Log Architecture & Structural Overview

The Kong API Gateway Access Log Parser is an essential telemetry stream within the Web Servers & Reverse Proxies ecosystem. Parse Kong Enterprise API Gateway access logs with upstream routing latencies and consumer IDs.

This schema defines a structure of 11 extracted attributes, including 4 numeric metrics and 7 string dimensions. In production observability architectures, these tokens provide high-cardinality indexing keys for telemetry pipelines before shipping to storage backends such as ClickHouse, Elasticsearch, Amazon S3, or Datadog.

Raw Telemetry Ingestion Profile

A typical raw event line for kong-api-gateway averages 122 bytes across 11 tokens. Modern collectors such as Fluent Bit and Vector require zero-backtracking regular expressions to avoid CPU spikes during traffic surges.

Extracted Field Schema & Data Types

The transpiled Grok pattern extracts the following schema fields from each raw event line. Data collectors cast these values according to the typed mappings below.

Field Name	Inferred Type	Description & Collector Semantics
client_ip	string	Client IP address.
timestamp	string	Request completion time.
method	string	HTTP method.
path	string	URI path.
http_version	string	HTTP version.
status	integer	HTTP status code.
bytes	integer	Response byte size.
consumer_id	string	Kong authenticated consumer ID or '-'.
route_id	string	Kong route entity identifier.
kong_latency	float	Time spent in Kong gateway in milliseconds.
upstream_latency	float	Time spent in backend service in milliseconds.

Common Regex Traps & Production Edge Cases

Engineers frequently encounter ingestion failures or pipeline drops due to subtle variations in real-world event logs. Watch out for these verified pitfalls:

1Anonymous requests show consumer_id as '-'.

2kong_latency represents plugin overhead; if this spikes, check custom Lua plugins.

Production Collector Setup & Configurations

Pre-configured parser definitions ready to be dropped into your infrastructure repository.

Fluent Bit (parsers.conf)

Format: regex

# ==============================================================================
# Fluent Bit Parser Configuration (parsers.conf)
# ==============================================================================
[PARSER]
    Name        logpipeline_parser
    Format      regex
    Regex       ^(?<client_ip>(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){7}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,7}:|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,6}:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,5}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,2}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,4}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,3}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,3}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,2}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,5}|[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:(?:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,6})|:(?:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,7}|:)|fe80:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{0,4}){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]+|::(?:ffff(?::0{1,4})?:)?(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,4}:(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])))|(?:(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))))|(?:\b(?:[0-9A-Za-z][0-9A-Za-z-]{0,62})(?:\.(?:[0-9A-Za-z][0-9A-Za-z-]{0,62}))*(?:\.?|\b)))) \[(?<timestamp>(?:(?:(?:0[1-9])|(?:[12][0-9])|(?:3[01])|[1-9]))/(?:\b(?:Jan(?:uary)?|Feb(?:ruary)?|Mar(?:ch)?|Apr(?:il)?|May|Jun(?:e)?|Jul(?:y)?|Aug(?:ust)?|Sep(?:tember)?|Oct(?:ober)?|Nov(?:ember)?|Dec(?:ember)?)\b)/(?:\b[0-9]{4}\b):(?:(?:(?:(?:2[0123]|[01]?[0-9])):(?:(?:[0-5][0-9]))(?::(?:(?:(?:[0-5]?[0-9]|60)(?:[:.,][0-9]+)?))))) (?:(?:Z|[+-](?:(?:2[0123]|[01]?[0-9]))(?::?(?:(?:[0-5][0-9]))))))\] "(?<method>\b\w+\b) (?<path>\S+) HTTP/(?<http_version>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?|\.[0-9]+)))))" (?<status>(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+))) (?<bytes>(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+))) "(?<consumer_id>.*?)" "(?<route_id>.*?)" (?<kong_latency>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?|\.[0-9]+))))) (?<upstream_latency>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?|\.[0-9]+)))))$
    Time_Key    timestamp
    Time_Format %Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z
    Types       status:integer bytes:integer kong_latency:float upstream_latency:float

# ==============================================================================
# Fluent Bit Pipeline Filter (fluent-bit.conf)
# ==============================================================================
[FILTER]
    Name         parser
    Match        *
    Key_Name     log
    Parser       logpipeline_parser
    Reserve_Data On

Vector.dev (Remap VRL)

parse_regex!

