Configure a log-based alert for vaulted resources

This page explains how to configure a log-based alert for vaulted resources from the Log Explorer page in the Google Cloud console.

The Logs Explorer page guides you through the following steps to create and edit log-based alerts:

  • Provide a name and description for the alert.
  • Choose the logs you want to receive a notification for.
  • Set the time interval between notifications.
  • Set the time for automatic closure of incidents.
  • Specify whom to notify.

You can configure alerts for the job categories: SCHEDULED_BACKUP, ON_DEMAND_BACKUP, and RESTORE. You can also set alerts for the job status: SUCCESSFUL, FAILED, SKIPPED, and RUNNING.

You can configure one or more notification channels, such as Google chat, email, SMS, or chat program channels, to receive notifications when an alert occurs. For instructions, see Create and manage notification channels.

Before you begin

Create a log-based alert

To notify an alert, you need to have a notification channel. You can create the notification channel before creating an alert or while creating an alert.

Use the following instructions to create a log-based alert.

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Logs Explorer page.

    Go to Logs Explorer

  2. In the Query pane define the alert on which you want to be notified.

    The following query is an example to get notified whenever a scheduled backup job fails.

      logName="projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/backupdr.googleapis.com%2Fbdr_backup_restore_jobs"
  jsonPayload.jobCategory="SCHEDULED_BACKUP"
  jsonPayload.jobStatus="FAILED"

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID: the name of the project.

  3. In the header of the Query results pane, click Create alert.

  4. In the Alert details section, do the following:

    1. In the Alert Policy Name field, enter a name for your alert. This name gets displayed in the notification header.
    2. In the Documentation field, enter the description for the alert. For information about how you can format and refine the content of this field, see Using Markdown and variables in documentation templates.

  5. Click Next.

  6. In the Choose logs to include in the alert section, do the following:

    1. Click Preview logs to check the query and results. You can also edit the query in this pane, if necessary.

    2. Click Add a label and do the following. The labels let you customize notifications and make them more informative.

      1. In the Display name field, enter a name for the label.
      2. From the Log field name list, select a log field name. These fields are displayed based on the selected query result.
      3. In the Regular expression field, enter an expression to extract a value from the field that must contain exactly one regular expression group.

  7. Click Next.

  8. In the Set notification frequency and autoclose duration section, do the following:

    1. From the Time between notifications list, select the minimum time between notifications. This value lets you control the number of notifications you get from this alert if it is triggered multiple times.
    2. From the Incident autoclose duration list, select a duration after which the incident to be closed automatically when matching log entries are absent.

  9. Click Next.

  10. From the Notification channels list, select one or more notification channels for your alert. If you don't have a notification channel configured, click Manage notification channels to create one. For instructions, see Create and manage notification channels.

  11. Click Save.

Test the log-based alert

To test the log-based alert you created, you can manually write a log entry that matches the query.

Use the following instructions to write the log entry.

  1. Go to the logEntries.write reference page.

    Go to logEntries.write

  2. Configure the following log entry by changing the PROJECT_ID variable to your project ID.

          {
        "entries": [
          {
            "jsonPayload": {
              "jobCategory": "SCHEDULED_BACKUP",
              "jobStatus": "FAILED"
            }
          }
        ],
        "resource": {
          "type": "backupdr.googleapis.com/BackupDRProject"
        },
        "logName": "projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/backupdr.googleapis.com%2Fbdr_backup_restore_jobs"
      }

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID: the name of the project.

  3. Copy the log entry you configured previously.

  4. In the Try this API pane, follow these steps:

    1. In the Request body field, replace the content with the log entry you copied in the previous step.
    2. Click Execute. If prompted, follow the authentication flow.

  5. If the logEntries.write call is successful, then you get an HTTP 200 response code and an empty response body, {}. For more information about APIs Explorer, see Using the APIs Explorer.

    The log entry matches the filter specified for the alert in the following ways:

    • The logName value specifies the backup or restore job logs in your cloud project.
    • The jsonPayload contains a failed job category, SCHEDULED_BACKUP, which indicates that the log is related to a backup scheduled by a backup plan.
    • The jsonPayload contains the field job status as FAILED, which signifies that the job is failed.

  6. After you write the log entry, the following sequence occurs:

    1. The new log entry appears in the Logs Explorer and triggers the alert.
    2. An incident is opened in the Cloud Monitoring page.

    3. You receive a notification for the incident. If you configured an email notification channel, then the notification displays.

      You can click View incident in the email to see the incident in the Cloud Monitoring page. For more information about incidents including how to acknowledge and close them, see Manage incidents for log-based alerts.