Updated on 2026-04-30 GMT+08:00

Backing Up Logs to OBS

During routine O&M, querying logs in real-time through the web console is a commonly used method for diagnosing issues. However, due to limited local storage capacity, the system automatically archives historical logs when they exceed 128 MB or at 00:00 UTC. Long-term log retention is essential for compliance and operational purposes, but it must also be cost-effective. To address this, CSS provides a log backup feature that incrementally synchronizes run logs and deprecation logs to OBS based on predefined policies. This solution takes advantage of OBS's vast, low-cost storage for long-term retention while also allowing users to download historical log files at any time for detailed offline analysis.

Impact on Billing

Standard storage is used for storing log backups in OBS. For pricing details, see Billing.

Prerequisites

You have created an OBS bucket for storing log backups. The OBS bucket must meet the following requirements:

  • Storage Class: Standard.
  • Region: the same as that of your CSS cluster.

Enabling Log Backup

  1. Log in to the CSS management console.
  2. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Clusters > Logstash.
  3. In the cluster list, click the name of the target cluster. The cluster information page is displayed.
  4. Choose Logs > Log Backup. The Log Backup page is displayed.

    Check whether log backup is enabled for the cluster.

    • Yes: No further action is required.
    • No: Go to the next step.
  5. On the Log Backup page, click Enable Backup. In the displayed dialog box, configure the necessary settings.
    Table 1 Log backup settings

    Parameter

    Description

    OBS Bucket

    Select an OBS bucket for storing log backups from the drop-down list box.

    If no OBS buckets meet your requirements, click Create Bucket to go to the OBS console and create one. For details, see Creating a Bucket.

    Backup Path

    Set the log storage location in the OBS bucket.

    The backup path cannot:
    • Contain the following characters: \:*?"<>|'{}
    • Start with a slash (/).
    • Start or end with a period (.).
    • Contain more than two consecutive slashes (/) or periods (.).
    • Exceed 512 characters.

    IAM Agency

    To back up data to an OBS bucket, you must have the write permission to it. By configuring an IAM agency, you can authorize CSS to access its OBS resources through an associated account.
    • If you are configuring an agency for the first time, click Automatically Create IAM Agency to create css-obs-agency.
    • If there is an IAM agency automatically created earlier, you can click One-click authorization to have the OBS Administrator permissions deleted automatically, and have the following custom policies added automatically instead to implement more refined permissions control.
      "obs:bucket:GetBucketLocation",
      "obs:object:GetObjectVersion",
      "obs:object:GetObject",
      "obs:object:DeleteObject",
      "obs:bucket:HeadBucket",
      "obs:bucket:GetBucketStoragePolicy",
      "obs:object:DeleteObjectVersion",
      "obs:bucket:ListBucketVersions",
      "obs:bucket:ListBucket",
      "obs:object:PutObject"
    • When OBS buckets use SSE-KMS encryption, the IAM agency must be granted KMS permissions. You can click Automatically Create IAM Agency and One-click authorization to have the following custom policies created automatically.
      "kms:cmk:create",
      "kms:dek:create",
      "kms:cmk:get",
      "kms:dek:decrypt",
      "kms:cmk:list"
    • To use Automatically Create IAM Agency and One-click authorization, the following minimum permissions are required:
      "iam:agencies:listAgencies",
      "iam:roles:listRoles",
      "iam:agencies:getAgency",
      "iam:agencies:createAgency",
      "iam:permissions:listRolesForAgency",
      "iam:permissions:grantRoleToAgency",
      "iam:permissions:listRolesForAgencyOnProject",
      "iam:permissions:revokeRoleFromAgency",
      "iam:roles:createRole"
    • To use an IAM agency, the following minimum permissions are required:
      "iam:agencies:listAgencies",
      "iam:agencies:getAgency",
      "iam:permissions:listRolesForAgencyOnProject",
      "iam:permissions:listRolesForAgency"
    WARNING:

    The agency name can contain only letters (case-sensitive), digits, underscores (_), and hyphens (-). Otherwise, the backup will fail.

    Determine whether to enable Automatic backup based on service needs.
    • To enable automatic, periodic log backup, select Automatic backup, and set the backup policy. For more, see Configuring Automatic Log Backup.
    • If manual log backup is sufficient, deselect Automatic backup.
  6. Click OK to enable log backup.

    The configuration information will be displayed on the Log Backup tab.

Configuring Automatic Log Backup

After enabling log backup for a cluster, you can configure an auto backup policy to periodically back up logs based on a preset schedule.

  1. On the Log Backup page, click Modify Settings on the right.
    Figure 1 Modifying Settings
  2. In the Modify Settings dialog box, select Automatic backup, and configure the backup policy.
    Table 2 Automatic backup settings

    Parameter

    Description

    Time Zone

    Select a time zone for the backup start time.

    Backup Start Time

    Specify the start time of auto backup.

    Select a value from the drop-down list. The value range is from 00:00 to 23:00. The backup always happens on the hour.

  3. Click OK to enable automatic log backup.

    Automatic log backup tasks are displayed in the task list. When Task Status in the task list changes to Succeeded, the backup is successful.

    If log backup fails, click Failed Tasks to learn the failure causes. A maximum of 10 failed tasks can be displayed. When log backup is disabled or the cluster is deleted, the failure records are also cleared.

  4. If automatic log backup is no longer required, click Modify Settings. In the displayed dialog box, deselect Automatic backup, and click OK. In the displayed confirmation dialog box, click OK.

    Disabling log backup does not automatically delete log backups automatically generated earlier. Instead, you need to manually delete them on the OBS console.

Manually Backing Up Logs

After enabling log backup for a cluster, you can manually back up its logs at any time.

  1. On the Log Backup page, click Back Up Manually under Log Backup Tasks.
    Figure 2 Manually backing up logs
  2. In the displayed dialog box, confirm the log backup path and click OK.

    The log backup task is displayed in the task list. When Task Status in the task list changes to Succeeded, the backup is successful.

    If log backup fails, click Failed Tasks to learn the failure causes. A maximum of 10 failed tasks can be displayed. When log backup is disabled or the cluster is deleted, the failure records are also cleared.

Checking Log Backup Files

Logs are backed up incrementally. After the backup is successful, you can access the target OBS bucket to obtain the full log files by clicking Log Path.

Figure 3 OBS bucket address

Table 3 lists the log types.

Table 3 Log types

Log Name

Description

logstash-deprecation.log

Deprecation log file

logstash-plain.log

Run log file

Disabling Log Backup

Disable log backup if it is no longer needed.

On the Log Backup page, click Disable Backup. In the displayed dialog box, click OK.

Disabling log backup does not automatically delete existing backups. Instead, you need to manually delete them on the OBS console.