Log sources on a sealed node
A Syself Autopilot node runs Syself Linux , a sealed OS: the root filesystem is read-only, and only /var is writable. Every log stream lives on /var, which means every log stream disappears when the node is reprovisioned. Knowing what is there, and that it is temporary, is the reason the rest of this sub-topic ships logs off-node.
The streams#
| Source | Path | Nodes | What it records |
|---|---|---|---|
| Container logs | /var/log/pods/ | all | stdout and stderr from every container |
| journald (the systemd log) | /var/log/journal/ | all | systemd service output (kubelet, containerd, the node daemons) |
| auditd (the Linux OS audit log) | /var/log/audit/audit.log | all | OS-level events: file and identity changes, privilege use, module loads, every command in a login session |
| Kubernetes API audit | /var/log/kube-apiserver/kube-apiserver.log | control planes | who did what to which Kubernetes object |
| KubeGate audit | /var/log/kubegate/audit.log | control planes | the allow and deny decisions the API server's front gate made (TLS and source-address checks) |
The first three are on every node. The two API-side audit streams exist only on control-plane nodes, because that is where the API server and its front gate run. Each API server logs only the requests it handled, so on a multi-control-plane cluster the full API trail is the union of the per-node files.
Warning
Everything in /var is lost when a node is replaced, and the platform replaces nodes rather than repairing them. The on-node copies rotate and are a bounded hot buffer, not a system of record. Ship what you need off-node before a node goes. See Collect container and journald logs and Ship audit logs off-node .
Why you cannot install a log agent in the OS#
The root filesystem is read-only and there is no package manager, so you cannot install a collector into the OS the way you would on a normal server. That is not a limitation to work around; it is why every collector here runs as a Kubernetes DaemonSet, a pod that runs on every node. The DaemonSet mounts the host log paths and streams them out. The node stays sealed, and the shipping is a workload you own and upgrade like any other.
For the on-node size caps and how to size retention in your own store, see Log retention and sizing .
Reference: metrics per component
Every Syself Autopilot component's metrics endpoint, its port and scheme, which nodes it exists on, and whether it sits on the pod network or the node's loopback.
Set up Loki
Install Loki as the log store, back it with object storage, and add it to Grafana so logs and metrics share one query surface.