Changing the Quarkus loggers level from Unleash
Introduction
I’m part of a Red Hat team that is responsible for a dozen of Quarkus apps which run in Red Hat OpenShift, with multiple pods each. While these apps all have different purposes, they also share a common fate: something will go wrong eventually. When it does, we’ll need to understand and fix the problem as fast as possible. Lowering the level of a logger is often helpful, but our apps are containerized and updating an environment variable to change the logger level isn’t always as easy at it sounds. We also don’t want to expose REST endpoints in most of our apps, so extensions such as quarkus-logging-manager are not an option.
Our apps have another thing in common: they depend on quarkus-unleash because we’re fetching our feature toggles from Unleash. When I read Zero downtime log level changes using Unleash from Aman Jain, it made me want to try the same thing with Quarkus. I’ll show you below how I successfully did that.
|
This blog post contains incremental code snippets. Each one of them is an enhanced version of the previous one and addresses a specific technical challenge. |
Changing a logger level programmatically
Let’s start with the obvious requirement: how to change the level of a logger programmatically with Quarkus.
|
As described in the Logging configuration guide, Quarkus supports multiple logging APIs.
I only tested the following code with the JBoss Logging API as well as the |
The JBoss Logging API doesn’t offer a way to change the level of a logger programmatically, so we need the help of the java.util.logging API to do it:
import java.util.logging.Level; (1)
import java.util.logging.Logger; (1)
public class LogLevelManager {
public void setLoggerLevel(String loggerName, String levelName) {
Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(loggerName); (2)
Level level = Level.parse(levelName); (3)
logger.setLevel(level);
}
}| 1 | Make sure you’re importing classes from the java.util.logging package. |
| 2 | Any category as described in the Logging configuration guide will work as the logger name. |
| 3 | Level#parse will throw exceptions if the level name is not valid. Please handle them carefully. |
Setting a logger level from Unleash
So, we’re able to set a logger level programmatically.
Now, how do we feed the LogLevelManager#setLoggerLevel method with data from Unleash?
Unleash variants to the rescue
In Unleash, the feature toggles can be associated with variants which are meant to facilitate A/B testing and experimentation.
Each variant is defined with a set of properties, including the optional payload that can be used to pass JSON data from Unleash to our Quarkus app.
That’s how we’ll set the level of our Quarkus app loggers:
Retrieving the variant payload
Now, let’s see how we’ll retrieve from the Quarkus app the variant payload defined in Unleash.
First, the Quarkus app needs to depend on the quarkus-unleash extension.
We’ll also use a very simple data structure to deserialize the payload with Jackson:
public class LogConfig {
public String category;
public String level;
}Then, here’s an update of the LogLevelManager class to make it get the variant from Unleash, deserialize the payload and change the level of a series of loggers:
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonProcessingException;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import io.getunleash.Unleash;
import io.getunleash.Variant;
import io.getunleash.variant.Payload;
import io.quarkus.logging.Log;
import jakarta.enterprise.context.ApplicationScoped;
import jakarta.inject.Inject;
import java.util.Optional;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
@ApplicationScoped (1)
public class LogLevelManager {
private static final String UNLEASH_TOGGLE_NAME = "my-app.log-levels";
@Inject
Unleash unleash; (2)
@Inject
ObjectMapper objectMapper;
public void updateLoggersLevel() {
for (LogConfig logConfig : getLogConfigs()) {
try {
setLoggerLevel(logConfig.category, logConfig.level);
} catch (Exception e) {
Log.error("Could not the set level of a logger", e);
}
}
}
private LogConfig[] getLogConfigs() {
Variant variant = unleash.getVariant(UNLEASH_TOGGLE_NAME); (3)
if (variant.isEnabled()) { (4)
Optional<Payload> payload = variant.getPayload();
if (payload.isPresent() && payload.get().getType().equals("json") && payload.get().getValue() != null) {
try {
return objectMapper.readValue(payload.get().getValue(), LogConfig[].class);
} catch (JsonProcessingException e) {
Log.error("Variant payload deserialization failed", e);
}
}
}
return new LogConfig[0]; (5)
}
private void setLoggerLevel(String loggerName, String levelName) {
Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(loggerName);
Level currentLevel = logger.getLevel();
Level newLevel = Level.parse(levelName);
if (!newLevel.equals(currentLevel)) {
logger.setLevel(newLevel);
}
}
}| 1 | From now on, LogLevelManager is an @ApplicationScoped bean. |
| 2 | Unleash is an @ApplicationScoped bean produced by the quarkus-unleash extension. |
| 3 | Be careful about the argument passed to Unleash#getVariant: it has to be the toggle name, not the variant name. |
| 4 | variant.isEnabled() will return false if the toggle is disabled in Unleash or if the toggle has no variants. |
| 5 | If the method is unable to find a variant payload or if it fails to deserialize that payload for any reasons, an empty LogConfig array will be returned. |
We can now retrieve the loggers configuration from Unleash, that’s great!
