> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.openg2p.org/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.openg2p.org/platform/platform-services/system-monitoring.md).

# System Monitoring

OpenG2P ships a built-in observability stack for **logs and alerting** across the whole cluster, based on **OpenTelemetry + Grafana Loki**, viewed through the **Grafana** that already comes with the platform.

This page covers the architecture (concepts only). For tasks, see:

* [Setup & Configuration](/platform/platform-services/system-monitoring/setup-and-configuration.md) — what gets installed and the settings you can tune.
* [Dashboards & Viewing Logs](/platform/platform-services/system-monitoring/dashboards.md) — the ready-made dashboard and how to query logs.
* [Operations Guide](/platform/platform-services/system-monitoring/operations.md) — storage, retention, alerting and troubleshooting.

## Architecture

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    pods[All pods\nstdout/stderr] --> agent[OTel Collector\nagent · DaemonSet]
    agent --> gw[OTel Collector\ngateway · Deployment]
    gw --> loki[(Grafana Loki)]
    loki --- minio[(MinIO\nobject store)]
    loki --> grafana[Grafana]
    prom[(Prometheus)] --> grafana
    loki --> am[Alertmanager]
    prom --> am
    am --> ch[Email / Chat / Webhook]
```

**Pipeline (OTel → Loki → Grafana):**

1. An **OTel Collector agent** runs on every node, tails each pod's container logs, enriches them with Kubernetes metadata (`k8s_namespace_name`, `k8s_pod_name`, `k8s_container_name`, `service_name`), and **redacts PII** before anything leaves the node.
2. The agent forwards to an **OTel Collector gateway**, which batches and pushes to **Loki**.
3. **Loki** stores the logs and is the query backend.
4. **Grafana** (the existing platform Grafana) reads Loki as a datasource for viewing and dashboards.

Alerting is shared with the existing metrics stack: **Loki's ruler** (log-based alerts) and **Prometheus** (resource/health alerts) both send to the **same Alertmanager**.

## What is collected & where it is stored

* **Scope:** logs from **all pods in all namespaces** — far more than the previous setup.
* **Storage:** logs live in **Loki**, whose chunks are kept in a small **MinIO** object store dedicated to logging (installed alongside Loki, internal-only). Default retention is **7 days**. See [Operations Guide](/platform/platform-services/system-monitoring/operations.md#storage--retention).
* **Privacy:** PII is redacted in the pipeline before storage.

## Components

| Component                           | Role                               | Namespace                  |
| ----------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | -------------------------- |
| OTel Collector agent (DaemonSet)    | Collect + enrich + redact pod logs | `observability`            |
| OTel Collector gateway (Deployment) | Batch + forward to Loki            | `observability`            |
| Grafana Loki                        | Log store & query engine           | `observability`            |
| MinIO                               | Object store for Loki chunks       | `observability`            |
| Grafana                             | Viewing & dashboards               | `cattle-monitoring-system` |
| Alertmanager                        | Alert routing (logs + metrics)     | `cattle-monitoring-system` |

> This stack replaces the older Fluentd + OpenSearch logging setup. OpenSearch is no longer used for logs.


---

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