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Reference: agent log lines

The agent logs in logfmt. Each line has a level, a msg, and relevant key=value pairs. Logs go to journald; tail them with:

journalctl -u atherops-otel-agent -f

Default verbosity is INFO. Set --log-level=debug or LOG_LEVEL=debug to see DEBUG lines (health-check polls and heartbeats are DEBUG to keep INFO quiet).

Line catalog

EventLevelExample line
Agent startedINFOlevel=info msg="agent started" agent_version=1.2.0 host_id=h_7f3a2b
Collector startedINFOlevel=info msg="collector started" collector_version=0.102.0 pid=3821
Collector health OKDEBUGlevel=debug msg="collector healthy" endpoint=:13133
Collector crashedERRORlevel=error msg="collector exited unexpectedly" exit_code=1 restarts=3
Collector restartingINFOlevel=info msg="restarting collector" delay=2s restarts=3
Collector crash-loopingERRORlevel=error msg="collector crash-looping (5 restarts in 60s) — pausing restart for 5m"
Config reloadedINFOlevel=info msg="config reloaded, restarting collector"
Remote config appliedINFOlevel=info msg="remote config applied" target_collector=0.103.0 changed=true
New collector version fetchedINFOlevel=info msg="collector updated" old=0.102.0 new=0.103.0
Collector upgrade aborted (bad checksum)ERRORlevel=error msg="collector upgrade aborted" err="sha256 mismatch: ..."
Registration doneINFOlevel=info msg="registration complete" host_id=h_7f3a2b
Heartbeat sentDEBUGlevel=debug msg="heartbeat sent" agent_version=1.2.0 collector_version=0.102.0
Backend unreachableWARNlevel=warn msg="backend unreachable" url=https://api.atherops.com err="connection refused" retry_in=30s
Key revoked / 401ERRORlevel=error msg="authentication failed (401) — key may be revoked" action="halting; delete /etc/atherops/credentials.json to re-register"

What to act on

  • ERROR lines mean something needs you. Match the msg to an entry in Troubleshooting.
  • WARN lines are usually transient (network blips) and self-recover on retry.
  • INFO/DEBUG are normal operation.

See also