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Audit Logging - Temporal Cloud feature guide

Audit Logging is a feature of Temporal Cloud that provides forensic access information at the account level, the user level, and the Namespace level.

Audit Logging answers "who, when, and what" questions about Temporal Cloud resources. These answers can help you evaluate the security of your organization, and they can provide information that you need to satisfy audit and compliance requirements.

Which integrations are supported by Audit Logging?​

Audit Logging supports the Amazon Kinesis streaming-data platform. By using Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose, you can route Temporal Audit Logs in Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). We plan to release additional integrations.

Which events are supported by Audit Logging?​

Audit Logging supports Admin Operation events as well as API Key Create, Update, and Delete events.

Please note that Audit Logging only captures operations in the Temporal Cloud control plane and not the data plane. This means events such as Workflow Start, Workflow Terminate, Schedule Create, etc. won't be logged. Instead, explore the Export feature, which does let you send closed Workflow Histories to external storage.

Admin Operation events​

The following list specifies both the supported events and the Temporal APIs that emit the logs.

  • Account
    • Configure Audit Logging: UpdateAccount
    • Configure observability: UpdateAccount
  • User
    • Create user invitations: InviteUsers
    • Delete users: DeleteUser
    • Update user account-level Roles: UpdateUser
    • Update user Namespace permissions: UpdateUserNamespacePermissions
    • Log in user: UserLogin
  • Namespace
    • Create Namespace: CreateNamespace
    • Update Namespace: UpdateNamespace
    • Delete Namespace: DeleteNamespace
    • Add or update certificates or certificate filters: UpdateNamespace
    • Add custom Search Attributes: UpdateNamespace
    • Rename custom Search Attribute: RenameCustomSearchAttribute
    • Request increase in Retention Period: UpdateNamespace

API Key Operation events​

The following list specifies both the supported events and the Temporal APIs that emit the logs for API Key Operations:

  • Create API Key: CreateAPIKey
  • Delete API Key: DeleteAPIKey
  • Update API Key: UpdateAPIKey

Audit Log format​

The log sent to the Kinesis stream is JSON in the following format:

{
  "emit_time": // Time the operation was recorded
  "level": // Level of the log entry, such as info, warning, or error
  "user_email":  // Email address of the user who initiated the operation
  "caller_ip_address": // Customer IP address or server name
  "operation":  // Operation that was performed
  "details":  // Details of the operation
  "status": // Status, such as OK or error
  "category":  // Category of the log entry: Admin or System
  "version": // Version of the log entry, beginning with 0 and updated when a backfill or resend of the same log occurs
  "log_id": // Unique ID of the log entry
}

How to configure Audit Logging​

To set up Audit Logging, you must have an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account and set up Kinesis Data Streams.

  1. If you don't have an AWS account, follow the instructions from AWS in Create and activate an AWS account.
  2. To set up Kinesis Data Streams, open the AWS Management Console, search for Kinesis, and start the setup process.

You can use this AWS CloudFormation template to create an IAM role with access to a Kinesis stream you have in your account.

Be aware that Kinesis has a rate limit of 1,000 messages per second and quotas for both the number of records written and the size of the records. For more information, see Why is my Kinesis data stream throttling?

Create an Audit Log sink​

  1. In the Temporal Cloud UI, select Settings.
  2. On the Settings page, select Integrations.
  3. In the Audit Logging card, select Configure Audit Logs.
  4. On the Audit Logging page, choose your Access method (either Auto or Manual).
    • Auto: Configure the AWS CloudFormation stack in your AWS account from the Cloud UI.
    • Manual: Use a generated AWS CloudFormation template to set up Kinesis manually.
  5. In Kinesis ARN, paste the Kinesis ARN from your AWS account.
  6. In Role name, provide a name for a new IAM Role.
  7. In Select an AWS region, select the appropriate region for your Kinesis stream.

If you chose the Auto access method, continue with the following steps:

  1. Select Save and launch stack.
  2. In Stack name in the AWS CloudFormation console, specify a name for the stack.
  3. In the lower-right corner of the page, select Create stack.

If you chose the Manual access method, continue with the following steps:

  1. Select Save and download template.
  2. Open the AWS CloudFormation console.
  3. Select Create Stack.
  4. On the Create stack page, select Template is ready and Update a template file.
  5. Select Choose file and specify the template you generated in step 1.
  6. Select Next on this page and on the next two pages.
  7. On the Review page, select Create stack.

How to consume an Audit Log​

After you create an Audit Log sink, wait for the logs to flow into the Kinesis stream. You should see the first logs 2–10 minutes after you configure the sink. Subsequent logs arrive every 2 minutes if any actions occurred during that 2-minute window.

note

You must configure and implement your own consumer of the Kinesis stream. For an example, see Example of consuming an Audit Log.

Example of an Audit Log​

The following example shows the contents of an Audit Log.

