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Overview

The simplest way to send GKE pod logs to Bronto is an OpenTelemetry Collector DaemonSet that reads logs directly from each node. If you already export to Cloud Logging, you can instead bridge through Pub/Sub.

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Prerequisites

  • A Bronto account and API key (how to create one)
  • A GKE cluster with kubectl and Helm access

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Primary: OTel Collector DaemonSet

Deploy the Collector as a DaemonSet with the OpenTelemetry Helm chart. Its presets collect pod logs and add Kubernetes metadata:
values.yaml
mode: daemonset

presets:
  logsCollection:
    enabled: true
  kubernetesAttributes:
    enabled: true

config:
  exporters:
    otlphttp/brontologs:
      logs_endpoint: "https://ingestion.<REGION>.bronto.io/v1/logs"
      compression: gzip
      headers:
        x-bronto-api-key: <YOUR_API_KEY>
        x-bronto-collection: <CLUSTER_NAME>
  service:
    pipelines:
      logs:
        exporters: [otlphttp/brontologs]

helm repo add open-telemetry https://open-telemetry.github.io/opentelemetry-helm-charts
helm install otel-collector open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector -f values.yaml
Set <REGION> to eu or us. This reads pod logs from the node and bypasses Cloud Logging. For more Collector detail, see Connect OpenTelemetry Collector to Bronto.

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Alternative: Cloud Logging via Pub/Sub

If you already route logs through Cloud Logging, create a Log Router sink to a Pub/Sub topic and read it with the googlecloudpubsub receiver:
/etc/otel/config.yaml
receivers:
  googlecloudpubsub:
    project: <YOUR_GCP_PROJECT_ID>
    subscription: projects/<YOUR_GCP_PROJECT_ID>/subscriptions/bronto-gke-logs-sub

processors:
  batch:

exporters:
  otlphttp/brontologs:
    logs_endpoint: "https://ingestion.<REGION>.bronto.io/v1/logs"
    compression: gzip
    headers:
      x-bronto-api-key: <YOUR_API_KEY>
      x-bronto-collection: <CLUSTER_NAME>

service:
  pipelines:
    logs:
      receivers: [googlecloudpubsub]
      processors: [batch]
      exporters: [otlphttp/brontologs]
Don’t push Pub/Sub directly to Bronto — its message envelope isn’t parseable. The Collector unwraps it.

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What you will see in Bronto

Open Search and filter by your collection. Records carry each container’s stdout/stderr plus Kubernetes attributes (pod, namespace, node, container, labels).

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Troubleshooting

  • No logs (DaemonSet)? Confirm the DaemonSet runs on every node and the kubernetesAttributes preset’s RBAC is in place.
  • No logs (Pub/Sub)? Verify the sink is active and the Collector’s service account has roles/pubsub.subscriber.
  • For general issues, see OTel Collector troubleshooting.