--- title: "Deploy the Loki Helm chart on AWS | Grafana Loki documentation" description: "Installing the Loki Helm chart on AWS." --- # Deploy the Loki Helm chart on AWS This guide shows how to deploy a minimally viable Loki in **microservice** mode on AWS using the Helm chart. To run through this guide, we expect you to have the necessary tools and permissions to deploy resources on AWS, such as: - Full access to EKS (Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service) - Full access to S3 (Amazon Simple Storage Service) - Sufficient permissions to create IAM (Identity Access Management) roles and policies There are two methods for authenticating and connecting Loki to AWS S3. We will guide you through the recommended method of granting access via an IAM role. ## Considerations > Caution > > This guide was accurate at the time it was last updated on **31st October, 2024**. As cloud providers frequently update their services and offerings, as a best practice, you should refer to the [AWS S3 documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/Welcome.html) before creating your buckets and assigning roles. - **IAM Role:** The IAM role created in this guide is a basic role that allows Loki to read and write to the S3 bucket. You may wish to add more granular permissions based on your requirements. - **Authentication:** Grafana Loki comes with a basic authentication layer. The Loki gateway (NGINX) is exposed to the internet using basic authentication in this example. NGINX can also be replaced with other open-source reverse proxies. Refer to [Authentication](/docs/loki/next/operations/authentication/) for more information. - **Retention:** The retention period is set to 28 days in the `values.yaml` file. You may wish to adjust this based on your requirements. - **Costs:** Running Loki on AWS will incur costs. Make sure to monitor your usage and costs to avoid any unexpected bills. In this guide we have used a simple EKS cluster with 3 nodes and m5.xlarge instances. You may wish to adjust the instance types and number of nodes based on your workload. ## Prerequisites - Helm 3 or above. Refer to [Installing Helm](https://helm.sh/docs/intro/install/). This should be installed on your local machine. - A running Kubernetes cluster on AWS. A simple way to get started is by using EKSctl. Refer to [Getting started with EKSctl](https://eksctl.io/). - Kubectl installed on your local machine. Refer to [Install and Set Up kubectl](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl/). - (Optional) AWS CLI installed on your local machine. Refer to [Installing the AWS CLI](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/install-cliv2.html). This is required if you plan to use EKSctl to create the EKS cluster and modify the IAM roles and policies locally. ### EKS Minimum Requirements > Caution > > These EKS requirements are the minimum specification needed to deploy Loki using this guide. You may wish to adjust plugins and instance types based on your AWS environment and workload. **If you choose to do so, we cannot guarantee that this sample configuration will still meet your needs.** > > In this guide, we deploy Loki using `m5.xlarge` instances. This is a instance type that should work for most scenarios. However, you can modify the instance types and count based on your specific needs. The minimum requirements for deploying Loki on EKS are: - Kubernetes version `1.30` or above. - `3` nodes for the EKS cluster. - Instance type depends on your workload. A good starting point for a production cluster is `m7i.2xlarge`. Here is the EKSctl cluster configuration file used in this guide: YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```yaml # A simple example of ClusterConfig object: --- apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha5 kind: ClusterConfig metadata: name: region: version: "1.31" iam: withOIDC: true addons: - name: aws-ebs-csi-driver managedNodeGroups: - name: loki-workers instanceType: m7i.2xlarge desiredCapacity: 3 minSize: 2 maxSize: 3 amiFamily: AmazonLinux2023 iam: withAddonPolicies: ebs: true volumeSize: 80 volumeType: gp3 ebsOptimized: true ``` The following plugins must also be installed within the EKS cluster: - **Amazon EBS CSI Driver**: Enables Kubernetes to dynamically provision and manage EBS volumes as persistent storage for applications. We use this to provision the node volumes for Loki. - **CoreDNS**: Provides internal DNS service for Kubernetes clusters, ensuring that services and pods can communicate with each other using DNS names. - **kube-proxy**: Maintains network rules on nodes, enabling communication between pods and services within the cluster. You must also install an **OIDC (OpenID Connect) provider** on the EKS cluster. This is required for the IAM roles and policies to work correctly. If you are using EKSctl, you can install the OIDC provider using the following command: > Tip > > If you used the above EKSctl configuration file to create the cluster, you do not need to run this command. The OIDC provider is automatically installed. Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash eksctl utils associate-iam-oidc-provider --cluster loki --approve ``` ## Create S3 buckets > Warning > > **DO NOT** use the default bucket names; `chunk`, `ruler` and `admin`. Choose a **unique** name for each bucket. For more information see the following [security update](/blog/2024/06/27/grafana-security-update-grafana-loki-and-unintended-data-write-attempts-to-amazon-s3-buckets/). Before deploying Loki, you need to create two S3 buckets; one to store logs (chunks), the second to store alert rules. You can create the bucket using the AWS Management Console or the AWS CLI. The bucket name must be globally unique. > Note > > GEL customers will require a third bucket to store the admin data. This bucket is not required for OSS users. Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash aws s3api create-bucket --bucket --region --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint= \ aws s3api create-bucket --bucket --region --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint= ``` Make sure to replace the `region` and `bucket` name with your desired values. We will revisit the bucket policy later in this guide. ## Defining IAM roles and policies The recommended method for connecting Loki to AWS S3 is to use an IAM role. This method is more secure than using access keys and secret keys which are directly stored in the Loki configuration. The role and policy can be created using the AWS CLI or the AWS Management Console. The below steps show how to create the role and policy using the AWS CLI. 1. Create a new directory and navigate to it. Make sure to create the files in this directory. All commands in this guide assume you are in this directory. 2. Create a `loki-s3-policy.json` file with the following content: JSON ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```json { "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Sid": "LokiStorage", "Effect": "Allow", "Action": [ "s3:ListBucket", "s3:PutObject", "s3:GetObject", "s3:DeleteObject" ], "Resource": [ "arn:aws:s3:::< CHUNK BUCKET NAME >", "arn:aws:s3:::< CHUNK BUCKET NAME >/*", "arn:aws:s3:::< RULER BUCKET NAME >", "arn:aws:s3:::< RULER BUCKET NAME >/*" ] } ] } ``` **Make sure to replace the placeholders with the names of the buckets you created earlier.** 3. Create the IAM policy using the AWS CLI: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash aws iam create-policy --policy-name LokiS3AccessPolicy --policy-document file://loki-s3-policy.json ``` 4. Create a trust policy document named `trust-policy.json` with the following content: JSON ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```json { "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Principal": { "Federated": "arn:aws:iam::< ACCOUNT ID >:oidc-provider/oidc.eks..amazonaws.com/id/< OIDC ID >" }, "Action": "sts:AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity", "Condition": { "StringEquals": { "oidc.eks..amazonaws.com/id/< OIDC ID >:sub": "system:serviceaccount:loki:loki", "oidc.eks..amazonaws.com/id/< OIDC ID >:aud": "sts.amazonaws.com" } } } ] } ``` **Make sure to replace the placeholders with your AWS account ID, region, and the OIDC ID (you can find this in the EKS cluster configuration).** 5. Create the IAM role using the AWS CLI: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash aws iam create-role --role-name LokiServiceAccountRole --assume-role-policy-document file://trust-policy.json ``` 6. Attach the policy to the role: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash aws iam attach-role-policy --role-name LokiServiceAccountRole --policy-arn arn:aws:iam:::policy/LokiS3AccessPolicy ``` **Make sure to replace the placeholder with your AWS account ID.** ## Deploying the Helm chart Before we can deploy the Loki Helm chart, we need to add the Grafana Community chart repository to Helm. This repository contains the Loki Helm chart. 1. Add the Grafana Community chart repository to Helm: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash helm repo add grafana-community https://grafana-community.github.io/helm-charts ``` 2. Update the chart repository: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash helm repo update ``` 3. Create a new namespace for Loki: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash kubectl create namespace loki ``` ### Loki Basic Authentication Loki by default does not come with any authentication. Since we will be deploying Loki to AWS and exposing the gateway to the internet, we recommend adding at least basic authentication. In this guide we will give Loki a username and password: 1. To start we will need create a `.htpasswd` file with the username and password. You can use the `htpasswd` command to create the file: > Tip > > If you don’t have the `htpasswd` command installed, you can install it using `brew` or `apt-get` or `yum` depending on your OS. Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash htpasswd -c .htpasswd ``` This will create a file called `auth` with the username `loki`. You will be prompted to enter a password. 2. Create a Kubernetes secret with the `.htpasswd` file: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash kubectl create secret generic loki-basic-auth --from-file=.htpasswd -n loki ``` This will create a secret called `loki-basic-auth` in the `loki` namespace. We will reference this secret in the Loki Helm chart configuration. 3. Create a `canary-basic-auth` secret for the canary: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash kubectl create secret generic canary-basic-auth \ --from-literal=username= \ --from-literal=password= \ -n loki ``` We create a literal secret with the username and password for Loki canary to authenticate with the Loki gateway. **Make sure to replace the placeholders with your desired username and password.