# ==============================================================================
# Vector.dev Remap Language (VRL) Transform
# Use inside a 'remap' transform in vector.yaml
# ==============================================================================
.parsed, err = parse_regex(.message, r'^(?<client_ip>(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){7}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,7}:|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,6}:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,5}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,2}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,4}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,3}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,3}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,2}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,5}|[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:(?:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,6})|:(?:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,7}|:)|fe80:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{0,4}){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]+|::(?:ffff(?::0{1,4})?:)?(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,4}:(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])))|(?:(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))))|(?:\b(?:[0-9A-Za-z][0-9A-Za-z-]{0,62})(?:\.(?:[0-9A-Za-z][0-9A-Za-z-]{0,62}))*(?:\.?|\b)))) \[(?<timestamp>(?:(?:(?:0[1-9])|(?:[12][0-9])|(?:3[01])|[1-9]))/(?:\b(?:Jan(?:uary)?|Feb(?:ruary)?|Mar(?:ch)?|Apr(?:il)?|May|Jun(?:e)?|Jul(?:y)?|Aug(?:ust)?|Sep(?:tember)?|Oct(?:ober)?|Nov(?:ember)?|Dec(?:ember)?)\b)/(?:\b[0-9]{4}\b):(?:(?:(?:(?:2[0123]|[01]?[0-9])):(?:(?:[0-5][0-9]))(?::(?:(?:(?:[0-5]?[0-9]|60)(?:[:.,][0-9]+)?))))) (?:(?:Z|[+-](?:(?:2[0123]|[01]?[0-9]))(?::?(?:(?:[0-5][0-9]))))))\] "(?<method>\b\w+\b) (?<path>\S+) HTTP/(?<http_version>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?|\.[0-9]+)))))" (?<status>(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+))) (?<bytes>(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+))) "(?<consumer_id>.*?)" "(?<route_id>.*?)" (?<kong_latency>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?|\.[0-9]+))))) (?<upstream_latency>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?|\.[0-9]+)))))$')

if err == null {
    . = merge(., .parsed)
    del(.parsed)

    # Type coercions
    .status = to_int!(.status)
    .bytes = to_int!(.bytes)
    .kong_latency = to_float!(.kong_latency)
    .upstream_latency = to_float!(.upstream_latency)

} else {
    log("LogPipeline parsing warning: " + err, level: "warn")
}

# ==============================================================================
# vector.yaml Pipeline Component
# ==============================================================================
transforms:
  parse_logs:
    type: remap
    inputs: ["source_logs"]
    source: |
      .parsed, err = parse_regex(.message, r'^(?<client_ip>(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){7}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,7}:|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,6}:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,5}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,2}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,4}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,3}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,3}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,2}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,5}|[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:(?:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,6})|:(?:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,7}|:)|fe80:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{0,4}){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]+|::(?:ffff(?::0{1,4})?:)?(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,4}:(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])))|(?:(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))))|(?:\b(?:[0-9A-Za-z][0-9A-Za-z-]{0,62})(?:\.(?:[0-9A-Za-z][0-9A-Za-z-]{0,62}))*(?:\.?|\b)))) \[(?<timestamp>(?:(?:(?:0[1-9])|(?:[12][0-9])|(?:3[01])|[1-9]))/(?:\b(?:Jan(?:uary)?|Feb(?:ruary)?|Mar(?:ch)?|Apr(?:il)?|May|Jun(?:e)?|Jul(?:y)?|Aug(?:ust)?|Sep(?:tember)?|Oct(?:ober)?|Nov(?:ember)?|Dec(?:ember)?)\b)/(?:\b[0-9]{4}\b):(?:(?:(?:(?:2[0123]|[01]?[0-9])):(?:(?:[0-5][0-9]))(?::(?:(?:(?:[0-5]?[0-9]|60)(?:[:.,][0-9]+)?))))) (?:(?:Z|[+-](?:(?:2[0123]|[01]?[0-9]))(?::?(?:(?:[0-5][0-9]))))))\] "(?<method>\b\w+\b) (?<path>\S+) HTTP/(?<http_version>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?|\.[0-9]+)))))" (?<status>(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+))) (?<bytes>(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+))) "(?<consumer_id>.*?)" "(?<route_id>.*?)" (?<kong_latency>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?|\.[0-9]+))))) (?<upstream_latency>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?|\.[0-9]+)))))$')
      if err == null {
        . = merge(., .parsed)
        del(.parsed)
      }

