Log Streams

Render Log Streams forward logs from your web services, private services, background workers, databases, and cron jobs to any logging provider that supplies a TLS-enabled syslog drain.

Service logs are delivered to the provider’s syslog endpoint via TCP, and are formatted according to RFC5424, the specification most commonly used by providers. A formatted log line would look like:

<0>1 2021-03-31T16:00:00-08:00 test-service cron-12345 74440 cron-12345 - hello this is a test

Your provider will parse the relevant details from the formatted log line. Render annotates your logs with your service slug, the type of service, and a unique identifier for the instance (you can use this to track your service between deploys, or to distinguish between multiple instances if you are running more than one).

If you are using a standard format such as logfmt or json, Render will map the level field to an appropriate syslog priority. Otherwise Render will make a best effort to parse log levels, and will default to INFO.

Configuring Log Streams

To define a Log Streams endpoint, navigate to Account or Team Settings in your Render Dashboard. Locate the Log Streams section, click “Add Log Stream”, and enter your endpoint URL in the format HOST:PORT, for example logs.papertrailapp.com:34302.

Some logging providers like Datadog require an authentication token with every log line sent to a syslog endpoint. This helps them differentiate your logs from other accounts using a shared syslog URL.

You can add a token to your Log Stream during setup and Render will automatically handle logging authentication for you.

Log Streams can be configured for an account or a team, and apply to all supported services owned by the account or team. If you manage multiple teams on Render, please configure a log endpoint for each team separately.

Supported Providers

Render can forward your logs to TLS-enabled syslog endpoints that expect logs formatted per RFC5424. We do not support insecure (non TLS-enabled) endpoints or providers that require a custom log format. Most steps listed by logging providers to set up syslog (such as updating a configuration file, restarting services, etc.) are not needed with Log Streams; you simply need to obtain your syslog endpoint and enter it in the Render Dashboard.

You can find supported logging providers below. Please let us know at support@render.com if you encounter issues integrating with any of them.

While other logging providers may have syslog endpoints, we haven’t tested them officially, and they might not work. If there’s a logging provider you’d like to see us support officially, please submit a feature request.

Where to Find Your Syslog Endpoint

Papertrail

Once you’ve logged into your account, navigate to the setup page to obtain your Syslog endpoint:

You can also optionally generate a unique endpoint for your Render services if you use the same Papertrail account for logs from services hosted on other providers.

Logtail

Create a new source in Logtail with the platform “Render”:

Enter the “Source Token” from Logtail as the Token in your Render Log Stream settings and the URL in.logtail.com:6514 for the Endpoint.

Datadog

Datadog provides a wide range of observability tools, including log management. See the setting up log streams on Datadog page for more detail on how to use Datadog as a logging provider.

Sumo Logic

In Sumo Logic you’ll need to create a Cloud Syslog Source.

After configuring your source, you will be shown a modal with a token and host that you can enter into your Render Log Stream settings. We automatically inject the token into your log messages for Sumo Logic to associate your messages with your account.

Mezmo (previously “LogDNA”)

Log into your account and navigate to the sources page. Select “syslog” on the left sidebar to see your syslog endpoint.