> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bronto.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Azure Kubernetes Service Logs and Traces

> Choose the right ingestion path for pod logs, control plane logs, and distributed traces from Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters.

Azure Kubernetes Service emits pod `stdout` / `stderr` logs from your workloads and — when your applications are instrumented with OpenTelemetry — distributed traces. AKS clusters also emit control plane logs (API server, audit, scheduler, controller manager); those are exported through Azure Monitor diagnostic settings rather than collected by an in-cluster agent.

## Recommended method

[**Self-Managed OTel Collector**](./azure-otel#self-managed-opentelemetry-collector) — deploy the OpenTelemetry Collector on AKS via the OpenTelemetry Helm chart to collect pod logs and application traces and ship them over OTLP to Bronto. Run it as a DaemonSet for node-level log collection, or as a Deployment for centralised collection. Use the same `service.name` / `service.namespace` routing as your other OTel workloads (see [Data Organization](/Search-and-Visualize/Partitions)).

For **Windows node pools**, run the Collector DaemonSet on the Windows nodes (the `opentelemetry-collector-contrib` image ships the Windows receivers) to collect Windows Event Log and IIS logs — see [Collecting Windows OS Logs](./azure-windows-logs).

## Alternatives

* [**Azure Event Hub Forwarder**](./azure-client) — required path for AKS control plane / diagnostic logs, which are exported through Azure Monitor diagnostic settings to an Event Hub.

See [Ingesting Azure Data into Bronto](./azure-overview) for the full service-to-method mapping.

## References

* [Monitor Azure Kubernetes Service](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/monitor-aks)