View logs and metrics

Cloud Router sends logging information to Cloud Logging and sends monitoring metrics to Cloud Monitoring. This page shows you how to access both types of information.

Logs

Cloud Router sends logging information to Cloud Logging, which logs the following events:

  • Router events related to your Cloud Router
  • BGP events related to a BGP configuration and session
  • Route events related to route announcements between the two BGP peers

View logs

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud Routers page.

    Go to Cloud Routers

  2. Select a Cloud Router from the list of Cloud Routers.

  3. In the Logs column, click View.

    Cloud Router logs have the following format:

     [Event Type]: [Log Text]

  4. To build queries in the Logs Explorer, see Build queries in the Logs Explorer.

Info log

The following table lists events that are logged in the Logging Info log.

Event Description
Router event Router task activated
Router task de-activated
BGP event Successfully added configuration for peers: LIST_OF_PEERS
BGP peering with PEER came up x seconds ago
BGP peering with PEER went down with the reason MESSAGE, where MESSAGE provides an explanation such as HOLD_TIMER_EXPIRED or LINK_DOWN.
For more information about LINK_DOWN, see LINK_DOWN message appears in Cloud Router logs.
BGP Router ID set to BGP_ROUTER_ID
Route event Advertising prefix to peers: PREFIX
Withdrawing prefix from peers: PREFIX
Prefix PREFIX Nexthops LIST_OF_NEXTHOPS received by Cloud Router
Prefix PREFIX Nexthops LIST_OF_NEXTHOPS deleted from Cloud Router

Common Logging events

To view common Logging events for Cloud Router as listed in the following table, use the steps for viewing logs. Specify one of the advanced filters listed in the table. Adjust the time frame for the Logging search as needed.

Event description Logging advanced filter
Migrating or restarting a Cloud Router process resource.type="gce_router"
"task activated"
Adding learned routes resource.type="gce_router"
"received by cloud router"
Removing learned routes resource.type="gce_router"
"deleted from cloud router"
Exporting advertised routes resource.type="gce_router"
("Route Event" AND "Advertising prefix")
BGP peering came up resource.type="gce_router"
("BGP peering" AND "came up")
BGP peering came up with MD5 authentication resource.type="gce_router"
("BGP peering" AND "came up" AND "MD5 authentication enabled")
BGP peering went down resource.type="gce_router"
("BGP peering" AND "went down")
BGP peering went down because the link went down on the Google peering edge router resource.type="gce_router"
("BGP peering" AND "went down" AND "LINK_DOWN")
A BGP session was shut down due to excessive received routes resource.type="gce_router"
("NOTIFICATION 6/1")
severity="CRITICAL"
A Cloud Router dynamic route prefix quota has been exceeded resource.type="gce_network_region"
("No more routes" AND "can be programmed")
severity="ERROR"
A route was dropped because of a quota issue resource.type="gce_network_region"
severity="ERROR"
jsonPayload.affectedResource.routes.nextHopIpAddresses="PEER_IP_ADDRESS"
A BFD session waiting for peer resource.type="gce_router"
("BFD Event" AND "bfd enabled, state [Init, NoDiagnostic]")
A BFD session came up resource.type="gce_router"
("BFD Event" AND "to [Up, NoDiagnostic]")
A BFD session went down (Rx Timer expired) resource.type="gce_router"
("BFD Event" AND "to [Down, ControlDetectionTimeExpired]")
A BFD session went down (Peer's state is Down or AdminDown) resource.type="gce_router"
("BFD Event" AND "to [Down, NeighborSessionDown]")
A BFD session is disabled locally resource.type="gce_router"
("BFD Event" AND "bfd disabled")

Metrics

Cloud Router publishes metrics to Cloud Monitoring. For a list of metrics published for Cloud Router, see Monitor metrics for Cloud Router.

All Cloud Router metrics cover both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.

View metrics by using the API

You can access these metrics by using the Cloud Monitoring API. For more information, see Read metric data.

View metrics by using Monitoring dashboards

You can also create a custom dashboard in Cloud Monitoring to help you analyze these metrics. For more information, see Manage custom dashboards.

To create a custom dashboard, follow these steps.

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Monitoring page.

    Go to Monitoring

  2. Select Dashboards, and then on the Dashboards Overview page, click Create dashboard.

  3. Optional: Update the dashboard title with a descriptive name for your dashboard.

  4. In the Chart library, select the chart that you want to add. For example, to add a Line chart to the dashboard, click or drag that entry from the Chart library to the graph area.

  5. In Chart Title, change the chart title or use the suggested title.

  6. In What data do you want to view?, do the following:

    1. In Resource type, click the Type to filter field, and enter Cloud Router.
    2. In Metric, add a Cloud Router metric.

  7. Use the Filter controls to restrict the view to only certain routers or sessions.

  8. To add another metric, click Add another metric.

Some metrics are for the Cloud Router and some metrics are for a BGP session on a given Cloud Router. Cloud Router metrics are shown as router-name, while BGP session metrics are shown as router-name(bgp-name).

Monitoring metrics for Cloud Router

The "metric type" strings in this table must be prefixed with router.googleapis.com/. That prefix has been omitted from the entries in the table. When querying a label, use the metric.labels. prefix; for example, metric.labels.LABEL="VALUE".

Metric type Launch stage (Resource hierarchy levels)
Display name
Kind, Type, Unit
Monitored resources		 Description
Labels
best_received_routes_count GA  (project)
Received routes count
GAUGE, INT64, 1
gce_router 		Current number of best routes received by router. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
bfd/control/receive_intervals BETA  (project)
BFD control packets receive intervals
GAUGE, INT64, ms
gce_router 		BFD control packets receive intervals. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
peer_ip: The peer IP of the BFD session.
bfd/control/received_packets_count BETA  (project)
Control packets received
DELTA, INT64, 1
gce_router 		Number of control packets received from this BFD session. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
peer_ip: The peer IP of the BFD session.
bfd/control/rejected_packets_count BETA  (project)
Control packets rejected
DELTA, INT64, 1
gce_router 		Number of control packets rejected, from this BFD session. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
peer_ip: The peer IP of the BFD session.
bfd/control/transmit_intervals BETA  (project)
BFD control packets transmit intervals
GAUGE, INT64, ms
gce_router 		BFD control packets transmit intervals. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
peer_ip: The peer IP of the BFD session.
bfd/control/transmitted_packets_count BETA  (project)
Control packets transmitted
DELTA, INT64, 1
gce_router 		Number of control packets transmitted from this BFD session. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
peer_ip: The peer IP of the BFD session.
bfd/session_flap_events_count BETA  (project)
BFD session flap
DELTA, INT64, 1
gce_router 		Number of each BFD flap event from this BFD session. A session flap event refers to the transition from Up state. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
peer_ip: The peer IP of the BFD session.
event_type: The reason for the BFD flap such as "AdminDown" or "ControlDetectionTimeExpired".
bfd/session_up BETA  (project)
BFD session status
GAUGE, INT64, 1
gce_router 		Indicator for successful BFD session establishment. 1 indicates the session is up. 0 indicates the session is down. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
peer_ip: The peer IP of the BFD session.
bgp/received_routes_count GA  (project)
BGP received routes count
GAUGE, INT64, 1
gce_router 		Current number of routes received on a bgp session. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
bgp_peer_name: The name of the bgp session.
bgp/sent_routes_count GA  (project)
BGP sent routes count
GAUGE, INT64, 1
gce_router 		Current number of routes sent on a bgp session. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
bgp_peer_name: The name of the bgp session.
bgp/session_up GA  (project)
BGP session status
GAUGE, INT64, 1
gce_router 		Indicator for successful bgp session establishment. 1 indicates the session is up. 0 indicates the session is down. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
bgp_peer_name: The name of the bgp session.
bgp_sessions_down_count GA  (project)
BGP sessions down count
GAUGE, INT64, 1
gce_router 		Number of BGP sessions on the router that are down. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
bgp_sessions_up_count GA  (project)
BGP sessions up count
GAUGE, INT64, 1
gce_router 		Number of BGP sessions on the router that are up. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
dynamic_routes/learned_routes/any_dropped_unique_destinations BETA  (project)
Any unique destinations dropped
GAUGE, BOOL, 1
gce_network_region 		A boolean metric of whether there are any unique destinations dropped in a network region due to exceeding quota. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 60 seconds.
routing_mode: Routing mode of the route, one of ["global" - learned from remote regions; "regional" - learned from local regions].
dynamic_routes/learned_routes/dropped_unique_destinations BETA  (project)
Unique destinations dropped
GAUGE, INT64, 1
gce_network_region 		The number of unique destinations dropped in a network region due to exceeding quota. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 60 seconds.
routing_mode: Routing mode of the route, one of ["global" - learned from remote regions; "regional" - learned from local regions].
dynamic_routes/learned_routes/unique_destinations_limit BETA  (project)
Unique destinations limit
GAUGE, INT64, 1
gce_network_region 		The maximum number of unique destinations allowed by route quota for this network region. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 60 seconds.
routing_mode: Routing mode of the route, one of ["global" - learned from remote regions; "regional" - learned from local regions].
dynamic_routes/learned_routes/used_unique_destinations BETA  (project)
Unique destinations used
GAUGE, INT64, 1
gce_network_region 		Number of unique destinations used by learned routes for this network region. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 60 seconds.
routing_mode: Routing mode of the route, one of ["global" - learned from remote regions; "regional" - learned from local regions].
nat/allocated_ports GA  (project)
Allocated ports
GAUGE, INT64, {port}
nat_gateway 		Number of ports allocated to all VMs by the NAT gateway. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 225 seconds.
nat_ip: NAT IP of the ports.
nat/closed_connections_count GA  (project)
Closed connections count
DELTA, INT64, {connection}
nat_gateway 		Count of connections closed over the NAT gateway. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 225 seconds.
ip_protocol: The protocol of the connection. Can be TCP, UDP or ICMP.
nat/dropped_received_packets_count GA  (project)
Received packets dropped count
DELTA, INT64, {packet}
nat_gateway 		Count of received packets dropped by the NAT gateway. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 225 seconds.
ip_protocol: The protocol of the connection. Can be TCP, UDP or ICMP.
nat/dropped_sent_packets_count GA  (project)
Sent packets dropped count
DELTA, INT64, {packet}
nat_gateway 		Count of sent packets dropped by the NAT gateway. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 225 seconds.
ip_protocol: The protocol of the connection. Can be TCP, UDP or ICMP.
reason: The reason for the packet drop. Possible values are OUT_OF_RESOURCES, ENDPOINT_INDEPENDENCE_CONFLICT.
nat/nat_allocation_failed GA  (project)
NAT allocation failed
GAUGE, BOOL, 
nat_gateway 		Indicates if there is a failure in allocating NAT IPs to any VM in the NAT gateway. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 120 seconds.
nat/new_connections_count GA  (project)
New connections count
DELTA, INT64, {connection}
nat_gateway 		Count of new connections created over the NAT gateway. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 225 seconds.
ip_protocol: The protocol of the connection. Can be TCP, UDP or ICMP.
nat/open_connections GA  (project)
Open connections
GAUGE, INT64, {connection}
nat_gateway 		Number of connections currently open on the NAT gateway. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 225 seconds.
ip_protocol: The protocol of the connection. Can be TCP, UDP or ICMP.
nat/port_usage GA  (project)
Port usage
GAUGE, INT64, {port}
nat_gateway 		Maximum number of connections from VM to a single internet endpoint (IP:port). Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 225 seconds.
ip_protocol: The protocol of the connection. Can be TCP, UDP or ICMP.
nat/received_bytes_count GA  (project)
Received bytes count
DELTA, INT64, By
nat_gateway 		Count of bytes received (destination -> VMs) via the NAT gateway. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 225 seconds.
ip_protocol: The protocol of the connection. Can be TCP, UDP or ICMP.
nat/received_packets_count GA  (project)
Received packets count
DELTA, INT64, {packet}
nat_gateway 		Count of packets received (destination -> VMs) via the NAT gateway. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 225 seconds.
ip_protocol: The protocol of the connection. Can be TCP, UDP or ICMP.
nat/sent_bytes_count GA  (project)
Sent bytes count
DELTA, INT64, By
nat_gateway 		Count of bytes sent (VMs -> destination) over the NAT gateway. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 225 seconds.
ip_protocol: The protocol of the connection. Can be TCP, UDP or ICMP.
nat/sent_packets_count GA  (project)
Sent packets count
DELTA, INT64, {packet}
nat_gateway 		Count of packets sent (VMs -> destination) over the NAT gateway. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 225 seconds.
ip_protocol: The protocol of the connection. Can be TCP, UDP or ICMP.
router_up GA  (project)
Router tasks up
GAUGE, INT64, 1
gce_router 		Number of router software tasks that are running successfully. A value greater than or equal to 1 indicates that the router is up, although not all software tasks may be running. Compare the returned number to the expected number of software tasks for the router. A value of 0 indicates that the router is down. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.
sent_routes_count GA  (project)
Sent routes count
GAUGE, INT64, 1
gce_router 		Current number of routes sent by router. Sampled every 60 seconds. After sampling, data is not visible for up to 180 seconds.

Table generated at 2025-10-31 03:26:04 UTC.

What's next