StartQuery
Starts a query of one or more log groups using CloudWatch Logs Insights. You specify the log groups and time range to query and the query string to use.
For more information, see CloudWatch Logs Insights Query Syntax.
After you run a query using StartQuery
, the query results are stored by CloudWatch Logs.
You can use GetQueryResults to retrieve
the results of a query, using the queryId
that StartQuery
returns.
Note
To specify the log groups to query, a StartQuery
operation must include one of the following:
-
Either exactly one of the following parameters:
logGroupName
,logGroupNames
, orlogGroupIdentifiers
-
Or the
queryString
must include aSOURCE
command to select log groups for the query. TheSOURCE
command can select log groups based on log group name prefix, account ID, and log class.For more information about the
SOURCE
command, see SOURCE.
If you have associated a AWS KMS key with the query results in this account, then StartQuery uses that key to encrypt the results when it stores them. If no key is associated with query results, the query results are encrypted with the default CloudWatch Logs encryption method.
Queries time out after 60 minutes of runtime. If your queries are timing out, reduce the time range being searched or partition your query into a number of queries.
If you are using CloudWatch cross-account observability, you can use this operation in a
monitoring account to start a query in a linked source account. For more information, see
CloudWatch
cross-account observability. For a cross-account StartQuery
operation,
the query definition must be defined in the monitoring account.
You can have up to 30 concurrent CloudWatch Logs insights queries, including queries that have been added to dashboards.
Request Syntax
{
"endTime": number
,
"limit": number
,
"logGroupIdentifiers": [ "string
" ],
"logGroupName": "string
",
"logGroupNames": [ "string
" ],
"queryLanguage": "string
",
"queryString": "string
",
"startTime": number
}
Request Parameters
For information about the parameters that are common to all actions, see Common Parameters.
The request accepts the following data in JSON format.
- endTime
-
The end of the time range to query. The range is inclusive, so the specified end time is included in the query. Specified as epoch time, the number of seconds since
January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC
.Type: Long
Valid Range: Minimum value of 0.
Required: Yes
- limit
-
The maximum number of log events to return in the query. If the query string uses the
fields
command, only the specified fields and their values are returned. The default is 10,000.Type: Integer
Valid Range: Minimum value of 1. Maximum value of 10000.
Required: No
- logGroupIdentifiers
-
The list of log groups to query. You can include up to 50 log groups.
You can specify them by the log group name or ARN. If a log group that you're querying is in a source account and you're using a monitoring account, you must specify the ARN of the log group here. The query definition must also be defined in the monitoring account.
If you specify an ARN, use the format arn:aws:logs:region:account-id:log-group:log_group_name Don't include an * at the end.
A
StartQuery
operation must include exactly one of the following parameters:logGroupName
,logGroupNames
, orlogGroupIdentifiers
. The exception is queries using the OpenSearch Service SQL query language, where you specify the log group names inside thequerystring
instead of here.Type: Array of strings
Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 2048.
Pattern:
[\w#+=/:,.@-]*
Required: No
- logGroupName
-
The log group on which to perform the query.
Note
A
StartQuery
operation must include exactly one of the following parameters:logGroupName
,logGroupNames
, orlogGroupIdentifiers
. The exception is queries using the OpenSearch Service SQL query language, where you specify the log group names inside thequerystring
instead of here.Type: String
Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 512.
Pattern:
[\.\-_/#A-Za-z0-9]+
Required: No
- logGroupNames
-
The list of log groups to be queried. You can include up to 50 log groups.
Note
A
StartQuery
operation must include exactly one of the following parameters:logGroupName
,logGroupNames
, orlogGroupIdentifiers
. The exception is queries using the OpenSearch Service SQL query language, where you specify the log group names inside thequerystring
instead of here.Type: Array of strings
Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 512.
Pattern:
[\.\-_/#A-Za-z0-9]+
Required: No
- queryLanguage
-
Specify the query language to use for this query. The options are Logs Insights QL, OpenSearch PPL, and OpenSearch SQL. For more information about the query languages that CloudWatch Logs supports, see Supported query languages.
Type: String
Valid Values:
CWLI | SQL | PPL
Required: No
- queryString
-
The query string to use. For more information, see CloudWatch Logs Insights Query Syntax.
