Request Syntax Request Parameters Response Syntax Response Elements Errors Examples See Also

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, or logGroupIdentifiers
Or the queryString must include a SOURCE command to select log groups for the query. The SOURCE 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" ],
   "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, or logGroupIdentifiers.

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.

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.

Type: Array of strings

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 512.

Pattern: [\.\-_/#A-Za-z0-9]+

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
}