** ### Loki Helm chart configuration Create a `values.yaml` file choosing the configuration options that best suit your requirements. Below there is an example of `values.yaml` files for the Loki Helm chart in [microservices](/docs/loki/next/get-started/deployment-modes/#microservices-mode) mode. YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```yaml loki: schemaConfig: configs: - from: "2024-04-01" store: tsdb object_store: s3 schema: v13 index: prefix: loki_index_ period: 24h storage_config: aws: region: # for example, eu-west-2 bucketnames: # Your actual S3 bucket name, for example, loki-aws-dev-chunks s3forcepathstyle: false ingester: chunk_encoding: snappy pattern_ingester: enabled: true limits_config: allow_structured_metadata: true volume_enabled: true retention_period: 672h # 28 days retention compactor: retention_enabled: true delete_request_store: s3 ruler: enable_api: true storage: type: s3 s3: region: # for example, eu-west-2 bucketnames: # Your actual S3 bucket name, for example, loki-aws-dev-ruler s3forcepathstyle: false alertmanager_url: http://prom:9093 # The URL of the Alertmanager to send alerts (Prometheus, Mimir, etc.) querier: max_concurrent: 4 storage: type: s3 bucketNames: chunks: "" # Your actual S3 bucket name (loki-aws-dev-chunks) ruler: "" # Your actual S3 bucket name (loki-aws-dev-ruler) # admin: "" # Your actual S3 bucket name (loki-aws-dev-admin) - GEL customers only s3: region: # eu-west-2 #insecure: false # s3forcepathstyle: false serviceAccount: create: true annotations: "eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn": "arn:aws:iam:::role/LokiServiceAccountRole" # The service role you created deploymentMode: Distributed ingester: replicas: 3 zoneAwareReplication: enabled: false querier: replicas: 3 maxUnavailable: 2 queryFrontend: replicas: 2 maxUnavailable: 1 queryScheduler: replicas: 2 distributor: replicas: 3 maxUnavailable: 2 compactor: replicas: 1 indexGateway: replicas: 2 maxUnavailable: 1 ruler: replicas: 1 maxUnavailable: 1 # This exposes the Loki gateway so it can be written to and queried externaly gateway: service: type: LoadBalancer basicAuth: enabled: true existingSecret: loki-basic-auth # Since we are using basic auth, we need to pass the username and password to the canary lokiCanary: extraArgs: - -pass=$(LOKI_PASS) - -user=$(LOKI_USER) extraEnv: - name: LOKI_PASS valueFrom: secretKeyRef: name: canary-basic-auth key: password - name: LOKI_USER valueFrom: secretKeyRef: name: canary-basic-auth key: username # Enable minio for storage minio: enabled: false backend: replicas: 0 read: replicas: 0 write: replicas: 0 singleBinary: replicas: 0 ``` > Caution > > Make sure to replace the placeholders with your actual values. It is critical to define a valid `values.yaml` file for the Loki deployment. To remove the risk of misconfiguration, let’s break down the configuration options to keep in mind when deploying to AWS: - **Loki Config vs. Values Config:** - The `values.yaml` file contains a section called `loki`, which contains a direct representation of the Loki configuration file. - This section defines the Loki configuration, including the schema, storage, and querier configuration. - The key configuration to focus on for chunks is the `storage_config` section, where you define the S3 bucket region and name. This tells Loki where to store the chunks. - The `ruler` section defines the configuration for the ruler, including the S3 bucket region and name. This tells Loki where to store the alert and recording rules. - For the full Loki configuration, refer to the [Loki Configuration](/docs/loki/next/configure/) documentation. - **Storage:** - Defines where the Helm chart stores data. - Set the type to `s3` since we are using Amazon S3. - Configure the bucket names for the chunks and ruler to match the buckets created earlier. - The `s3` section specifies the region of the bucket. - **Service Account:** - The `serviceAccount` section is used to define the IAM role for the Loki service account. - This is where the IAM role created earlier is linked. - **Zone-Aware Replication:** - The Helm chart enables zone-aware ingester replication by default, which creates three ingester StatefulSets (zone-a, zone-b, zone-c) for faster rollouts. - In this guide, zone-aware replication is explicitly disabled (`ingester.zoneAwareReplication.enabled: false`) for simplicity. For production deployments, consider enabling it to improve rollout resilience. - **Gateway:** - Defines how the Loki gateway will be exposed. - We are using a `LoadBalancer` service type in this configuration. ### Deploy Loki Now that you have created the `values.yaml` file, you can deploy Loki using the Helm chart. 1. Deploy using the newly created `values.yaml` file: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash helm install --values values.yaml loki grafana-community/loki -n loki --create-namespace ``` **It is important to create a namespace called `loki` as our trust policy is set to allow the IAM role to be used by the `loki` service account in the `loki` namespace. This is configurable but make sure to update your service account.