Azure AKS

Collect logs from Azure Kubernetes Service clusters. Follow the setup steps and practical guidance for using Azure AKS in your Parseable observability workflow.

Collect and forward logs from Azure AKS to Parseable.

Overview

Integrate Azure AKS with Parseable to:

Kubernetes Logs - Collect pod and container logs
Azure Integration - Native Azure ecosystem support
Managed Identity - Secure credential management
Rich Metadata - Include Azure and K8s context

Prerequisites

AKS cluster running
kubectl configured
Helm (recommended)
Parseable instance accessible from AKS

Method 1: Fluent Bit DaemonSet

Deploy Fluent Bit for log collection.

Install with Helm

helm repo add fluent https://fluent.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update

helm install fluent-bit fluent/fluent-bit \
  --namespace logging \
  --create-namespace \
  -f fluent-bit-values.yaml

Values File

config:
  inputs: |
    [INPUT]
        Name tail
        Path /var/log/containers/*.log
        Parser cri
        Tag kube.*
        Mem_Buf_Limit 5MB

  filters: |
    [FILTER]
        Name kubernetes
        Match kube.*
        Merge_Log On
        Keep_Log Off
        K8S-Logging.Parser On

    [FILTER]
        Name modify
        Match *
        Add cloud.provider azure
        Add cluster.name ${CLUSTER_NAME}

  outputs: |
    [OUTPUT]
        Name http
        Match *
        Host parseable.example.com
        Port 8000
        URI /api/v1/ingest
        Format json
        Header Authorization Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=
        Header X-P-Stream aks-logs
        tls On

env:
  - name: CLUSTER_NAME
    value: "my-aks-cluster"

tolerations:
  - operator: Exists
    effect: NoSchedule

Method 2: Azure Monitor Export

Export from Azure Monitor to Event Hubs, then to Parseable.

Enable Diagnostic Settings

az monitor diagnostic-settings create \
  --name aks-to-eventhub \
  --resource /subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/.../providers/Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters/my-cluster \
  --event-hub-rule /subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/.../providers/Microsoft.EventHub/namespaces/.../authorizationRules/RootManageSharedAccessKey \
  --logs '[{"category": "kube-apiserver", "enabled": true}, {"category": "kube-controller-manager", "enabled": true}]'

Then use Azure Event Hubs integration to forward to Parseable.

Method 3: OpenTelemetry Collector

Collector DaemonSet

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: DaemonSet
metadata:
  name: otel-collector
  namespace: logging
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: otel-collector
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: otel-collector
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: collector
          image: otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib:latest
          volumeMounts:
            - name: config
              mountPath: /etc/otelcol
            - name: varlog
              mountPath: /var/log
              readOnly: true
          env:
            - name: PARSEABLE_AUTH
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: parseable-credentials
                  key: auth
      volumes:
        - name: config
          configMap:
            name: otel-collector-config
        - name: varlog
          hostPath:
            path: /var/log
      tolerations:
        - operator: Exists
          effect: NoSchedule

Azure Workload Identity

Use Workload Identity for secure authentication:

Enable Workload Identity

az aks update \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --name myAKSCluster \
  --enable-oidc-issuer \
  --enable-workload-identity

Create Managed Identity

az identity create \
  --name fluent-bit-identity \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup

# Get client ID
CLIENT_ID=$(az identity show --name fluent-bit-identity --resource-group myResourceGroup --query clientId -o tsv)

Kubernetes Service Account

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: fluent-bit
  namespace: logging
  annotations:
    azure.workload.identity/client-id: ${CLIENT_ID}
  labels:
    azure.workload.identity/use: "true"

Best Practices

Use Workload Identity - Secure credential management
Add Azure Metadata - Include subscription, resource group
Filter System Logs - Exclude kube-system if needed
Monitor Resources - Watch collector resource usage
Use Labels - Leverage AKS labels for filtering

Troubleshooting

Permission Denied

Verify Workload Identity configuration
Check managed identity permissions
Verify RBAC configuration

Missing Logs

Check collector pod logs
Verify log paths
Check network policies
Verify AKS node pools

Next Steps

Configure Amazon EKS for multi-cloud
Set up alerts for AKS events
Create dashboards for cluster monitoring

Azure AKS

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