Datadog Log Pipeline Grok Parser

match_rules

# ==============================================================================
# Datadog Log Processing Pipeline Grok Parser
# Navigate to: Logs -> Configuration -> Pipelines -> Add Processor -> Grok Parser
# ==============================================================================

# Match Rule:
rule %{IPORHOST:client_ip} \[%{HTTPDATE:timestamp}\] "%{WORD:method} %{NOTSPACE:path} HTTP/%{NUMBER:http_version}" %{INT:status} %{INT:bytes} "%{DATA:consumer_id}" "%{DATA:route_id}" %{NUMBER:kong_latency} %{NUMBER:upstream_latency}

# Complete Datadog Pipeline Processor JSON:
{
  "type": "grok-parser",
  "name": "LogPipeline Grok Parser",
  "is_enabled": true,
  "source": "message",
  "samples": [],
  "grok": {
    "match_rules": "rule %{IPORHOST:client_ip} \\[%{HTTPDATE:timestamp}\\] \"%{WORD:method} %{NOTSPACE:path} HTTP/%{NUMBER:http_version}\" %{INT:status} %{INT:bytes} \"%{DATA:consumer_id}\" \"%{DATA:route_id}\" %{NUMBER:kong_latency} %{NUMBER:upstream_latency}",
    "support_rules": ""
  }
}

# Target Fields Created:
# client_ip (string), timestamp (string), method (string), path (string), http_version (string), status (integer), bytes (integer), consumer_id (string), route_id (string), kong_latency (float), upstream_latency (float)

OpenTelemetry Collector (transform processor)

regex_parser

# ==============================================================================
# OpenTelemetry Collector Configuration (otel-collector-config.yaml)
# Option 1: Filelog Receiver with regex_parser Operator
# ==============================================================================
receivers:
  filelog:
    include: [ /var/log/**/*.log ]
    start_at: beginning
    operators:
      - type: regex_parser
        id: logpipeline_regex_parser
        regex: '^(?<client_ip>(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){7}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,7}:|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,6}:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,5}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,2}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,4}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,3}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,3}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,2}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,5}|[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:(?:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,6})|:(?:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,7}|:)|fe80:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{0,4}){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]+|::(?:ffff(?::0{1,4})?:)?(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,4}:(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])))|(?:(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))))|(?:\b(?:[0-9A-Za-z][0-9A-Za-z-]{0,62})(?:\.(?:[0-9A-Za-z][0-9A-Za-z-]{0,62}))*(?:\.?|\b)))) \[(?<timestamp>(?:(?:(?:0[1-9])|(?:[12][0-9])|(?:3[01])|[1-9]))/(?:\b(?:Jan(?:uary)?|Feb(?:ruary)?|Mar(?:ch)?|Apr(?:il)?|May|Jun(?:e)?|Jul(?:y)?|Aug(?:ust)?|Sep(?:tember)?|Oct(?:ober)?|Nov(?:ember)?|Dec(?:ember)?)\b)/(?:\b[0-9]{4}\b):(?:(?:(?:(?:2[0123]|[01]?[0-9])):(?:(?:[0-5][0-9]))(?::(?:(?:(?:[0-5]?[0-9]|60)(?:[:.,][0-9]+)?))))) (?:(?:Z|[+-](?:(?:2[0123]|[01]?[0-9]))(?::?(?:(?:[0-5][0-9]))))))\] "(?<method>\b\w+\b) (?<path>\S+) HTTP/(?<http_version>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?|\.[0-9]+)))))" (?<status>(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+))) (?<bytes>(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+))) "(?<consumer_id>.*?)" "(?<route_id>.*?)" (?<kong_latency>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?|\.[0-9]+))))) (?<upstream_latency>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?|\.[0-9]+)))))$'
        timestamp:
          parse_from: attributes.timestamp
          layout: '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z'

