Log Groups vs. Log Streams

 

In log management, particularly in cloud environments like AWS CloudWatch Logs, log groups and log streams are key concepts for organizing and storing logs.

Here's the difference:

 Log Groups vs. Log Streams

Feature	Log Group		Log Stream
Definition		A logical container for related logs.	A sequence of log events from a single source.
Hierarchy		Parent-level organization for logs.	Child entity within a log group.
Scope		Groups logs by application, environment, or service.	Contains logs from a specific instance or container.
Example Usage		App/Dev, App/Staging, App/Prod	EC2-twtech-instance-1.log, Pod-abc123.log
Retention		Retention policies apply at this level.	Inherits retention settings from the log group.
Use Case		Organizing logs by application, service, or environment.	Tracking logs from a specific server, container, or Lambda function.

 

 How They Work Together

1. Log Groups act as a container for related logs.
• Example: A microservices application may have log groups like:
• ECommerceApp/twtech-Frontend
• ECommerceApp/twtech-Backend
• ECommerceApp/twtech-Database
2. Log Streams store actual logs from a specific instance, container, or execution.
• Example: The ECommerceApp/Backend log group may have multiple log streams, like:
• backend-service-twtech-instance-1
• backend-service-twtech-instance-2
• backend-service-twtech-instance-3

 When to Use What?

• Log Groups → Use for organizing logs by service, environment, or application.
• Log Streams → Use for tracking logs from a specific server, container, or function execution.

NB:

Prometheus and Grafana handle metrics, alerts and dashboards.