But that new LogLevelManager#updateLoggerslevel method isn’t used yet.
Where should it be used from, and when?
We need that method to be executed as soon as the loggers configuration is changed in Unleash.
So, its execution has to be periodically scheduled somehow.
We could make the method @Scheduled with the quarkus-scheduler extension, but there is a better approach thanks to the Unleash SDK.
Let’s jump to the next section.
The Subscriber API from Unleash
The Unleash Client SDK for Java comes with a feature that will be very helpful here: the Subscriber API.
The UnleashSubscriber interface can indeed be implemented to subscribe to various Unleash events, including FeatureToggleResponse which is emitted when the Unleash client fetches toggles from the server.
Using the Subscriber API with the quarkus-unleash extension is extremely simple.
UnleashSubscriber needs to be implemented in a CDI bean and that’s it!
The extension will pass the bean to the Unleash client builder automatically.
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonProcessingException;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import io.getunleash.Unleash;
import io.getunleash.Variant;
import io.getunleash.event.UnleashSubscriber;
import io.getunleash.repository.FeatureToggleResponse;
import io.getunleash.variant.Payload;
import io.quarkus.logging.Log;
import jakarta.enterprise.context.ApplicationScoped;
import jakarta.inject.Inject;
import java.util.Optional;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import static io.getunleash.repository.FeatureToggleResponse.Status.CHANGED;
@ApplicationScoped
public class LogLevelManager implements UnleashSubscriber { (1)
private static final String UNLEASH_TOGGLE_NAME = "my-app.log-levels";
@Inject
Unleash unleash;
@Inject
ObjectMapper objectMapper;
@Override
public void togglesFetched(FeatureToggleResponse toggleResponse) { (2)
if (toggleResponse.getStatus() == CHANGED) { (3)
updateLoggersLevel();
}
}
// Unchanged, except for the access modifier.
private void updateLoggersLevel() {
for (LogConfig logConfig : getLogConfigs()) {
try {
setLoggerLevel(logConfig.category, logConfig.level);
} catch (Exception e) {
Log.error("Could not the set level of a logger", e);
}
}
}
// Unchanged.
private LogConfig[] getLogConfigs() {
Variant variant = unleash.getVariant(UNLEASH_TOGGLE_NAME);
if (variant.isEnabled()) {
Optional<Payload> payload = variant.getPayload();
if (payload.isPresent() && payload.get().getType().equals("json") && payload.get().getValue() != null) {
try {
return objectMapper.readValue(payload.get().getValue(), LogConfig[].class);
} catch (JsonProcessingException e) {
Log.error("Variant payload deserialization failed", e);
}
}
}
return new LogConfig[0];
}
// Unchanged.
private void setLoggerLevel(String loggerName, String levelName) {
Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(loggerName);
Level currentLevel = logger.getLevel();
Level newLevel = Level.parse(levelName);
if (!newLevel.equals(currentLevel)) {
logger.setLevel(newLevel);
}
}
}| 1 | We’re still using the same LogLevelManager class, but now it’s implementing UnleashSubscriber. |
| 2 | This method is invoked every time the Unleash client fetches toggles from the server. |
| 3 | We’ll update the loggers level only if the toggles changed server-side. |
Okay, the LogLevelManager#updateLoggerslevel method is now automatically invoked whenever the client fetches new data from the server.
But what about scheduling that periodically?
Well, the Unleash client already relies on an internal scheduled executor to fetch the toggles.
Therefore, we don’t need to bother scheduling anything in our app.
It will work automagically!