# ==============================================================================
# Option 2: Transform Processor (OTel Transformation Language - OTTL)
# ==============================================================================
processors:
  transform:
    error_mode: ignore
    log_statements:
      - context: log
        statements:
          - merge_maps(attributes, extract_patterns(body, "^(?<client_ip>(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){7}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,7}:|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,6}:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,5}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,2}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,4}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,3}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,3}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,4}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,2}(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,5}|[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:(?:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,6})|:(?:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}){1,7}|:)|fe80:(?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{0,4}){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]+|::(?:ffff(?::0{1,4})?:)?(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])\\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){1,4}:(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])\\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1?[0-9])?[0-9])))|(?:(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))))|(?:\\b(?:[0-9A-Za-z][0-9A-Za-z-]{0,62})(?:\\.(?:[0-9A-Za-z][0-9A-Za-z-]{0,62}))*(?:\\.?|\\b)))) \\[(?<timestamp>(?:(?:(?:0[1-9])|(?:[12][0-9])|(?:3[01])|[1-9]))/(?:\\b(?:Jan(?:uary)?|Feb(?:ruary)?|Mar(?:ch)?|Apr(?:il)?|May|Jun(?:e)?|Jul(?:y)?|Aug(?:ust)?|Sep(?:tember)?|Oct(?:ober)?|Nov(?:ember)?|Dec(?:ember)?)\\b)/(?:\\b[0-9]{4}\\b):(?:(?:(?:(?:2[0123]|[01]?[0-9])):(?:(?:[0-5][0-9]))(?::(?:(?:(?:[0-5]?[0-9]|60)(?:[:.,][0-9]+)?))))) (?:(?:Z|[+-](?:(?:2[0123]|[01]?[0-9]))(?::?(?:(?:[0-5][0-9]))))))\\] \"(?<method>\\b\\w+\\b) (?<path>\\S+) HTTP/(?<http_version>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\\.[0-9]+)?|\\.[0-9]+)))))\" (?<status>(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+))) (?<bytes>(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+))) \"(?<consumer_id>.*?)\" \"(?<route_id>.*?)\" (?<kong_latency>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\\.[0-9]+)?|\\.[0-9]+))))) (?<upstream_latency>(?:(?:(?:[+-]?(?:[0-9]+(?:\\.[0-9]+)?|\\.[0-9]+)))))$"), "insert")

service:
  pipelines:
    logs:
      receivers: [filelog]
      processors: [transform]
      exporters: [otlp]

Logstash Filter Configuration

filter.grok

# ==============================================================================
# Logstash Pipeline Configuration (/etc/logstash/conf.d/logpipeline.conf)
# ==============================================================================
filter {
  grok {
    match => { "message" => "%{IPORHOST:client_ip} \[%{HTTPDATE:timestamp}\] \"%{WORD:method} %{NOTSPACE:path} HTTP/%{NUMBER:http_version}\" %{INT:status:integer} %{INT:bytes:integer} \"%{DATA:consumer_id}\" \"%{DATA:route_id}\" %{NUMBER:kong_latency:float} %{NUMBER:upstream_latency:float}" }
    tag_on_failure => [ "_grokparsefailure" ]
  }

  date {
    match => [ "timestamp", "ISO8601", "dd/MMM/yyyy:HH:mm:ss Z" ]
    target => "@timestamp"
    remove_field => [ "timestamp" ]
  }
}