Prerequisites

Before we get started, you will need an AWS account and the AWS CLI installed on your local machine. You will also need to have IAM permissions to create and manage CloudWatch Logs.

Step 1: Create a log group

The first step is to create a log group. A log group is a collection of log streams that share the same retention policy and access control settings. To create a log group using the AWS CLI, run the following command:

aws logs create-log-group --log-group-name my-log-group

Replace “my-log-group” with the name of your log group.

Step 2: Create a log stream

Next, we need to create a log stream within the log group. A log stream represents a sequence of log events that share the same source. To create a log stream using the AWS CLI, run the following command:

aws logs create-log-stream --log-group-name my-log-group --log-stream-name my-log-stream

Replace “my-log-group” with the name of your log group and “my-log-stream” with the name of your log stream.

Step 3: Add log events

Now that we have a log stream, we can add log events to it. A log event represents a single occurrence of a log message. To add a log event using the AWS CLI, run the following command:

aws logs put-log-events --log-group-name my-log-group --log-stream-name my-log-stream --log-events timestamp=$(date +%s000),message="Hello, world!"

This command adds a log event with the message “Hello, world!” to the log stream. The timestamp parameter specifies the timestamp of the log event in milliseconds since the Unix epoch.

Step 4: View logs

Finally, we can view the logs in the log stream using the AWS CLI. To view the logs, run the following command:

aws logs get-log-events --log-group-name my-log-group --log-stream-name my-log-stream

This command retrieves the log events from the log stream and displays them in the terminal.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we covered the basics of AWS CloudWatch Logs, including how to create a log group, stream, and log events. We also covered how to use the AWS CLI to interact with CloudWatch Logs. With these skills, you can begin to use CloudWatch Logs to monitor and analyze your application logs in the cloud.