One variant to rule them all
At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that my team is responsible for a dozen of Quarkus apps. Each app runs with a varying number of replicas. Let’s simplify and consider all of them as hosts.
We have dozens of hosts and yet only one Unleash variant to manage the loggers level for all of them. Here’s how I implemented that.
First, the data structure of the variant payload needs a small addition:
public class LogConfig {
public String hostName; (1)
public String category;
public String level;
}| 1 | That’s new! |
Now, we can introduce a host filtering capability in LogLevelManager:
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonProcessingException;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import io.getunleash.Unleash;
import io.getunleash.Variant;
import io.getunleash.event.UnleashSubscriber;
import io.getunleash.repository.FeatureToggleResponse;
import io.getunleash.variant.Payload;
import io.quarkus.logging.Log;
import jakarta.enterprise.context.ApplicationScoped;
import jakarta.inject.Inject;
import org.eclipse.microprofile.config.inject.ConfigProperty;
import java.util.Optional;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import static io.getunleash.repository.FeatureToggleResponse.Status.CHANGED;
@ApplicationScoped
public class LogLevelManager implements UnleashSubscriber {
private static final String UNLEASH_TOGGLE_NAME = "my-app.log-levels";
@ConfigProperty(name = "host-name", defaultValue = "localhost") (1)
String hostName;
@Inject
Unleash unleash;
@Inject
ObjectMapper objectMapper;
// Unchanged.
@Override
public void togglesFetched(FeatureToggleResponse toggleResponse) {
if (toggleResponse.getStatus() == CHANGED) {
updateLoggersLevel();
}
}
private void updateLoggersLevel() {
for (LogConfig logConfig : getLogConfigs()) {
try {
if (shouldThisHostBeUpdated(logConfig)) { (2)
setLoggerLevel(logConfig.category, logConfig.level);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
Log.error("Could not the set level of a logger", e);
}
}
}
// Unchanged.
private LogConfig[] getLogConfigs() {
Variant variant = unleash.getVariant(UNLEASH_TOGGLE_NAME);
if (variant.isEnabled()) {
Optional<Payload> payload = variant.getPayload();
if (payload.isPresent() && payload.get().getType().equals("json") && payload.get().getValue() != null) {
try {
return objectMapper.readValue(payload.get().getValue(), LogConfig[].class);
} catch (JsonProcessingException e) {
Log.error("Variant payload deserialization failed", e);
}
}
}
return new LogConfig[0];
}
private boolean shouldThisHostBeUpdated(LogConfig logConfig) {
if (logConfig.hostName == null) {
return true;
}
if (logConfig.hostName.endsWith("*")) { (3)
return hostName.startsWith(logConfig.hostName.substring(0, logConfig.hostName.length() - 1));
} else {
return hostName.equals(logConfig.hostName);
}
}
// Unchanged.
private void setLoggerLevel(String loggerName, String levelName) {
Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(loggerName);
Level currentLevel = logger.getLevel();
Level newLevel = Level.parse(levelName);
if (!newLevel.equals(currentLevel)) {
logger.setLevel(newLevel);
}
}
}| 1 | In OpenShift, we’re passing the generated pod name through the HOST_NAME environment variable. |
| 2 | That’s new! |
| 3 | This block is used to filter hosts based on a host name prefix. That’s enough for our use case, but a regular expression could be used for finer filtering. |
Here’s how the variant payload may look like after these changes:
[
{
"hostName": "unstable-service-7dbbcb4cc-9d9hl",
"category": "io.quarkus.arc",
"level": "FINE"
},
{
"hostName": "awesome-app*",
"category": "org.acme.SomeService",
"level": "WARNING"
},
{
"category": "org.apache.kafka.clients",
"level": "FINER"
}
]In that payload:
-
the first entry will affect a specific host:
unstable-service-7dbbcb4cc-9d9hl -
the second entry will affect all hosts whose name starts with
awesome-app -
the third entry will affect all hosts regardless of their names
Reverting changes automatically
Changing the level of loggers through an Unleash variant should be a temporary action, mostly for troubleshooting purposes. This means we need to revert the level of the loggers eventually when the troubleshooting is over. Doing so by hand would be painful, so let’s see how we can automate that.
