (HTTP) from the application containers' security group. This configuration ensures the collector container accepts incoming data from your application containers.

When deploying the CloudFormation template, provide the collector container's security group ID in the SecurityGroups parameter.

By properly configuring your Amazon VPC, subnets, and security groups, you can ensure that your application containers can send metrics and traces to the AWS OTel Collector container, which in turn forwards the data to Logz.io.

Alternative: Configure AWS Fargate task Manually to send logs to Logz.io

Build the task execution role

Create a new role in the IAM console.

  • Select AWS service. It should already be selected by default.
  • Under Choose a use case:
    • Select Elastic Container Service
    • Select Elastic Container Service Task (scroll to the bottom of the page to see it.)
    • Click Next: Permissions to continue.
  • Select AmazonECSTaskExecutionRolePolicy.
    • Click Next: Tags and then Next: Review
  • Set Role name to logzioEcsTaskExecutionRole, then click Create role to save.

Your new role should now be created.

  • Click the newly created role to go to its Summary page.
  • Copy the Role ARN (at the top of the page) and save it for later. You will need it for the deployment JSON.

Create a Fluent Bit task definition

In the ECS console, open the Task Definitions page.

  • Select Create new Task Definition.
  • Choose Fargate, and click Next step to continue.
  • Scroll to the bottom of the page to the Volumes section, and select Configure via JSON.
  • Replace the default JSON with this code block:
{
"family": "logzio-fargate-task",
"requiresCompatibilities": [ "FARGATE" ],
"containerDefinitions": [
{
"name": "logzio-log-router",
"image": "amazon/aws-for-fluent-bit:latest",
"essential": true,
"firelensConfiguration": {
"type": "fluentbit",
"options": { "enable-ecs-log-metadata": "true" }
},
"logConfiguration": {
"logDriver": "awslogs",
"options": {
"awslogs-group": "/aws/ecs/logzio-fargate-logs",
"awslogs-region": "<<AWS-REGION>>",
"awslogs-stream-prefix": "aws/ecs"
}
}
},
{
"name": "app",
"essential": true,
"image": "<<YOUR-APP-IMAGE>>",
"logConfiguration": {
"logDriver": "awsfirelens",
"options": {
"Name": "Http",
"Host": "<<LISTENER-HOST>>",
"URI": "/?token=<<LOG-SHIPPING-TOKEN>>&type=fargate",
"Port": "8071",
"tls": "on",
"tls.verify": "off",
"Format": "json_lines"
}
}
}
],
"cpu": "256",
"executionRoleArn": "arn:aws:iam::<<AWS-ACCOUNT-ID>>:role/logzioEcsTaskExecutionRole",
"memory": "512",
"volumes": [ ],
"placementConstraints": [ ],
"networkMode": "awsvpc",
"tags": [ ]
}

Replace the placeholders in the code block (indicated by the double angle brackets << >>) using the parameters below: 👇

When you're done, click Save, and then click Create.

Parameters in logzio-log-router

ParameterDescription
logConfiguration.options.awslogs-groupIn the CloudWatch left menu, select Logs > Log groups, and then click Actions > Create log group. Give the Log Group Name /aws/ecs/logzio-fargate-logs.
logConfiguration.options.awslogs-regionThe AWS region of your cluster.

Parameters in app

ParameterDescription
imageReplace <<YOUR-APP-IMAGE>> with the name of the image you want to ship logs from.
logConfiguration.options.HostThe host for your region. For example, listener.logz.io if your account is hosted on AWS US East, or listener-nl.logz.io if hosted on Azure West Europe.
logConfiguration.options.URIYour Logz.io account token. Replace <<LOG-SHIPPING-TOKEN>> with the token of the account you want to ship to.

Remaining parameters

ParameterDescription
executionRoleArnReplace <<AWS-ACCOUNT-ID>> with your AWS account Id.

Run the task on your cluster

Go back to your new task's definition page, and click Actions > Run Task.

Click Switch to launch type, and fill in these details:

  • For Launch Type, select FARGATE.
  • For Cluster, select your cluster.
  • For Subnets, select a subnet from your cluster.

Click Run task.

The logs created by the Fluent Bit shipper are in Cloudwatch under the /aws/ecs/logzio-fargate-logs log group.

Check Logz.io for your logs

Give your logs some time to get from your system to ours, and then open Open Search Dashboards.

You'll be able to find these logs by searching for type:{{fargate}}.

Adding extra configuration to your Fluent Bit task

Create an extra.conf file

Create an extra.conf file with the extra configuration. For example:

[FILTER]
Name record_modifier
Match *
Record app-version ${APP_VERSION}

Upload the extra.conf file

  • Upload the extra.conf file to S3 (if your Fluent Bit is on EC2).
  • Upload the extra.conf file to the container image or on a volume that's mounted in the container.

Update the task definition file

Add the path to the extra.conf file to the task definition file as follows.

For the configuration file on S3:

"firelensConfiguration": {
"type": "fluentbit",
"options": {
"config-file-type": "s3",
"config-file-value": "arn:aws:s3:::<<PATH-TO-YOUR-EXTRA-CONF>>/extra.conf"
}
}

For the configuration file on the container image or on a volume mounted in the container:

"firelensConfiguration": {
"type": "fluentbit",
"options": {
"config-file-type": "file",
"config-file-value": "<<PATH-TO-YOUR-EXTRA-CONF>>/extra.conf"
}
}

Replace <<PATH-TO-YOUR-EXTRA-CONF>> with the path to the extra.conf file. For example, for S3, yourbucket/yourdirectory/extra.conf.