** 2. Verify the deployment: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash kubectl get pods -n loki ``` You should see the Loki pods running. console ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```console NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE loki-canary-crqpg 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-canary-hm26p 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-canary-v9wv9 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-chunks-cache-0 2/2 Running 0 10m loki-compactor-0 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-distributor-78ccdcc9b4-9wlhl 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-distributor-78ccdcc9b4-km6j2 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-distributor-78ccdcc9b4-ptwrb 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-gateway-5f97f78755-hm6mx 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-index-gateway-0 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-index-gateway-1 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-ingester-zone-a-0 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-ingester-zone-b-0 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-ingester-zone-c-0 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-querier-89d4ff448-4vr9b 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-querier-89d4ff448-7nvrf 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-querier-89d4ff448-q89kh 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-query-frontend-678899db5-n5wc4 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-query-frontend-678899db5-tf69b 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-query-scheduler-7d666bf759-9xqb5 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-query-scheduler-7d666bf759-kpb5q 1/1 Running 0 10m loki-results-cache-0 2/2 Running 0 10m loki-ruler-0 1/1 Running 0 10m ``` ### Find the Loki Gateway Service The Loki Gateway service is a LoadBalancer service that exposes the Loki gateway to the internet. This is where you will write logs to and query logs from. By default NGINX is used as the gateway. > Caution > > The Loki Gateway service is exposed to the internet. We provide basic authentication using a username and password in this tutorial. Refer to the [Authentication](/docs/loki/next/operations/authentication/) documentation for more information. To find the Loki Gateway service, run the following command: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash kubectl get svc -n loki ``` You should see the Loki Gateway service with an external IP address. This is the address you will use to write to and query Loki. console ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```console NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE loki-gateway LoadBalancer 10.100.201.74 12345678975675456-1433434453245433545656563.eu-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com 80:30707/TCP 46m ``` Congratulations! You have successfully deployed Loki on AWS using the Helm chart. Before we finish, let’s test the deployment. ## Testing Your Loki Deployment k6 is one of the fastest ways to test your Loki deployment. This will allow you to both write and query logs to Loki. To get started with k6, follow the steps below: 1. Install k6 with the Loki extension on your local machine. Refer to [Installing k6 and the xk6-loki extension](/docs/loki/next/send-data/k6/). 2. Create a `aws-test.js` file with the following content: JavaScript ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```javascript import {sleep, check} from 'k6'; import loki from 'k6/x/loki'; /** * URL used for push and query requests * Path is automatically appended by the client * @constant {string} */ const username = ''; const password = ''; const external_ip = ''; const credentials = `${username}:${password}`; const BASE_URL = `http://${credentials}@${external_ip}`; /** * Helper constant for byte values * @constant {number} */ const KB = 1024; /** * Helper constant for byte values * @constant {number} */ const MB = KB * KB; /** * Instantiate config and Loki client */ const conf = new loki.Config(BASE_URL); const client = new loki.Client(conf); /** * Define test scenario */ export const options = { vus: 10, iterations: 10, }; export default () => { // Push request with 10 streams and uncompressed logs between 800KB and 2MB var res = client.pushParameterized(10, 800 * KB, 2 * MB); // Check for successful write check(res, { 'successful write': (res) => res.status == 204 }); // Pick a random log format from label pool let format = randomChoice(conf.labels["format"]); // Execute instant query with limit 1 res = client.instantQuery(`count_over_time({format="${format}"}[1m])`, 1) // Check for successful read check(res, { 'successful instant query': (res) => res.status == 200 }); // Execute range query over last 5m and limit 1000 res = client.rangeQuery(`{format="${format}"}`, "5m", 1000) // Check for successful read check(res, { 'successful range query': (res) => res.status == 200 }); // Wait before next iteration sleep(1); } /** * Helper function to get random item from array */ function randomChoice(items) { return items[Math.floor(Math.random() * items.length)]; } ``` **Replace `` with the external IP address of the Loki Gateway service.** This script will write logs to Loki and query logs from Loki. It will write logs in a random format between 800KB and 2MB and query logs in a random format over the last 5 minutes. 3. Run the test: Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```bash ./k6 run aws-test.js ``` This will run the test and output the results. You should see the test writing logs to Loki and querying logs from Loki. Now that you have successfully deployed Loki in microservices mode on AWS, you may wish to explore the following: - [Sending data to Loki](/docs/loki/next/send-data/) - [Querying Loki](/docs/loki/next/query/) - [Manage](/docs/loki/next/operations/)