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonProcessingException;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import io.getunleash.Unleash;
import io.getunleash.Variant;
import io.getunleash.event.UnleashSubscriber;
import io.getunleash.repository.FeatureToggleResponse;
import io.getunleash.variant.Payload;
import io.quarkus.logging.Log;
import jakarta.enterprise.context.ApplicationScoped;
import jakarta.inject.Inject;
import org.eclipse.microprofile.config.inject.ConfigProperty;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Optional;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import static io.getunleash.repository.FeatureToggleResponse.Status.CHANGED;
import static java.util.stream.Collectors.toSet;
@ApplicationScoped
public class LogLevelManager implements UnleashSubscriber {
private static final String UNLEASH_TOGGLE_NAME = "my-app.log-levels";
@ConfigProperty(name = "host-name", defaultValue = "localhost")
String hostName;
@Inject
Unleash unleash;
@Inject
ObjectMapper objectMapper;
private final Map<String, Level> originalLoggerLevels = new ConcurrentHashMap<>();
// Unchanged.
@Override
public void togglesFetched(FeatureToggleResponse toggleResponse) {
if (toggleResponse.getStatus() == CHANGED) {
updateLoggersLevel();
}
}
public void updateLoggersLevel() {
LogConfig[] logConfigs = getLogConfigs();
for (LogConfig logConfig : logConfigs) {
try {
if (shouldThisHostBeUpdated(logConfig)) {
setLoggerLevel(logConfig.category, logConfig.level);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
Log.error("Could not the set level of a logger", e);
}
}
revertLoggersLevel(logConfigs); (1)
}
// Unchanged.
private LogConfig[] getLogConfigs() {
Variant variant = unleash.getVariant(UNLEASH_TOGGLE_NAME);
if (variant.isEnabled()) {
Optional<Payload> payload = variant.getPayload();
if (payload.isPresent() && payload.get().getType().equals("json") && payload.get().getValue() != null) {
try {
return objectMapper.readValue(payload.get().getValue(), LogConfig[].class);
} catch (JsonProcessingException e) {
Log.error("Variant payload deserialization failed", e);
}
}
}
return new LogConfig[0];
}
// Unchanged.
private boolean shouldThisHostBeUpdated(LogConfig logConfig) {
if (logConfig.hostName == null) {
return true;
}
if (logConfig.hostName.endsWith("*")) {
return hostName.startsWith(logConfig.hostName.substring(0, logConfig.hostName.length() - 1));
} else {
return hostName.equals(logConfig.hostName);
}
}
private void setLoggerLevel(String loggerName, String levelName) {
Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(loggerName);
Level currentLevel = logger.getLevel();
Level newLevel = Level.parse(levelName);
if (!newLevel.equals(currentLevel)) {
originalLoggerLevels.putIfAbsent(loggerName, currentLevel); (2)
logger.setLevel(newLevel);
}
}
private void revertLoggersLevel(LogConfig[] logConfigs) {
if (logConfigs.length == 0) {
originalLoggerLevels.forEach(this::revertLoggerLevel);
originalLoggerLevels.clear();
} else {
Set<String> knownLoggers = Arrays.stream(logConfigs)
.filter(this::shouldThisHostBeUpdated)
.map(logConfig -> logConfig.category)
.collect(toSet());
originalLoggerLevels.entrySet().removeIf(entry -> {
boolean remove = !knownLoggers.contains(entry.getKey());
if (remove) {
revertLoggerLevel(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue()); (3)
}
return remove;
});
}
}
private void revertLoggerLevel(String loggerName, Level originalLevel) {
Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(loggerName);
logger.setLevel(originalLevel); (4)
}
}| 1 | That’s new! |
| 2 | The original logger level is now stored in memory and will be used when the changes are eventually reverted. |
| 3 | If the level of a logger was previously modified from Unleash and that logger is no longer part of the latest Unleash variant payload, its level will be reverted to the original value. |
| 4 | If the original level is null, then the logger will inherit the level from its parent logger. |
Conclusion
The LogLevelManager class is still far from perfect, but it finally meets the requirements of this blog post:
-
it changes the level of Quarkus loggers automatically and immediately, based on a variant payload from Unleash
-
it automatically reverts all changes to the previous loggers configuration when needed
Thanks for reading this post! I hope it will help you troubleshoot your applications faster.
