Configuring the log curator - Configuring your cluster logging deployment | Logging

Configuring the Curator schedule
Configuring Curator index deletion

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.5, log curation is performed by Elasticsearch based on a retention policy that you define.

The Elasticsearch Curator tool removes Elasticsearch indices that use the data model prior to OpenShift Container Platform 4.5. You can modify the Curator index retention policy for your old data.

Configuring the Curator schedule

You can specify the schedule for Curator using the cluster logging Custom Resource created by the cluster logging installation.

Prerequisites

Cluster logging and Elasticsearch must be installed.

Procedure

To configure the Curator schedule:

Edit the Cluster Logging Custom Resource in the openshift-logging project:

$ oc edit clusterlogging instance

apiVersion: "logging.openshift.io/v1"
kind: "ClusterLogging"
metadata:
  name: "instance"

...

  curation:
    curator:
      schedule: 30 3 * * * (1)
    type: curator

1	Specify the schedule for Curator in cron format.

The time zone is set based on the host node where the Curator pod runs.

Configuring Curator index deletion

You can configure Curator to delete Elasticsearch data that uses the data model prior to OpenShift Container Platform 4.5. You can configure per-project and global settings. Global settings apply to any project not specified. Per-project settings override global settings.

Prerequisite

Cluster logging must be installed.

Procedure

To delete indices:

Edit the OpenShift Container Platform custom Curator configuration file:
```
$ oc edit configmap/curator
```

Set the following parameters as needed:

config.yaml: |
  project_name:
    action
      unit:value

The available parameters are:

Table 1. Project options
Variable Name	Description
`project_name`	The actual name of a project, such as myapp-devel. For OpenShift Container Platform operations logs, use the name `.operations` as the project name.
`action`	The action to take, currently only `delete` is allowed.
`unit`	The period to use for deletion, `days`, `weeks`, or `months`.
`value`	The number of units.

Table 2. Filter options
Variable Name	Description
`.defaults`	Use `.defaults` as the `project_name` to set the defaults for projects that are not specified.
`.regex`	The list of regular expressions that match project names.
`pattern`	The valid and properly escaped regular expression pattern enclosed by single quotation marks.

For example, to configure Curator to:

Delete indices in the myapp-dev project older than 1 day
Delete indices in the myapp-qe project older than 1 week
Delete operations logs older than 8 weeks
Delete all other projects indices after they are 31 days old
Delete indices older than 1 day that are matched by the ^project\..+\-dev.*$ regex
Delete indices older than 2 days that are matched by the ^project\..+\-test.*$ regex

Use:

  config.yaml: |
    .defaults:
      delete:
        days: 31

    .operations:
      delete:
        weeks: 8

    myapp-dev:
      delete:
        days: 1

    myapp-qe:
      delete:
        weeks: 1

    .regex:
      - pattern: '^project\..+\-dev\..*$'
        delete:
          days: 1
      - pattern: '^project\..+\-test\..*$'
        delete:
          days: 2

When you use months as the $UNIT for an operation, Curator starts counting at the first day of the current month, not the current day of the current month. For example, if today is April 15, and you want to delete indices that are 2 months older than today (delete: months: 2), Curator does not delete indices that are dated older than February 15; it deletes indices older than February 1. That is, it goes back to the first day of the current month, then goes back two whole months from that date. If you want to be exact with Curator, it is best to use days (for example, delete: days: 30).