3.4.3.6. Configuring Service & Application Logging (CloudTrail, CloudWatch Logs)
First Principle: Comprehensive logging ensures a detailed, immutable record of all activities, changes, and events within your AWS environment and applications.
This record is crucial for security investigations, compliance auditing, and operational troubleshooting.
- AWS CloudTrail: (A service that captures API calls and related events.)
- Configuration: Enable for all Regions/accounts; configure S3 for storage. Optionally send to CloudWatch Logs for real-time analysis.
- Practical Relevance: Auditing API calls, tracking user activity, monitoring security events.
- Amazon CloudWatch Logs: (Centralizes logs from applications, OS, and AWS services.)
- Configuration: Deploy CloudWatch Agent on EC2/on-premises for app/OS logs. Define log groups and retention policies.
- Practical Relevance: Debugging app errors, monitoring system performance, meeting log retention requirements.
Key Logging Services & Their Configuration:
- AWS CloudTrail: Account-level API calls, S3 storage, optional CloudWatch Logs.
- Amazon CloudWatch Logs: Application/OS logs, CloudWatch Agent, log groups, retention.
Scenario: A DevOps team needs to ensure comprehensive logging for their critical application. This includes logging all API calls made in their AWS account and collecting detailed application-level logs from their EC2 instances. All logs must be stored securely for audit and troubleshooting.
Reflection Question: How would you configure AWS CloudTrail for service-level logging and Amazon CloudWatch Logs (with the CloudWatch Agent) for application-level logging, ensuring a detailed, immutable record for security investigations, compliance, and troubleshooting?
š” Tip: Always consider encrypting your log data both at rest (e.g., S3 bucket encryption, CloudWatch Logs encryption) and in transit to protect sensitive information.