Log analytics workloads - Amazon OpenSearch Service Lens
Use case: Web application log analysis

Log analytics workloads

Log analytics focuses on analyzing machine-generated time series data for insights into operations, security, and user behavior.

One of the common use cases for log analytics is monitoring and troubleshooting application logs. Consider a scenario where you use Amazon OpenSearch Service to analyze and gain insights from logs of a web application.

Use case: Web application log analysis

Scenario

Imagine you have a web application that serves users and generates logs in a standard format, such as JSON or plaintext.

Objectives

You want to use the Amazon OpenSearch Service to:

1. Monitor application performance.

2. Identify and troubleshoot errors quickly.

3. Gain insights into user behavior and application usage patterns.

Needed actions

  1. Collect logs: Configure your web application to log relevant information, such as HTTP requests, response times, errors, and user interactions. Collect logs in a central location using a log shipper like Fluentbit or Amazon OpenSearch Service Ingestion or by sending them directly to Amazon OpenSearch Service.

  2. Index your logs in Amazon OpenSearch Service: Define an OpenSearch index mapping that corresponds to the structure of your logs. For example, if your logs are in JSON format, create an index with appropriate mappings for each field. This allows OpenSearch to efficiently index and search through the logs.

  3. Search and analyze: Enhance user experience through powerful search capabilities by using Amazon OpenSearch Service's full-text search capabilities. For instance, you can use the search capabilities to:

    1. Identify errors: Search for log entries with specific error codes or keywords to find issues quickly.

    2. Monitor performance: Analyze response times and track performance metrics over time to identify trends or anomalies.

    3. Analyze user behavior: Explore logs to understand user interactions, popular features, or potential areas for improvement.

  4. Create visualizations and dashboards: Create visualizations and dashboards using Amazon OpenSearch Service Dashboard. Dashboards provide a centralized view for monitoring various aspects of your application.

  5. Set up alerting: Use the Amazon OpenSearch Service alerting plugin to receive notifications when specific log patterns or anomalies are detected. This proactive approach helps in identifying and addressing issues before they impact users.