Forwarding AWS CloudWatch Logs to Sentry via the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP)

This guide shows you how to collect AWS CloudWatch logs and forward them to Sentry using the OpenTelemetry Collector with the AWS CloudWatch Receiver.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

• AWS credentials configured with permissions to read CloudWatch logs
• A Sentry project to send data to

Step 1: Install the OpenTelemetry Collector

The AWS CloudWatch Receiver is included in the OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib distribution. You'll need to download and install this version, as the standard otelcol binary does not include the AWS CloudWatch Receiver.

Download the latest otelcol-contrib binary from the OpenTelemetry Collector releases page.

Step 2: Configure AWS Credentials

The AWS CloudWatch Receiver uses the AWS SDK for authentication, which supports multiple methods including credentials files and EC2 instance metadata (IMDS).

Using an AWS Credentials File

Configure your AWS credentials using the AWS CLI:

aws configure

This creates a credentials file at ~/.aws/credentials with your access key and secret.

Using IAM Role (EC2)

For EC2 environments, attach an IAM role with the CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess policy to your instance.

Required IAM Permissions

Your AWS credentials need the following permissions:

• logs:DescribeLogGroups
• logs:DescribeLogStreams
• logs:GetLogEvents

Step 3: Get Your Sentry OTLP Credentials

You'll need your Sentry OTLP endpoint and authentication header. These can be found in your Sentry Project Settings under Client Keys (DSN) > OpenTelemetry (OTLP).

Logs Endpoint

___OTLP_LOGS_URL___

Authentication Header

x-sentry-auth: sentry sentry_key=___PUBLIC_KEY___

Step 4: Configure the Collector

Create a configuration file with the AWS CloudWatch Receiver and the OTLP HTTP exporter configured to send logs to Sentry.

For additional configuration options, see the AWS CloudWatch Receiver Documentation.

Collect All Log Groups (Autodiscover)

This configuration automatically discovers and collects logs from all CloudWatch log groups:

receivers:
  awscloudwatch:
    region: us-east-1
    logs:
      poll_interval: 1m

processors:
  batch:
    send_batch_size: 1024
    send_batch_max_size: 2048
    timeout: "1s"

exporters:
  otlphttp/sentry:
    logs_endpoint: ___OTLP_LOGS_URL___
    headers:
      x-sentry-auth: "sentry sentry_key=___PUBLIC_KEY___"
    compression: gzip
    encoding: proto

service:
  pipelines:
    logs:
      receivers:
        - awscloudwatch
      processors:
        - batch
      exporters:
        - otlphttp/sentry

Collect Specific Log Groups by Prefix

This configuration discovers log groups matching a specific prefix, useful for collecting logs from specific AWS services like EKS or Lambda:

receivers:
  awscloudwatch:
    region: us-east-1
    logs:
      poll_interval: 1m
      groups:
        autodiscover:
          limit: 100
          prefix: /aws/lambda/

processors:
  batch:
    send_batch_size: 1024
    send_batch_max_size: 2048
    timeout: "1s"

exporters:
  otlphttp/sentry:
    logs_endpoint: ___OTLP_LOGS_URL___
    headers:
      x-sentry-auth: "sentry sentry_key=___PUBLIC_KEY___"
    compression: gzip
    encoding: proto

service:
  pipelines:
    logs:
      receivers:
        - awscloudwatch
      processors:
        - batch
      exporters:
        - otlphttp/sentry

Collect Named Log Groups

This configuration collects logs from specific, named log groups:

receivers:
  awscloudwatch:
    region: us-east-1
    logs:
      poll_interval: 1m
      groups:
        named:
          /aws/lambda/my-function:
          /aws/eks/my-cluster/cluster:

processors:
  batch:
    send_batch_size: 1024
    send_batch_max_size: 2048
    timeout: "1s"

exporters:
  otlphttp/sentry:
    logs_endpoint: ___OTLP_LOGS_URL___
    headers:
      x-sentry-auth: "sentry sentry_key=___PUBLIC_KEY___"
    compression: gzip
    encoding: proto

service:
  pipelines:
    logs:
      receivers:
        - awscloudwatch
      processors:
        - batch
      exporters:
        - otlphttp/sentry

Troubleshooting

• Verify your AWS credentials are correctly configured and have the required permissions
• Ensure the specified AWS region matches where your CloudWatch log groups are located
• Check that the log group names or prefixes match existing CloudWatch log groups

Additional Resources

• AWS CloudWatch Receiver Documentation
• AWS SDK Authentication
• Sentry OpenTelemetry Collector Configuration
• Sentry Logs