# Log API calls for Elastic Load Balancing using AWS CloudTrail
Elastic Load Balancing is integrated with AWS CloudTrail, a service that provides a record of actions taken by a user, role, or an AWS service. CloudTrail captures API calls for Elastic Load Balancing as events. The calls captured include calls from the AWS Management Console and code calls to the Elastic Load Balancing API operations. Using the information collected by CloudTrail, you can determine the request that was made to Elastic Load Balancing, the IP address from which the request was made, when it was made, and additional details.
Every event or log entry contains information about who generated the request. The identity information helps you determine the following:
+ Whether the request was made with root user or user credentials.
+ Whether the request was made on behalf of an IAM Identity Center user.
+ Whether the request was made with temporary security credentials for a role or federated user.
+ Whether the request was made by another AWS service.
CloudTrail is active in your AWS account when you create the account and you automatically have access to the CloudTrail **Event history**. The CloudTrail **Event history** provides a viewable, searchable, downloadable, and immutable record of the past 90 days of recorded management events in an AWS Region. For more information, see [Working with CloudTrail Event history](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/view-cloudtrail-events.html) in the *AWS CloudTrail User Guide*. There are no CloudTrail charges for viewing the **Event history**.
For an ongoing record of events in your AWS account past 90 days, create a trail or a [CloudTrail Lake](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-lake.html) event data store.
**CloudTrail trails**
A *trail* enables CloudTrail to deliver log files to an Amazon S3 bucket. All trails created using the AWS Management Console are multi-Region. You can create a single-Region or a multi-Region trail by using the AWS CLI. Creating a multi-Region trail is recommended because you capture activity in all AWS Regions in your account. If you create a single-Region trail, you can view only the events logged in the trail's AWS Region. For more information about trails, see [Creating a trail for your AWS account](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-create-and-update-a-trail.html) and [Creating a trail for an organization](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/creating-trail-organization.html) in the *AWS CloudTrail User Guide*.
You can deliver one copy of your ongoing management events to your Amazon S3 bucket at no charge from CloudTrail by creating a trail, however, there are Amazon S3 storage charges. For more information about CloudTrail pricing, see [AWS CloudTrail Pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/pricing/). For information about Amazon S3 pricing, see [Amazon S3 Pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/).
**CloudTrail Lake event data stores**
*CloudTrail Lake* lets you run SQL-based queries on your events. CloudTrail Lake converts existing events in row-based JSON format to [ Apache ORC](https://orc.apache.org/) format. ORC is a columnar storage format that is optimized for fast retrieval of data. Events are aggregated into *event data stores*, which are immutable collections of events based on criteria that you select by applying [advanced event selectors](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-lake-concepts.html#adv-event-selectors). The selectors that you apply to an event data store control which events persist and are available for you to query. For more information about CloudTrail Lake, see [Working with AWS CloudTrail Lake](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-lake.html) in the *AWS CloudTrail User Guide*.
CloudTrail Lake event data stores and queries incur costs. When you create an event data store, you choose the [pricing option](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-lake-manage-costs.html#cloudtrail-lake-manage-costs-pricing-option) you want to use for the event data store. The pricing option determines the cost for ingesting and storing events, and the default and maximum retention period for the event data store. For more information about CloudTrail pricing, see [AWS CloudTrail Pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/pricing/).
## Elastic Load Balancing management events in CloudTrail
[Management events](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/logging-management-events-with-cloudtrail.html#logging-management-events) provide information about management operations that are performed on resources in your AWS account. These are also known as control plane operations. By default, CloudTrail logs management events.
Elastic Load Balancing logs control plane operations as management events. For a list of the control plane operations, see the following:
+ Application Load Balancers — [Elastic Load Balancing API Reference version 2015-12-01](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/APIReference/)
+ Network Load Balancers — [Elastic Load Balancing API Reference version 2015-12-01](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/APIReference/)
+ Gateway Load Balancers — [Elastic Load Balancing API Reference version 2015-12-01](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/APIReference/)
+ Classic Load Balancers — [Elastic Load Balancing API Reference version 2012-06-01](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/2012-06-01/APIReference/)
## Elastic Load Balancing event examples
An event represents a single request from any source and includes information about the requested API operation, the date and time of the operation, request parameters, and so on. CloudTrail log files aren't an ordered stack trace of the public API calls, so events don't appear in any specific order.
The following examples show CloudTrail events for a user who created a load balancer and then deleted it using the AWS CLI. You can identify the CLI using the `userAgent` elements. You can identify the requested API calls using the `eventName` elements. Information about the user (`Alice`) can be found in the `userIdentity` element.
