gelf2azure is a Docker container that receive logs in GELF format from UDP, and forward it to Azure Monitor using REST API.

This is designed to integrate nicely with gelf built-in Docker logging plugin in input, and Azure Monitor HTTP Data Collector API in output.

As an extra bonus, it also expose a tiny web application that shows the logs as they arrive, providing a tail-like experience.

Getting started

Open a terminal and launch gelf2azure docker container:

docker run --rm -it -p 12201:12201/udp -p 54313:54313 gimmi/gelf2azure:latest

Open with your browser http://127.0.0.1:54313

Open another terminal and send sample log from a Docker container

docker run --rm -it \
  --name my_container \
  --log-driver gelf \
  --log-opt gelf-address=udp://127.0.0.1:12201 \
  alpine echo 'Hello world!'

You should see the log "Hello world!" appear in the browser window:

Message can be sent from any source, as long as GELF format is used.

With netcat

nc.exe -u 127.0.0.1 12201
{ "host": "example.org", "short_message": "xoxo", "timestamp": 1602850875.683, "_container_name": "agitated_goldberg" }

Or in bash

echo -n '{"host":"example.org","short_message":"xoxo","timestamp":1602850875.683,"_container_name":"agitated_goldberg"}' > /dev/udp/127.0.0.1/12201

Configuration Options

Configuration is done by passing environment variables:

Environment Variable	Default	Description
AZURE_CUSTOMER_ID		CustomerID (AKA Workspace ID) parameter for Azure API. Leaving this unset will disable sending data to Azure.
AZURE_SHARED_KEY		SharedKey (AKA Primary Key) parameter for Azure API
AZURE_LOG_TYPE		Log-Type parameter for Azure API
AZURE_BATCH_MS	5000	How often data is collected for send to Azure Monitor
AZURE_TIMEOUT_MS	30000	Timeout for Azure Monitor REST call
HTTPS_PROXY		Set proxy if needed, something like http://my.proxy.com:80
DEBUG		Use value app:* to enable internal logging. Useful for troubleshooting

Create Azure Log Analytics Workspace

Execute the following commands in Azure CLI:

az monitor log-analytics workspace create \
    --subscription my_subs \
    --resource-group my_group \
    --location westeurope \
    --workspace-name my-la-ws
{
  "customerId": "THIS IS AZURE_CUSTOMER_ID"
}

az monitor log-analytics workspace get-shared-keys \
    --subscription my_subs \
    --resource-group my_group \
    --workspace-name my-la-ws
{
  "primarySharedKey": "THIS IS AZURE_SHARED_KEY"
}

Setup Docker to send logs to gelf2azure

gelf2azure is designed to be used with gelf built-in Docker logging plugin. To enable it, modify /etc/docker/daemon.json as follows:

{
    "log-driver": "gelf",
    "log-opts": {
        "gelf-address": "udp://172.16.0.13:12201"
    }
}

Other projects with similar goals

• logspout-loganalytics

Build from sources

docker build --pull --no-cache -t gimmi/gelf2azure:latest .