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Chapter 2. Scenario decision guide

Use these questions to determine which OpenShift Logging deployment scenario fits your requirements. Each question narrows your options based on your infrastructure, resources, and use case.

Determine whether your existing centralized logging platform affects your deployment scenario choice.

Yes, we use Splunk/ELK/Datadog/CloudWatch:

  • Consider Scenario 1 (Vector only) if you never need to query logs locally
  • Consider Scenario 2 (Vector + Loki) if you want fast local queries for recent troubleshooting while also sending logs to your existing platform

No, we need a logging solution:

  • Choose Scenario 2 (Vector + Loki) for command-line or Grafana-based log queries
  • Choose Scenario 3 (Vector + Loki + COO) for browser-based log queries in OpenShift console

Determine whether your ability to provision S3-compatible object storage affects your deployment scenario choice.

Yes:

  • Proceed to choose between Scenario 2 or 3

No:

  • Use Scenario 1 (Vector only) - forward logs to an external system that provides storage

Note: Object storage is a hard requirement for Loki. Without it, you cannot use Scenarios 2 or 3.

2.3. What are your cluster resource constraints?
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Determine which deployment scenario fits your available cluster CPU and memory resources.

Tight on CPU/memory:

  • Use Scenario 1 (Vector only) - minimal resource footprint
  • Avoid Scenario 3 (COO adds significant overhead)

Resources available:

  • ~5-10 vCPUs, ~10-20 GiB memory available: Choose Scenario 2 with 1x.extra-small or 1x.small Loki
  • ~40+ vCPUs, ~75+ GiB memory available: Can support Scenario 3 with 1x.medium Loki

Determine whether your need for browser-based log querying in the OpenShift web console points to Scenario 2 or Scenario 3.

Yes, we want browser-based log queries:

  • Choose Scenario 3 (requires COO for console "Logs" tab)

No, command-line or Grafana is fine:

  • Choose Scenario 2 (Loki without COO)

We do not need local queries at all:

  • Choose Scenario 1 (Vector only)

2.5. Decision flowchart
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Use this flowchart to narrow your scenario choice:

  1. Do you need local log storage?

    • No Scenario 1 (Vector only)
    • Yes Continue to step 2

  2. Can you provision object storage (S3/GCS/Azure Blob)?

    • No Scenario 1 (Vector only - cannot use Loki without object storage)
    • Yes Continue to step 3

  3. Do you need to query logs in the OpenShift web console?

    • No Scenario 2 (Vector + Loki, query with Grafana or CLI)
    • Yes Scenario 3 (Vector + Loki + COO)

  4. Verify resource availability:

    • Scenario 1: ~100m CPU, ~256 MiB memory per node (Vector only)
    • Scenario 2: Add ~5-40 vCPUs, ~10-75 GiB memory (depends on Loki size)
    • Scenario 3: Add ~500m CPU, ~1 GiB memory more than Scenario 2 (for COO)
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