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Version: 1.4.1

Log File Management

thin-edge.io implements an operation to upload log files from the device to the cloud.

  • The log file management feature on the main or a child device is provided by the tedge-agent running on that device.
  • The device owner can define the list of log files using the tedge-log-plugin.toml configuration file of the target device.
  • Each entry in this file contains a log type and a path pattern, where the type is used to represent the logical group of log files matching the path pattern.
  • Upon receiving a log file upload command for a given type, the log files for that type are retrieved using the path pattern defined in this tedge-log-plugin.toml, matched against the requested time range, search text and maximum line count.
  • The agent uploads the requested log file to the tedge file transfer repository. Its url is given by the received log upload command.
  • The list of managed log files in tedge-log-plugin.toml can be updated locally or from cloud, for instance, by using the configuration management feature.
  • However, the agent provides no direct connection to clouds, which is the responsibility of the cloud mapper.

Configuration​

Configuration of the log upload operation is stored by default under /etc/tedge/plugins/tedge-log-plugin.toml. If it does not exist on startup, the agent creates the file with example contents.

This TOML file defines the list of log files that should be managed by the agent running on the device. The paths to these files can be represented using glob patterns. The type given to these paths are used as the log type associated to a log path.

file: /etc/tedge/plugins/tedge-log-plugin.toml
files = [
  { type = "mosquitto", path = '/var/log/mosquitto/mosquitto.log' },
  { type = "software-management", path = '/var/log/tedge/agent/workflow-software_*' },
  { type = "c8y_CustomOperation", path = '/var/log/tedge/agent/c8y_CustomOperation/*' }
]

The agent parses this configuration file on startup for all the type values specified, and sends the supported log types message to the MQTT local broker on the <root>/<identifier>/cmd/log_upload topic with a retained flag.

Given that root.topic and device.topic are set to te and device/main// for the main device, the message to declare the supported log types is as follows.

tedge mqtt pub -r 'te/device/main///cmd/log_upload' '{
  "types": [
    "mosquitto",
    "software-management",
    "c8y_CustomOperation"
  ]
}'

The agent continuously watches this configuration file for any changes and resends the JSON message with the types in this file, whenever it is updated.

note

If the file /etc/tedge/plugins/tedge-log-plugin.toml is ill-formed or cannot be read, then a JSON message with an empty array for the types field is sent, indicating no log files are tracked.

Handling log upload commands​

The agent subscribes to log upload commands on the <root>/<identifier>/cmd/log_upload/+ MQTT topic. For example, it subscribes to the following topic for the main device.

tedge mqtt sub 'te/device/main///cmd/log_upload/+'

A new log file upload command with the ID "1234" is published for the device named "example" by another component as below.

tedge mqtt pub -r 'te/device/main///cmd/log_upload/1234' '{
  "status": "init",
  "tedgeUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:8000/tedge/file-transfer/example/log_upload/mosquitto-1234",
  "type": "mosquitto",
  "dateFrom": "2013-06-22T17:03:14.000+02:00",
  "dateTo": "2013-06-23T18:03:14.000+02:00",
  "searchText": "ERROR",
  "lines": 1000
}'

The agent then checks the tedge-log-plugin.toml file for the log type in the incoming message (mosquitto), retrieves the log files using the path glob pattern provided in the configuration file for log upload, including only the ones modified within the date range(2013-06-22T17:03:14.000+02:00 to 2013-06-23T18:03:14.000+02:00), with the content filtered by the search text(ERROR) and the maximum line count(1000).

This filtered content is then uploaded to the URL received in the command as tedgeUrl via an HTTP PUT request.

During the process, the agent updates the command status via MQTT by publishing a retained message to the same <root>/<identifier>/cmd/log_upload/<id> topic, where the command is received.

On the reception of a new log file upload command, the agent updates the status to executing. After successfully uploading the file to the file transfer repository, the agent updates the status to successful. If any unexpected error occurs, the agent updates the status to failed with a reason.

Thus, the operation status update message for the above example looks like below.

tedge mqtt pub -r 'te/device/main///cmd/log_upload/1234' '{
  "status": "failed",
  "reason": "The target log file for mosquitto does not exist.",
  "tedgeUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:8000/tedge/file-transfer/example/log_upload/mosquitto-1234",
  "type": "mosquitto",
  "dateFrom": "2013-06-22T17:03:14.000+02:00",
  "dateTo": "2013-06-22T18:03:14.000+02:00",
  "searchText": "ERROR",
  "lines": 1000
}'

Flow​