Make Your Logs Work for You

The days of logging in to servers and manually viewing log files are over. SolarWinds® Papertrail™ aggregates logs from applications, devices, and platforms to a central location.

View Technology Info

FEATURED TECHNOLOGY

Kubenetes Cluster Logging Kubernetes Logging AWS Log Management GC Log Analyzer AWS Logging Docker Logging Docker Syslog Heroku Logging Logging Tools for Azure App

Troubleshoot Fast and Enjoy It

SolarWinds® Papertrail™ provides cloud-based log management that seamlessly aggregates logs from applications, servers, network devices, services, platforms, and much more.

View Capabilities Info

FEATURED CAPABILITIES

Log Viewer Firewall Log Analyzer Centralized Log Management Log Analysis Tail Logging Cron Job Monitoring Log Aggregator Cloud Logging

Aggregate and Search Any Log

SolarWinds® Papertrail™ provides lightning-fast search, live tail, flexible system groups, team-wide access, and integration with popular communications platforms like PagerDuty and Slack to help you quickly track down customer problems, debug app requests, or troubleshoot slow database queries.

View Languages Info

FEATURED LANGUAGES

Linux Logging Software Linux Log Management Ruby Logging Manager Golang Logging HAproxy Log Analyzer MySQL Logging NGINX Logging Javascript Logging Tomcat Logging Apache Log Analyzer

Administrator Guide
- Documentation for Papertrail
Collect Logs
Collect Logs: Apps & Services
Collect Logs: Hosting Services
Collect Logs: Integrations
- Fluentd
- Librato
- Amazon CloudWatch
- StatHat
- Amazon SNS
- HostedGraphite
- Datadog
- Zapier
- VictorOps
- New Relic traces
- Slack
- Campfire
- PagerDuty
- New Relic Insights
- Pushover
- AppOptics
- Geckoboard
- OpsGenie
- Honeybadger
Manage Logs
Send Logs for Analytics
SolarWinds Users & Orgs
Support and Security
- Security and Compliance
- Support Policy
What's New
- Papertrail Release Notes

Fluentd

Fluentd logs can be redirected to Papertrail using FireLens, a SolarWinds plugin. Before using this plugin, familiarize yourself with FireLens for Amazon ECS.

Requirements

Amazon AWS active account

How to start with Papertrail and FireLens for Amazon ECS

To start with FireLens for Amazon ECS, use our SolarWinds prepared Fluentd image or create your own customized Fluentd image using Docker.

1. Create task definition

To start collecting logs from applications, first prepare a task definition. You can build on the example provided for Papertrail (EC2). Modify it to work with your applications while leaving the logConfiguration section intact to easily add a logging capability to your application.

Update the executionRoleArn with a valid ECS IAM Role and the logConfiguration section with the correct Papertrail hostname and port number:

{
    "family": "ec2-nginx-to-papertrail",
    "executionRoleArn": 
"arn:aws:iam::aws-account-id:role/role-name-with-path",
    "requiresCompatibilities": [
        "EC2"
    ],
	"containerDefinitions": [
		{
			"essential": true,
			"image": "solarwinds/fluentd-papertrail",
			"name": "log_router",
			"firelensConfiguration": {
                "type": "fluentd"
            },
			"memory": 150
       },
       {
           "essential": true,
           "image": "nginx",
           "name": "nginx-logging-to-papertrail",
           "dependsOn": [
              {
                  "containerName": "log_router",
                  "condition": "START"
              }
           ],
           "portMappings": [
              {
                  "hostPort": 80,
                  "containerPort": 80,
                  "protocol": "tcp"
              }
          ],
"logConfiguration": {
        "logDriver": "awsfirelens",
        "options": {
          "@type": "papertrail",
          "papertrail_host": "logsX.papertrailapp.com",
          "papertrail_port": "50000"
}
          },
          "memory": 100
      }
	]
}

The example task definition deploys a Nginx server along with a Fluentd container for passing log messages to Papertrail.

2. Register task definition

Register your task definition in your AWS Console (Services -> ECS > Task Definitions). When completed, verify whether the task definition has been successfully registered in the AWS Console (Services > ECS > Task Definitions).

3. Create an ECS Cluster

Go to Amazon ECS > Clusters, click “Create Cluster” button, and follow the wizard to create a new ECS cluster. More information on creating cluster can be found in Amazon ECS documentation

4. Run a Task on ECS Cluster

Go to Amazon ECS > Clusters and click on the cluster’s name you just created. Open the Tasks tab and click “Run New Task”. In the wizard that opens, choose the “Launch Type” and “Task Definition” you want to use for your task. Fill any required fields and click “Run Task”. For more information, see the AWS documentation on running tasks.

After starting the task on your ECS cluster, you should have two live containers where one is running Nginx. Using its public IP, you’ll be able to reach the Nginx server from your browser to generate logs that will be redirected to Papertrail.

You should be able now to see logs from your containers pushed to Papertrail.