Datadog Logs
Search, process, and archive logs with cost awareness.
Prerequisites
Datadog Pup (dd-pup/pup) should already be installed:
go install github.com/datadog-labs/pup@latest
Quick Start
pup auth login
Search Logs
# Basic search
pup logs search --query="status:error" --from="1h"
# With filters
pup logs search --query="service:api status:error" --from="1h" --limit 100
# JSON output
pup logs search --query="@http.status_code:>=500" --from="1h" --json
Search Syntax
| Query | Meaning |
| -------------------------- | ---------------- |
| error | Full-text search |
| status:error | Tag equals |
| @http.status_code:500 | Attribute equals |
| @http.status_code:>=400 | Numeric range |
| service:api AND env:prod | Boolean |
| @message:*timeout* | Wildcard |
Pipelines
Process logs before indexing:
# List pipelines
pup logs pipelines list
# Create pipeline (JSON)
pup logs pipelines create --json @pipeline.json
Common Processors
{
"name": "API Logs",
"filter": { "query": "service:api" },
"processors": [
{
"type": "grok-parser",
"name": "Parse nginx",
"source": "message",
"grok": {
"match_rules": "%{IPORHOST:client_ip} %{DATA:method} %{DATA:path} %{NUMBER:status}"
}
},
{
"type": "status-remapper",
"name": "Set severity",
"sources": ["level", "severity"]
},
{
"type": "attribute-remapper",
"name": "Remap user_id",
"sources": ["user_id"],
"target": "usr.id"
}
]
}
⚠️ Exclusion Filters (Cost Control)
Index only what matters:
{
"name": "Drop debug logs",
"filter": { "query": "status:debug" },
"is_enabled": true
}
High-Volume Exclusions
# Find noisiest log sources
pup logs search --query="*" --from="1h" --json | jq 'group_by(.service) | map({service: .[0].service, count: length}) | sort_by(-.count)[:10]'
| Exclude | Query |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------- |
| Health checks | @http.url:"/health" OR @http.url:"/ready" |
| Debug logs | status:debug |
| Static assets | @http.url:*.css OR @http.url:*.js |
| Heartbeats | @message:*heartbeat* |
Archives
Store logs cheaply for compliance:
# List archives
pup logs archives list
# Archive config (S3 example)
{
"name": "compliance-archive",
"query": "*",
"destination": {
"type": "s3",
"bucket": "my-logs-archive",
"path": "/datadog"
},
"rehydration_tags": ["team:platform"]
}
Rehydrate (Restore)
# Rehydrate archived logs
pup logs rehydrate create \
--archive-id abc123 \
--from "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z" \
--to "2024-01-02T00:00:00Z" \
--query "service:api status:error"
Log-Based Metrics
Create metrics from logs (cheaper than indexing):
# Count errors per service
pup logs metrics create \
--name "api.errors.count" \
--query "service:api status:error" \
--group-by "endpoint"
⚠️ Cardinality warning: Group by bounded values only.
Sensitive Data
Scrubbing Rules
{
"type": "hash-remapper",
"name": "Hash emails",
"sources": ["email", "@user.email"]
}
Never Log
# In your app - sanitize before sending
import re
def sanitize_log(message: str) -> str:
# Remove credit cards
message = re.sub(r'\b\d{4}[-\s]?\d{4}[-\s]?\d{4}[-\s]?\d{4}\b', '[REDACTED]', message)
# Remove SSNs
message = re.sub(r'\b\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}\b', '[REDACTED]', message)
return message
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Fix | | ------------------ | ------------------------------ | | Logs not appearing | Check agent, pipeline filters | | High costs | Add exclusion filters | | Search slow | Narrow time range, use indexes | | Missing attributes | Check grok parser |