= Cluster Logging Operator

An operator to support log collection and forwarding on OpenShift clusters. Cluster logging configuration information is found in the link:./docs/administration/configuration.md[configuration] documentation. This operator is solely responsible for configuring log collection and forwarding. It works in conjunction with the deployment of a LokiStack via the https://github.com/openshift/loki-operator[loki-operator]. The loki-operator is responsible for log storage.

== Overview

The Cluster Logging Operator (CLO) provides a set of APIs to control collection and forwarding of logs from all pods and nodes in a cluster. This includes application logs (from regular pods), infrastructure logs (from system pods and node logs), and audit logs (special node logs with legal/security implications)

The CLO deploys:

• A log collector/forwarder (current implimentation is https://vector.dev/[Vector])

and relies upon:

• Loki as a log storage engine
• The https://github.com/rhobs/observability-operator[cluster-obervability-operator] (COO) to provide a visualization plugin to the Openshift console.

The goal is to abstract away the deployment and configuration of these technologies behind APIs so that:

• A user has a simplified logging experience
• A user has less to learn
• Technologies can be replaced in the future without affecting the user experience.

The CLO can also forward logs over multiple protocols, to multiple types of log stores, on- or off-cluster

The CLO owns the following APIs:

• ClusterLogForwarder: Configure forwarding of logs to external sources
• LogFileMetricsExporter: Configure deployment of a component to monitor the volume of logs generated by container workloads

== Getting Started ==

• To install a released version of cluster logging see the https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/openshift_container_platform/4.17/html/logging/index[Openshift Logging Documentation]
• To experiment or contribute to the development of cluster logging, see the link:docs/contributing/README.adoc[hacking] and link:docs/contributing/REVIEW.adoc[review] documentation
• To debug the cluster logging stack, see link:./must-gather/README.md[README.md]
• To find currently known Cluster Logging Operator issues with work-arounds, see the link:docs/administration/troubleshooting.md[Troubleshooting] guide.