Querying Application Load Balancer logs
An Application Load Balancer is a load balancing option for Elastic Load Balancing that enables traffic distribution in a microservices deployment using containers. Querying Application Load Balancer logs allows you to see the source of traffic, latency, and bytes transferred to and from Elastic Load Balancing instances and backend applications. For more information, see Access logs for your Application Load Balancer and Connection logs for your Application Load Balancer in the User Guide for Application Load Balancers.
Topics
- Prerequisites
- Creating the table for ALB access logs
- Creating the table for ALB access logs in Athena using partition projection
- Example queries for ALB access logs
- Creating the table for ALB connection logs
- Creating the table for ALB connection logs in Athena using partition projection
- Example queries for ALB connection logs
- See also
Prerequisites
-
Enable access logging or connection logging so that Application Load Balancer logs can be saved to your Amazon S3 bucket.
-
A database to hold the table that you will create for Athena. To create a database, you can use the Athena or Amazon Glue console. For more information, see Creating databases in Athena in this guide or Working with databases on the Amazon glue console in the Amazon Glue Developer Guide.
Creating the table for ALB access logs
-
Copy and paste the following
CREATE TABLE
statement into the query editor in the Athena console. For information about getting started with the Athena console, see Getting started. Replace the path in theLOCATION
clause with your Amazon S3 access log folder location. For more information about access log file location, see Access log files in the User Guide for Application Load Balancers. For information about each log file field, see Access log entries.Note
The following
CREATE TABLE
statement includes the recently addedclassification
andclassification_reason
columns. To create a table for Application Load Balancer access logs that do not contain these entries, remove these two columns from theCREATE TABLE
statement and modify the regex accordingly.CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE IF NOT EXISTS alb_access_logs ( type string, time string, elb string, client_ip string, client_port int, target_ip string, target_port int, request_processing_time double, target_processing_time double, response_processing_time double, elb_status_code int, target_status_code string, received_bytes bigint, sent_bytes bigint, request_verb string, request_url string, request_proto string, user_agent string, ssl_cipher string, ssl_protocol string, target_group_arn string, trace_id string, domain_name string, chosen_cert_arn string, matched_rule_priority string, request_creation_time string, actions_executed string, redirect_url string, lambda_error_reason string, target_port_list string, target_status_code_list string, classification string, classification_reason string ) ROW FORMAT SERDE 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.RegexSerDe' WITH SERDEPROPERTIES ( 'serialization.format' = '1', 'input.regex' = '([^ ]*) ([^ ]*) ([^ ]*) ([^ ]*):([0-9]*) ([^ ]*)[:-]([0-9]*) ([-.0-9]*) ([-.0-9]*) ([-.0-9]*) (|[-0-9]*) (-|[-0-9]*) ([-0-9]*) ([-0-9]*) \"([^ ]*) (.*) (- |[^ ]*)\" \"([^\"]*)\" ([A-Z0-9-_]+) ([A-Za-z0-9.-]*) ([^ ]*) \"([^\"]*)\" \"([^\"]*)\" \"([^\"]*)\" ([-.0-9]*) ([^ ]*) \"([^\"]*)\" \"([^\"]*)\" \"([^ ]*)\" \"([^\s]+?)\" \"([^\s]+)\" \"([^ ]*)\" \"([^ ]*)\"') LOCATION 's3://
DOC-EXAMPLE-BUCKET
/access-log-folder-path
/' -
Run the query in the Athena console. After the query completes, Athena registers the
alb_access_logs
table, making the data in it ready for you to issue queries.
Creating the table for ALB access logs in Athena using partition projection
Because ALB access logs have a known structure whose partition scheme you can specify
in advance, you can reduce query runtime and automate partition management by using the
Athena partition projection feature. Partition projection automatically adds new
partitions as new data is added. This removes the need for you to manually add
partitions by using ALTER TABLE ADD PARTITION
.
The following example CREATE TABLE
statement automatically uses partition
projection on ALB access logs from a specified date until the present for a single Amazon
region. The statement is based on the example in the previous section but adds
PARTITIONED BY
and TBLPROPERTIES
clauses to enable
partition projection. In the LOCATION
and
storage.location.template
clauses, replace the placeholders with values
that identify the Amazon S3 bucket location of your ALB access logs. For more information
about access log file location, see Access log files in the User Guide for Application Load Balancers. For
projection.day.range
, replace
2022
/01
/01
with the starting date that you want to use. After you run the query successfully, you
can query the table. You do not have to run ALTER TABLE ADD PARTITION
to
load the partitions. For information about each log file field, see Access log entries.
CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE IF NOT EXISTS alb_access_logs ( type string, time string, elb string, client_ip string, client_port int, target_ip string, target_port int, request_processing_time double, target_processing_time double, response_processing_time double, elb_status_code int, target_status_code string, received_bytes bigint, sent_bytes bigint, request_verb string, request_url string, request_proto string, user_agent string, ssl_cipher string, ssl_protocol string, target_group_arn string, trace_id string, domain_name string, chosen_cert_arn string, matched_rule_priority string, request_creation_time string, actions_executed string, redirect_url string, lambda_error_reason string, target_port_list string, target_status_code_list string, classification string, classification_reason string ) PARTITIONED BY ( day STRING ) ROW FORMAT SERDE 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.RegexSerDe' WITH SERDEPROPERTIES ( 'serialization.format' = '1', 'input.regex' = '([^ ]*) ([^ ]*) ([^ ]*) ([^ ]*):([0-9]*) ([^ ]*)[:-]([0-9]*) ([-.0-9]*) ([-.0-9]*) ([-.0-9]*) (|[-0-9]*) (-|[-0-9]*) ([-0-9]*) ([-0-9]*) \"([^ ]*) (.*) (- |[^ ]*)\" \"([^\"]*)\" ([A-Z0-9-_]+) ([A-Za-z0-9.-]*) ([^ ]*) \"([^\"]*)\" \"([^\"]*)\" \"([^\"]*)\" ([-.0-9]*) ([^ ]*) \"([^\"]*)\" \"([^\"]*)\" \"([^ ]*)\" \"([^\s]+?)\" \"([^\s]+)\" \"([^ ]*)\" \"([^ ]*)\"') LOCATION 's3://
DOC-EXAMPLE-BUCKET
/AWSLogs/<ACCOUNT-NUMBER>
/elasticloadbalancing/<REGION>
/' TBLPROPERTIES ( "projection.enabled" = "true", "projection.day.type" = "date", "projection.day.range" = "2022/01/01,NOW", "projection.day.format" = "yyyy/MM/dd", "projection.day.interval" = "1", "projection.day.interval.unit" = "DAYS", "storage.location.template" = "s3://DOC-EXAMPLE-BUCKET
/AWSLogs/<ACCOUNT-NUMBER>
/elasticloadbalancing/<REGION>
/${day}" )
For more information about partition projection, see Partition projection with Amazon Athena.
Example queries for ALB access logs
The following query counts the number of HTTP GET requests received by the load balancer grouped by the client IP address:
SELECT COUNT(request_verb) AS count, request_verb, client_ip FROM alb_logs GROUP BY request_verb, client_ip LIMIT 100;
Another query shows the URLs visited by Safari browser users:
SELECT request_url FROM alb_logs WHERE user_agent LIKE '%Safari%' LIMIT 10;
The following query shows records that have ELB status code values greater than or equal to 500.
SELECT * FROM alb_logs WHERE elb_status_code >= 500
The following example shows how to parse the logs by datetime
:
SELECT client_ip, sum(received_bytes) FROM alb_logs WHERE parse_datetime(time,'yyyy-MM-dd''T''HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS''Z') BETWEEN parse_datetime('2018-05-30-12:00:00','yyyy-MM-dd-HH:mm:ss') AND parse_datetime('2018-05-31-00:00:00','yyyy-MM-dd-HH:mm:ss') GROUP BY client_ip;
The following query queries the table that uses partition projection for all ALB logs from the specified day.
SELECT * FROM alb_logs WHERE day = '2022/02/12'
Creating the table for ALB connection logs
-
Copy and paste the following
CREATE TABLE
statement into the query editor in the Athena console. For information about getting started with the Athena console, see Getting started. Replace the path in theLOCATION
clause with your Amazon S3 connection log folder location. For more information about connection log file location, see Connection log files in the User Guide for Application Load Balancers. For information about each log file field, see Connection log entries.CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE IF NOT EXISTS alb_connection_logs ( time string, client_ip string, client_port int, listener_port int, tls_protocol string, tls_cipher string, tls_handshake_latency double, leaf_client_cert_subject string, leaf_client_cert_validity string, leaf_client_cert_serial_number string, tls_verify_status string ) ROW FORMAT SERDE 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.RegexSerDe' WITH SERDEPROPERTIES ( 'serialization.format' = '1', 'input.regex' = '([^ ]*) ([^ ]*) ([0-9]*) ([0-9]*) ([A-Za-z0-9.-]*) ([^ ]*) ([-.0-9]*) \"([^\"]*)\" ([^ ]*) ([^ ]*) ([^ ]*)') LOCATION 's3://
DOC-EXAMPLE-BUCKET
/connection-log-folder-path
/' -
Run the query in the Athena console. After the query completes, Athena registers the
alb_connection_logs
table, making the data in it ready for you to issue queries.