Type: String
Length Constraints: Minimum length of 0. Maximum length of 10000.
Required: Yes
- startTime
-
The beginning of the time range to query. The range is inclusive, so the specified start time is included in the query. Specified as epoch time, the number of seconds since
January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC
.Type: Long
Valid Range: Minimum value of 0.
Required: Yes
Response Syntax
{
"queryId": "string"
}
Response Elements
If the action is successful, the service sends back an HTTP 200 response.
The following data is returned in JSON format by the service.
- queryId
-
The unique ID of the query.
Type: String
Length Constraints: Minimum length of 0. Maximum length of 256.
Errors
For information about the errors that are common to all actions, see Common Errors.
- InvalidParameterException
-
A parameter is specified incorrectly.
HTTP Status Code: 400
- LimitExceededException
-
You have reached the maximum number of resources that can be created.
HTTP Status Code: 400
- MalformedQueryException
-
The query string is not valid. Details about this error are displayed in a
QueryCompileError
object. For more information, see QueryCompileError.For more information about valid query syntax, see CloudWatch Logs Insights Query Syntax.
HTTP Status Code: 400
- ResourceNotFoundException
-
The specified resource does not exist.
HTTP Status Code: 400
- ServiceUnavailableException
-
The service cannot complete the request.
HTTP Status Code: 500
Examples
Example: Start a query
This example starts a query of three log groups, specifying the query string and start time. It also limits the results to the most recent 100 matching events.
Sample Request
POST / HTTP/1.1
Host: logs.<region>.<domain>
X-Amz-Date: <DATE>
Authorization: AWS4-HMAC-SHA256 Credential=<Credential>, SignedHeaders=content-type;date;host;user-agent;x-amz-date;x-amz-target;x-amzn-requestid, Signature=<Signature>
User-Agent: <UserAgentString>
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.1
Content-Length: <PayloadSizeBytes>
Connection: Keep-Alive
X-Amz-Target: Logs_20140328.StartQuery
{
"limit": 100,
"logGroupNames": [
"LogGroupName1",
"LogGroupName2",
"LogGroupName3"
],
"queryString": "stats count(*) by eventSource, eventName, awsRegion",
"startTime": 1546300800,
"endTime": 1546309800
}
Sample Response
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
x-amzn-RequestId: <RequestId>
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.1
Content-Length: <PayloadSizeBytes>
Date: <Date>
{
"queryId": "12ab3456-12ab-123a-789e-1234567890ab"
}
Example: Start a query
This example starts a query for a log group ARN and specifies a query string. It also specifies the request start and end times.
Sample Request
{
"limit": 100,
"logGroupIdentifiers": [
"arn:aws:logs:us-east-1:123456789012:log-group:monitoring-logGroup-1234"
],
"queryString": "stats count(*) by eventSource, eventName, awsRegion",
"startTime": 1546300800,
"endTime": 1546309800
}
Sample Response
{
"queryId": "12ab3456-12ab-123a-789e-1234567890ab"
}
Example: Start a query using field indexing and the source command
This example queries all log groups in the 111122223333
account that have log group names that start with my-log
.
It leverages field indexing so that only log groups and log events known to match the indexed field
transactionId
are processed. Only log events that include the value tx-001
for the transactionId
field will be returned.
Sample Request
POST / HTTP/1.1
Host: logs.<region>.<domain>
X-Amz-Date: <DATE>
Authorization: AWS4-HMAC-SHA256 Credential=<Credential>, SignedHeaders=content-type;date;host;user-agent;x-amz-date;x-amz-target;x-amzn-requestid, Signature=<Signature>
User-Agent: <UserAgentString>
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.1
Content-Length: <PayloadSizeBytes>
Connection: Keep-Alive
X-Amz-Target: Logs_20140328.StartQuery
{
"queryString":
"source logGroups(namePrefix: ['my-log'], accountIdentifiers: ['accountId' = '111122223333'])
| filterIndex transactionId = 'tx-001'",
"startTime": 1722704400000,
"endTime": 1722705229849
}
See Also
For more information about using this API in one of the language-specific AWS SDKs, see the following: