To get AWS VPN logs, specifically for Client VPN, you need to configure your Client VPN endpoint to publish connection logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs. Once enabled, these logs can be viewed and analyzed directly within the CloudWatch console, providing crucial details about client connection attempts, successes, and disconnections.
Understanding AWS Client VPN Logs
AWS Client VPN allows you to securely connect your users to AWS resources and on-premises networks. The logs generated by Client VPN endpoints capture vital information about the connection lifecycle of your users. These logs are essential for monitoring network activity, troubleshooting connection issues, and ensuring compliance.
Key types of information found in Client VPN logs include:
- Connection Attempts: Records when a client attempts to connect to the VPN endpoint.
- Successful Connections: Details of successful client connections, including user ID, source IP, and connection time.
- Disconnections: Information about when a client disconnects, including the reason (e.g., user-initiated, timeout).
- Authentication Events: Insights into the authentication process, useful for debugging access issues.
Prerequisites for Enabling Client VPN Logging
Before you can view your AWS Client VPN logs, ensure you have the following in place:
- An Existing AWS Client VPN Endpoint: You must have an active Client VPN endpoint configured in your AWS account.
- Amazon CloudWatch Logs Log Group: A log group in CloudWatch Logs serves as the destination for your VPN connection logs. You can create a new one or use an existing one.
- IAM Permissions: The AWS Client VPN service requires an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role with permissions to write log events to the specified CloudWatch Logs log group. If you're configuring logging via the console, AWS can often create this role for you.
Enabling Logging for Your AWS Client VPN Endpoint
To start collecting logs from your Client VPN endpoint, you need to associate it with a CloudWatch Logs log group:
- Navigate to the VPC Console: Open the Amazon VPC console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/vpc/.
- Select Client VPN Endpoints: In the navigation pane, under "Client VPN," choose Client VPN Endpoints.
- Choose Your Endpoint: Select the Client VPN endpoint for which you want to enable logging.
- Modify Client VPN Endpoint Settings:
- Choose the Actions menu, then select Modify Client VPN endpoint.
- Scroll down to the Log details section.
- Select Yes for "Enable connection logging."
- For CloudWatch Logs log group, select an existing log group or create a new one.
- Optionally, provide a CloudWatch Logs log stream prefix to help organize your logs within the chosen log group.
- Ensure the associated IAM role has the necessary permissions (e.g.,
logs:CreateLogStream,logs:PutLogEvents). AWS can often configure this for you during this step.
- Save Changes: Choose Modify Client VPN endpoint to apply the settings.
Once enabled, your Client VPN endpoint will begin sending connection logs to the specified CloudWatch Logs log group.
Viewing Your AWS Client VPN Logs in CloudWatch
After enabling logging, you can access your connection logs directly from the CloudWatch console:
- Open the CloudWatch console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/.
- In the navigation pane, choose Log groups.
- From the list of log groups, select the specific log group that contains your Client VPN connection logs (the one you associated with your endpoint).
- Within the log group, select the log stream that corresponds to your Client VPN endpoint. Log streams are often named with a prefix followed by a unique identifier, and they contain the actual log events.
Understanding Log Entries
Client VPN log entries typically follow a JSON format, providing structured data for easy parsing. Here's a simplified example of what you might see:
| Field Name | Description | Example Value |
|---|---|---|
timestamp |
The time the event occurred in Unix epoch milliseconds. | 1678886400000 |
event_type |
The type of event (e.g., connect, disconnect). |
connect |
connection_id |
A unique identifier for the VPN connection. | cvpn-conn-0123456789abcdef0 |
client_ip |
The IP address of the connecting client. | 203.0.113.1 |
user_id |
The identifier of the user (if using AD or SAML auth). | john.doe |
status |
The outcome of the event (e.g., success, fail). |
success |
reason |
Details about the event status, especially for disconnections. | Client-initiated disconnect |
endpoint_id |
The ID of the Client VPN endpoint. | cvpn-endpoint-0a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8 |
Analyzing Logs with CloudWatch Logs Insights
For advanced analysis and querying of your VPN logs, CloudWatch Logs Insights is an invaluable tool. It allows you to search, filter, and aggregate log data efficiently using a powerful query language.
To use Logs Insights:
-
In the CloudWatch console, navigate to Log groups.
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Select the log group containing your Client VPN logs.
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Choose View in Logs Insights.
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Enter a query in the editor. For example, to find all failed connection attempts:
fields @timestamp, @message | filter event_type = "connect" and status = "fail" | sort @timestamp desc | limit 20
This query filters for connection events that failed, sorts them by timestamp, and shows the 20 most recent.
Automation and Alerts
You can leverage CloudWatch Logs to create alarms and automate responses based on specific log patterns or metrics.
- Failed Connection Alarms: Set up an alarm to notify you (e.g., via SNS) if there's a surge in failed connection attempts, which could indicate a security issue or misconfiguration.
- Disconnection Monitoring: Monitor for unusual disconnection patterns or disconnections from specific users or IP addresses.
Cost Considerations
Publishing logs to CloudWatch Logs incurs costs based on data ingestion, storage, and archival. Review the Amazon CloudWatch pricing page for details to understand the potential impact on your AWS bill.
What About Site-to-Site VPN Logs?
AWS Site-to-Site VPN connections, which connect your on-premises network directly to your VPC, operate differently from Client VPNs. These connections primarily establish a secure tunnel, and the connection itself doesn't generate "connection logs" in the same way Client VPN does. To monitor traffic passing through a Site-to-Site VPN, you would typically use VPC Flow Logs enabled on the network interfaces (ENIs) of the subnets that send or receive traffic over the VPN. VPC Flow Logs capture information about IP traffic going to and from network interfaces in your VPC, which can then be exported to CloudWatch Logs or Amazon S3 for analysis.
