Logging

The calico/node container

The components in the calico/node container all log to the directories under /var/log/calico inside the container. By default this is mapped to the /var/log/calico directory on the host but can be changed by specifying a --log-dir parameter on the calicoctl node run command.

Each component (described below) logs to its own directory. Files are automatically rotated, and by default 10 files of 1MB each are kept. The current log file is called current and rotated files have @ followed by a timestamp detailing when the files was rotated in tai64n format.

All logging is done using svlogd. Each component can be configured by dropping a file named config into that component’s logging directory.

e.g. to configure bird to only log 4 files of 10KB each

#/var/log/calico/bird/config
s10000
n4

svlogd can also be configured to forward logs to syslog, to prefix each line and to filter logs. See the documentation for further details.

See the following subsections for details on configuring the log level for each calico/node component.

Bird/Bird6

Bird and Bird6 are used for distributing IPv4 and IPv6 routes between Calico enabled hosts. The logs are output in the bird and bird6 sub-directories of the calico/node logging directory.

See BGP Configuration Resource for details on how to modify the logging level. For example:

# Get the current bgpconfig settings
$ calicoctl get bgpconfig -o yaml > bgp.yaml

# Modify logSeverityScreen to none, debug, info, etc.
#   Global change: set name to "default"
#   Node-specific change: set name to the node name, e.g. "Calico-Node-1"
$ vim bgp.yaml

# Replace the current bgpconfig settings
$ calicoctl replace -f bgp.yaml

Felix

Felix is the primary Calico agent that runs on each machine that hosts endpoints. Felix is responsible for the programming of iptables rules on the host. The logs are output in the felix sub-directory of the calico/node logging directory.

# Get the current felixconfig settings
$ calicoctl get felixconfig -o yaml > felix.yaml

# Modify logSeverityScreen to none, debug, info, etc.
#   Global change: set name to "default"
#   Node-specific change: set name to the node name, e.g. "Calico-Node-1"
$ vim felix.yaml

# Replace the current felixconfig settings
$ calicoctl replace -f felix.yaml

confd

The confd agent generates configuration files for Felix and Bird using configuration data present in the etcd datastore. The logs are output in the confd sub-directory of the calico/node logging directory.

By default, the confd logging level is “debug” and cannot be changed without editing configuration within the node image.

For more information on the allowed levels, see the documentation

Docker network and IPAM driver

When running Calico as a Docker network plugin, the Calico network driver runs inside the calico/node container. The logs are output in the libnetwork sub-directory of the calico/node logging directory.