How to enable structured JSON logging

This document describes how to configure structured logging for Envoy via Contour.

How the feature works

Contour allows you to choose from a set of JSON fields that will be expanded into Envoy templates and sent to Envoy. There is a default set of fields if you enable JSON logging, and you may customize which fields you log.

The list of available fields are discoverable in the following objects:

• JSONFields are fields that have built in mappings to commonly used envoy operators.
• envoySimpleOperators are the names of simple envoy operators that don’t require arguments, they are case-insensitive when configured.
• envoyComplexOperators are the names of complex envoy operators that require arguments.

The default list of fields is available at DefaultFields.

Enabling the feature

To enable the feature you have two options:

• Add --accesslog-format=json to your Contour startup line.
• Add accesslog-format: json to your configuration file.

Without any further customization, the default fields will be used.

Customizing logged fields

To customize the logged fields, add a json-fields list of strings to your config file. If the json-fields key is not specified, the default fields will be configured.

To use a value from JSONFields or envoySimpleOperators, simply include the name of the value in the list of strings. The JSONFields are case-sensitive, but envoySimpleOperators are not.

To use envoyComplexOperators or to use alternative field names, specify strings as key/value pairs like "fieldName=%OPERATOR(...)%".

Unknown field names in non key/value fields will result in validation errors, as will unknown Envoy operators in key/value fields. Note that the DYNAMIC_METADATA and FILTER_STATE Envoy logging operators are not supported at this time due to the complexity of their validation.

See the example config file to see this used in context.

Sample configuration file

Here is a sample config:

accesslog-format: json
json-fields:
  - "@timestamp"
  - "authority"
  - "bytes_received"
  - "bytes_sent"
  - "customer_id=%REQ(X-CUSTOMER-ID)%"
  - "downstream_local_address"
  - "downstream_remote_address"
  - "duration"
  - "method"
  - "path"
  - "protocol"
  - "request_id"
  - "requested_server_name"
  - "response_code"
  - "response_flags"
  - "uber_trace_id"
  - "upstream_cluster"
  - "upstream_host"
  - "upstream_local_address"
  - "upstream_service_time"
  - "user_agent"
  - "x_forwarded_for"