Creating the table for ALB connection logs in Athena using partition projection
Because ALB connection logs have a known structure whose partition scheme you can
specify in advance, you can reduce query runtime and automate partition management by
using the Athena partition projection feature. Partition projection automatically adds
new partitions as new data is added. This removes the need for you to manually add
partitions by using ALTER TABLE ADD PARTITION
.
The following example CREATE TABLE
statement automatically uses partition
projection on ALB connection logs from a specified date until the present for a single
Amazon region. The statement is based on the example in the previous section but adds
PARTITIONED BY
and TBLPROPERTIES
clauses to enable
partition projection. In the LOCATION
and
storage.location.template
clauses, replace the placeholders with values
that identify the Amazon S3 bucket location of your ALB connection logs. For more information
about connection log file location, see Connection log files in the User Guide for Application Load Balancers. For
projection.day.range
, replace
2023
/01
/01
with the starting date that you want to use. After you run the query successfully, you
can query the table. You do not have to run ALTER TABLE ADD PARTITION
to
load the partitions. For information about each log file field, see Connection log entries.
CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE IF NOT EXISTS alb_connection_logs ( time string, client_ip string, client_port int, listener_port int, tls_protocol string, tls_cipher string, tls_handshake_latency double, leaf_client_cert_subject string, leaf_client_cert_validity string, leaf_client_cert_serial_number string, tls_verify_status string ) PARTITIONED BY ( day STRING ) ROW FORMAT SERDE 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.RegexSerDe' WITH SERDEPROPERTIES ( 'serialization.format' = '1', 'input.regex' = '([^ ]*) ([^ ]*) ([0-9]*) ([0-9]*) ([A-Za-z0-9.-]*) ([^ ]*) ([-.0-9]*) \"([^\"]*)\" ([^ ]*) ([^ ]*) ([^ ]*)') LOCATION 's3://
DOC-EXAMPLE-BUCKET
/AWSLogs/<ACCOUNT-NUMBER>
/elasticloadbalancing/<REGION>
/' TBLPROPERTIES ( "projection.enabled" = "true", "projection.day.type" = "date", "projection.day.range" = "2023/01/01,NOW", "projection.day.format" = "yyyy/MM/dd", "projection.day.interval" = "1", "projection.day.interval.unit" = "DAYS", "storage.location.template" = "s3://DOC-EXAMPLE-BUCKET
/AWSLogs/<ACCOUNT-NUMBER>
/elasticloadbalancing/<REGION>
/${day}" )
For more information about partition projection, see Partition projection with Amazon Athena.
Example queries for ALB connection logs
The following query count occurrences where the value for
tls_verify_status
was not 'Success'
, grouped by client IP
address:
SELECT DISTINCT client_ip, count() AS count FROM alb_connection_logs WHERE tls_verify_status != 'Success' GROUP BY client_ip ORDER BY count() DESC;
The following query searches occurrences where the value for
tls_handshake_latency
was over 2 seconds in the specified time
range:
SELECT * FROM alb_connection_logs WHERE ( parse_datetime(time, 'yyyy-MM-dd''T''HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS''Z') BETWEEN parse_datetime('2024-01-01-00:00:00', 'yyyy-MM-dd-HH:mm:ss') AND parse_datetime('2024-03-20-00:00:00', 'yyyy-MM-dd-HH:mm:ss') ) AND (tls_handshake_latency >= 2.0);
See also
-
How do I analyze my Application Load Balancer access logs using Amazon Athena
in the Amazon Knowledge Center. -
For information about HTTP status codes in Elastic Load Balancing, see Troubleshoot your application load balancers in the User Guide for Application Load Balancers.
-
Catalog and analyze Application Load Balancer logs more efficiently with Amazon Glue custom classifiers and Amazon Athena
in the Amazon Big Data Blog.