Details for VCN Flow Logs
Logging details for VCN Flow logs.
Resources
- Virtual Cloud Network (VCN)
-
Subnet
- VNIC
Log Categories
API value (ID): | Console (Display Name) | Description |
---|---|---|
all | Flow Logs (All records) | Traffic is logged for existing and future VNICs in the subnet. |
vcn | Flow Logs - vcn records | Traffic is logged for existing and future VNICs in all subnets in the VCN. |
subnet | Flow Logs - subnet records | Traffic is logged for existing and future VNICs in the subnet. Similar to the all category, which is logged for existing and future VNICs in the subnet. |
vnic | Flow Logs - vnic records | Traffic is logged for specific VNICs in a VCN. |
Availability
VCN Flow Logs are available in all the regions of the commercial realms. See the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Government Cloud section for information about availability in the Government Cloud realm.
Comments
Each instance in a VCN has one or more virtual network interface cards (VNICs). The Networking service uses security rules to determine what traffic is allowed through a given VNIC. Security rules can be defined using Security lists or Network security groups.
To help troubleshoot the traffic in and out of your VNICs, you can set up VCN flow logs. Flow logs record details about traffic that has been accepted or rejected based on the security rules set up for your VCN.
You can enable flow logs for a given subnet, which means traffic is logged for all existing and future VNICs in that subnet. Each flow log contains information about traffic for a single VNIC.
Certain traffic to core Oracle infrastructure services hosted on link-local (169.254.0.0/16) IP addresses don't appear in flow logs. This includes items such as VCN DNS, DHCP, and block storage. Also excluded is network management traffic, such as ARP.
For more information on VCN Flow Logs usage, see VCN Flow Logs.
Contents of a VCN Flow Log
A flow log record contains the following fields:
Property | Description | Sample Value |
---|---|---|
data.action |
Type of record. Possible values:
|
ACCEPT |
data.bytesOut | Number of bytes recorded in the capture window. | 17114 |
data.destinationAddress |
IP address of the destination, either in IPv4 dot, or IPv6 colon notation. Note: When IPv6 traffic is encountered in a customer's virtual cloud network, a flow log entry with IPV6 address values is generated, in place of the current location of IPV4 values. The source and destination addresses could be either IPv4 or IPv6, based on the configuration and traffic present in the customer’s VCN. This data is only available in regions where IPv6 support is available, and configured by the customer. |
10.0.99.4 8222:91f5:88bb:2bf0:94a:e71b:65d3:4bd7 |
data.destinationPort | IANA port number of the destination. | 36266 |
data.endTime | End time of the capture window in UNIX epoch seconds. | 1598917970 |
data.flowid | Hash of key fields (source and destination addresses, ports, and protocol). | a6a73770 |
data.packets | Number of packets recorded in the capture window. | 250 |
data.protocol | IANA protocol number. | 6 |
data.protocolName | IANA name for protocol. | TCP |
data.sourceAddress |
IP address of the source, either in IPv4 dot, or IPv6 colon notation. See the note in the data.destinationAddress description. |
123.0.0.1 1fde:9f1c:2433:4038:68fc:e0b:73f3:3b3b |
data.sourcePort | IANA port number of the source. | 443 |
data.startTime |
Start time of the capture window in Unix epoch seconds. UNIX epoch time uses a fixed point in the past to reference the current time. Every second of the current time can be expressed as a number, such as 1576090259 (which is Wednesday, December 11, 2019 6:50:59 PM GMT). Each flow log record records a one-minute interval (0 to 59 seconds) of data flow, using epoch start and end times to indicate the time that data appears during the 60-second interval for that record. Let's consider the epoch time entries that would appear for data flow during a fixed interval of 140 seconds. At five seconds past a particular minute, you open a connection to the host and begin to continuously send data over that connection for the next 140 seconds (< three minutes, three records). Epoch start and end times would appear in the log according to the following:
|
1598917969 |
data.status |
Status of data capture window. Possible values:
|
OK |
data.version | Version of the flow log record schema. | 2 |
datetime | Timestamp in milliseconds. Same as the oracle.ingestedtime field but in milliseconds. | 1598917955000 |
id | Random UUID, unique to each log entry. | abcdabcd-abcd-abcd-abcd-abcdabcdabcd |
oracle.compartmentid | OCID of the compartment the log group is in. | ocid1.compartment.oc1.<region-id>.<unique-id> |
oracle.ingestedtime | Time the log was ingested by OCI Logging. | 2020-08-31T23:53:54Z |
oracle.loggroupid | OCID of the log group. | ocid1.loggroup.oc1.<region-id>.<unique-id> |
oracle.logid | OCID of the log. | ocid1.log.oc1.<region-id>.<unique-id> |
oracle.tenantid | OCID of the tenant. | ocid1.tenancy.oc1..<region-id>.<unique-id> |
oracle.vniccompartmentocid | OCID of the compartment to which the VNIC belongs. | ocid1.compartment.oc1..<region-id>.<unique-id> |
oracle.vnicocid | OCID of the VNIC. | ocid1.vnic.oc1.<region-id>.<unique-id> |
oracle.vnicsubnetocid | OCID of the subnet to which the VNIC belongs. | ocid1.subnet.oc1.<region-id>.<unique-id> |
specversion | OCI logging schema version. | 1.0 |
time | Same as startTime. | 2020-08-31T23:52:35Z |
type | Category of log: DataEvent, QualityEvent.NoData, or QualityEvent.SkipData. | com.oraclecloud.vcn.flowlogs.DataEvent |
Limitations and Considerations
- Some traffic might not be logged during a capture window because of capacity issues or system errors. In such cases, NODATA, or SKIPDATA log status is recorded.
- Some services manage VNICs. For example, the Load Balancing service manages VNICs attached to load balancers. Flow logs for managed VNICs are captured, and identified by VNIC ID. Flow logs, however, don't include a field to indicate what service such VNICs belong to.
- For traffic over the public IP of a compute instance, flow logs records the corresponding private IP.
- Flow logs can be enabled on the subnet resource, either with category all or a subnet. No differences exist in the flows captured under these categories.
Using the CLI
See VCN Flow Logs Example for example commands.