Question

A team runs a Java application on a single Compute Engine VM. The application writes structured logs to a file at /var/log/app/output.log, but these logs do not appear in Cloud Logging. Metrics such as CPU usage are visible in Cloud Monitoring. What should you do to get the application's file-based logs into Cloud Logging with the least ongoing effort?

Accepted Answer

Install and configure the Ops Agent on the VM, adding a logging receiver and pipeline that tails /var/log/app/output.log.

Answer

Write a cron job that uses gcloud logging write to push each new line of the log file to Cloud Logging every minute.

Answer

Enable Data Access audit logs for Compute Engine in the project's IAM audit configuration.

Answer

Create a log-based metric that reads directly from the file path and exports it to Cloud Logging.