From ee31f5b70d5d0891e35545ba55ad551554c2fcde Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: jbranchaud <jbranchaud@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2025 09:00:35 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] Add Find And Follow Server Logs as an AWS TIL

---
 README.md                          |  3 +-
 aws/find-and-follow-server-logs.md | 46 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 48 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 aws/find-and-follow-server-logs.md

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index dc4968d..98da4b5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ pairing with smart people at Hashrocket.
 
 For a steady stream of TILs, [sign up for my newsletter](https://crafty-builder-6996.ck.page/e169c61186).
 
-_1594 TILs and counting..._
+_1595 TILs and counting..._
 
 See some of the other learning resources I work on:
 - [Ruby Operator Lookup](https://www.visualmode.dev/ruby-operators)
@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ See some of the other learning resources I work on:
 ### AWS
 
 - [AWS CLI Requires Groff Executable](aws/aws-cli-requires-groff-executable.md)
+- [Find And Follow Server Logs](aws/find-and-follow-server-logs.md)
 - [Sign Up User With Email And Password](aws/sign-up-user-with-email-and-password.md)
 
 ### Brew
diff --git a/aws/find-and-follow-server-logs.md b/aws/find-and-follow-server-logs.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c6db18e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/aws/find-and-follow-server-logs.md
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+# Find And Follow Server Logs
+
+Let's say you are authenticated with the AWS CLI and have the appropriate
+CloudWatch permissions. You have a few services running in production with
+associated logs. One of those is a Rails server.
+
+We want to run `aws logs tail`, but first we check how that command works.
+
+```bash
+$ aws logs tail help
+```
+
+We see a bunch of options, but the only required one is `group_name` ("The name
+of the CloudWatch Logs group."). We may also notice the `--follow` flag which
+we'll want to use as well to keep incoming logs flowing.
+
+We need to determine the log group name for the Rails server. We can do that
+from the CLI as well (no need to dig into the web UI).
+
+```bash
+$ aws logs describe-log-groups
+
+{
+    "logGroups": [
+        {
+            "logGroupName": "/aws/codebuild/fc-rails-app-abcefg-123456",
+            "creationTime": 1739476650823,
+            "metricFilterCount": 0,
+            "arn": "arn:aws:logs:us-east-2:123456789:log-group:/aws/codebuild/fc-rails-app-abcefg-123456:*",
+            "storedBytes": 65617,
+            "logGroupClass": "STANDARD",
+            "logGroupArn": "arn:aws:logs:us-east-2:123456789:log-group:/aws/codebuild/fc-rails-app-abcefg-123456"
+        },
+        ...
+    ]
+}
+```
+
+Because the group name is descriptive enough, we can find the log group we are
+interested in: `/aws/codebuild/fc-rails-app-abcefg-123456`.
+
+Now we know what we want to `tail`.
+
+```bash
+$ aws logs tail /aws/codebuild/fc-rails-app-abcefg-123456 --follow
+```