{"emit_time":"2023-10-24T08:19:41Z","level":"LOG_LEVEL_INFO","user_email":"zhengbo@example.com","operation":"UpdateAccount","details":{"client_ca_fingerprints":["5bb99d14fa602f7d39b7d048674a2251"],"search_attribute_update":{},"additional_message":"finished unary call with code OK"},"status":"OK","category":"LOG_CATEGORY_ADMIN"}
**********
{"emit_time":"2023-10-25T21:16:42Z","level":"LOG_LEVEL_INFO","user_email":"alex@example.com","operation":"DeleteUser","details":{"target_users":["0b741c47-e093-47d1-9b74-f2359129f78f"],"search_attribute_update":{},"additional_message":"finished unary call with code OK"},"status":"OK","category":"LOG_CATEGORY_ADMIN"}
**********
{"emit_time":"2023-11-03T19:31:45Z","level":"LOG_LEVEL_INFO","user_email":"matt@example.com","operation":"InviteUsers","details":{"target_users":["matt@example.net"],"search_attribute_update":{},"additional_message":"finished unary call with code OK"},"status":"OK","category":"LOG_CATEGORY_ADMIN"}
**********
{"emit_time":"2023-11-08T08:06:40Z","level":"LOG_LEVEL_INFO","user_email":"zhengbo@example.com","operation":"UpdateUser","details":{"target_users":["zhengbo@example.net"],"search_attribute_update":{},"additional_message":"finished unary call with code OK"},"status":"OK","category":"LOG_CATEGORY_ADMIN"}
**********
{"emit_time":"2023-11-08T08:14:09Z","level":"LOG_LEVEL_INFO","user_email":"zhengbo@example.com","operation":"UpdateNamespace","details":{"namespace":"audit-log-test.example-dev","client_ca_fingerprints":["f186d0bd971ff7d52dc6cc9d9b6f7644"],"search_attribute_update":{},"additional_message":"finished unary call with code OK"},"status":"OK","category":"LOG_CATEGORY_ADMIN"}
**********
{"emit_time":"2023-11-08T09:20:22Z","level":"LOG_LEVEL_INFO","user_email":"zhengbo@example.com","operation":"UpdateUserNamespacePermissions","details":{"namespace":"audit-log-test.example-dev","search_attribute_update":{},"additional_message":"finished unary call with code OK"},"status":"OK","category":"LOG_CATEGORY_ADMIN"}
**********

Example of consuming an Audit Log​

The following Go code is an example of consuming Audit Logs from a Kinesis stream and delivering them to an S3 bucket.

func main() {
   fmt.Println("print audit log from S3")
   cfg, err := config.LoadDefaultConfig(context.TODO(),
      config.WithSharedConfigProfile("your_profile"),
   )
   if err != nil {
      fmt.Println(err)
   }
   s3Client := s3.NewFromConfig(cfg)
   response, err := s3Client.GetObject(
      context.Background(),
      &s3.GetObjectInput{
         Bucket: aws.String("your_bucket_name"),
         Key:    aws.String("your_s3_file_path")})
   if err != nil {
      fmt.Println(err)
   }
   defer response.Body.Close()

   content, err := io.ReadAll(response.Body)

   fmt.Println(string(content))
}

The preceding code also prints the logs in the terminal. The following is a sample result.

{
  "emit_time": "2023-11-14T07:56:55Z",
  "level": "LOG_LEVEL_INFO",
  "user_email": "zhengbo@example.com",
  "operation": "DeleteUser",
  "details": {
    "target_users": ["d7dca96f-adcc-417d-aafc-e8f5d2ba9fe1"],
    "search_attribute_update": {},
    "additional_message": "finished unary call with code OK"
  },
  "status": "OK",
  "category": "LOG_CATEGORY_ADMIN"
}

How to troubleshoot Audit Logging​

The Audit Logging page of the Temporal Cloud UI provides the current status of an Audit Log sink.

  • If an error is detected, a summary of the error appears below the page title.
  • If the Audit Log sink is functioning normally, an On badge appears next to the page heading.

After an Admin Operation is performed, users can see Audit Log messages flow through Kinesis.

Upon successful configuration of the Audit Log sink and set up of Kinesis, you will receive events within the hour of setup. Temporal is able to retain Audit Log information for up to 30 days. To retrieve logs up to the past 30 days, you will need to file a request.

If you experience an issue with an Audit Log sink, we can provide the missing audit information. Open a support ticket to request assistance.

How to delete an Audit Log sink​

When you no longer need Audit Logging, you can delete the Audit Log sink.

  1. In the Temporal Cloud UI, select Settings.
  2. On the Settings page, select Integrations.
  3. In the Audit Logging card, select Configure Audit Logs.
  4. At the bottom of the Audit Logging page, choose Delete.

After you confirm the deletion, the Audit Log Sink is removed from your account and logs stop flowing to your Kinesis stream.