Google GKE

Collect logs from Google Kubernetes Engine clusters. Follow the setup steps and practical guidance for using Google GKE in your Parseable observability…

Collect and forward logs from Google GKE to Parseable.

Overview

Integrate Google GKE with Parseable to:

Kubernetes Logs - Collect pod and container logs
GCP Integration - Native Google Cloud support
Autopilot Support - Works with GKE Autopilot
Rich Metadata - Include GCP and K8s context

Prerequisites

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

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 gcp
        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 gke-logs
        tls On

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

tolerations:
  - operator: Exists
    effect: NoSchedule

Method 2: Google Cloud Logging Export

Export from Cloud Logging to Pub/Sub, then to Parseable.

Create Log Sink

gcloud logging sinks create gke-to-pubsub \
  pubsub.googleapis.com/projects/PROJECT_ID/topics/gke-logs \
  --log-filter='resource.type="k8s_container"'

Then use GCP Pub/Sub integration to forward to Parseable.

Method 3: OpenTelemetry Collector

Collector Configuration

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: otel-collector-config
data:
  config.yaml: |
    receivers:
      filelog:
        include: [/var/log/containers/*.log]
        operators:
          - type: regex_parser
            regex: '^(?P<time>[^ ]+) (?P<dataset>stdout|stderr) (?P<logtag>[^ ]*) (?P<log>.*)$'
            timestamp:
              parse_from: attributes.time
              layout: '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%LZ'

    processors:
      k8sattributes:
        extract:
          metadata:
            - k8s.pod.name
            - k8s.namespace.name
            - k8s.deployment.name
      batch:
        timeout: 10s

    exporters:
      otlphttp:
        endpoint: "http://parseable:8000"
        headers:
          Authorization: "Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4="
          X-P-Stream: "gke-logs"

    service:
      pipelines:
        logs:
          receivers: [filelog]
          processors: [k8sattributes, batch]
          exporters: [otlphttp]

Workload Identity

Use Workload Identity for secure authentication:

# Create GCP service account
gcloud iam service-accounts create fluent-bit-sa

# Grant permissions
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID \
  --member="serviceAccount:fluent-bit-sa@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com" \
  --role="roles/logging.viewer"

# Bind to Kubernetes service account
gcloud iam service-accounts add-iam-policy-binding \
  fluent-bit-sa@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
  --role="roles/iam.workloadIdentityUser" \
  --member="serviceAccount:PROJECT_ID.svc.id.goog[logging/fluent-bit]"

Kubernetes Service Account

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: fluent-bit
  namespace: logging
  annotations:
    iam.gke.io/gcp-service-account: fluent-bit-sa@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com

GKE Autopilot

For Autopilot clusters, use Cloud Logging export method as DaemonSets are not supported.

Best Practices

Use Workload Identity - Secure credential management
Add GCP Metadata - Include project, cluster info
Filter Logs - Exclude system namespaces if needed
Monitor Resources - Watch collector resource usage
Use Labels - Leverage GKE labels for filtering

Troubleshooting

Permission Denied

Verify Workload Identity binding
Check service account permissions
Verify RBAC configuration

Missing Logs

Check collector pod logs
Verify log paths
Check network policies

Next Steps

Configure Azure AKS for multi-cloud
Set up alerts for GKE events
Create dashboards for cluster monitoring

Google GKE

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