**Example 1: CreateLoadBalancer from the ELBv2 API**
```
{
"eventVersion": "1.03",
"userIdentity": {
"type": "IAMUser",
"principalId": "123456789012",
"arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/Alice",
"accountId": "123456789012",
"accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
"userName": "Alice"
},
"eventTime": "2016-04-01T15:31:48Z",
"eventSource": "elasticloadbalancing.amazonaws.com",
"eventName": "CreateLoadBalancer",
"awsRegion": "us-west-2",
"sourceIPAddress": "198.51.100.1",
"userAgent": "aws-cli/1.10.10 Python/2.7.9 Windows/7 botocore/1.4.1",
"requestParameters": {
"subnets": ["subnet-8360a9e7","subnet-b7d581c0"],
"securityGroups": ["sg-5943793c"],
"name": "my-load-balancer",
"scheme": "internet-facing"
},
"responseElements": {
"loadBalancers":[{
"type": "application",
"loadBalancerName": "my-load-balancer",
"vpcId": "vpc-3ac0fb5f",
"securityGroups": ["sg-5943793c"],
"state": {"code":"provisioning"},
"availabilityZones": [
{"subnetId":"subnet-8360a9e7","zoneName":"us-west-2a"},
{"subnetId":"subnet-b7d581c0","zoneName":"us-west-2b"}
],
"dNSName": "my-load-balancer-1836718677.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com",
"canonicalHostedZoneId": "Z2P70J7HTTTPLU",
"createdTime": "Apr 11, 2016 5:23:50 PM",
"loadBalancerArn": "arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-west-2:123456789012:loadbalancer/app/my-load-balancer/ffcddace1759e1d0",
"scheme": "internet-facing"
}]
},
"requestID": "b9960276-b9b2-11e3-8a13-f1ef1EXAMPLE",
"eventID": "6f4ab5bd-2daa-4d00-be14-d92efEXAMPLE",
"eventType": "AwsApiCall",
"apiVersion": "2015-12-01",
"recipientAccountId": "123456789012"
}
```
**Example 2: DeleteLoadBalancer from the ELBv2 API**
```
{
"eventVersion": "1.03",
"userIdentity": {
"type": "IAMUser",
"principalId": "123456789012",
"arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/Alice",
"accountId": "123456789012",
"accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
"userName": "Alice"
},
"eventTime": "2016-04-01T15:31:48Z",
"eventSource": "elasticloadbalancing.amazonaws.com",
"eventName": "DeleteLoadBalancer",
"awsRegion": "us-west-2",
"sourceIPAddress": "198.51.100.1",
"userAgent": "aws-cli/1.10.10 Python/2.7.9 Windows/7 botocore/1.4.1",
"requestParameters": {
"loadBalancerArn": "arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-west-2:123456789012:loadbalancer/app/my-load-balancer/ffcddace1759e1d0"
},
"responseElements": null,
"requestID": "349598b3-000e-11e6-a82b-298133eEXAMPLE",
"eventID": "75e81c95-4012-421f-a0cf-babdaEXAMPLE",
"eventType": "AwsApiCall",
"apiVersion": "2015-12-01",
"recipientAccountId": "123456789012"
}
```
**Example 3: CreateLoadBalancer from the ELB API**
```
{
"eventVersion": "1.03",
"userIdentity": {
"type": "IAMUser",
"principalId": "AIDAJDPLRKLG7UEXAMPLE",
"arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/Alice",
"accountId": "123456789012",
"accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
"userName": "Alice"
},
"eventTime": "2016-04-01T15:31:48Z",
"eventSource": "elasticloadbalancing.amazonaws.com",
"eventName": "CreateLoadBalancer",
"awsRegion": "us-west-2",
"sourceIPAddress": "198.51.100.1",
"userAgent": "aws-cli/1.10.10 Python/2.7.9 Windows/7 botocore/1.4.1",
"requestParameters": {
"subnets": ["subnet-12345678","subnet-76543210"],
"loadBalancerName": "my-load-balancer",
"listeners": [{
"protocol": "HTTP",
"loadBalancerPort": 80,
"instanceProtocol": "HTTP",
"instancePort": 80
}]
},
"responseElements": {
"dNSName": "my-loadbalancer-1234567890.elb.amazonaws.com"
},
"requestID": "b9960276-b9b2-11e3-8a13-f1ef1EXAMPLE",
"eventID": "6f4ab5bd-2daa-4d00-be14-d92efEXAMPLE",
"eventType": "AwsApiCall",
"apiVersion": "2012-06-01",
"recipientAccountId": "123456789012"
}
```
**Example 4: DeleteLoadBalancer from the ELB API**
```
{
"eventVersion": "1.03",
"userIdentity": {
"type": "IAMUser",
"principalId": "AIDAJDPLRKLG7UEXAMPLE",
"arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/Alice",
"accountId": "123456789012",
"accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
"userName": "Alice"
},
"eventTime": "2016-04-08T12:39:25Z",
"eventSource": "elasticloadbalancing.amazonaws.com",
"eventName": "DeleteLoadBalancer",
"awsRegion": "us-west-2",
"sourceIPAddress": "198.51.100.1",
"userAgent": "aws-cli/1.10.10 Python/2.7.9 Windows/7 botocore/1.4.1",
"requestParameters": {
"loadBalancerName": "my-load-balancer"
},
"responseElements": null,
"requestID": "f0f17bb6-b9ba-11e3-9b20-999fdEXAMPLE",
"eventID": "4f99f0e8-5cf8-4c30-b6da-3b69fEXAMPLE"
"eventType": "AwsApiCall",
"apiVersion": "2012-06-01",
"recipientAccountId": "123456789012"
}
```
For information about CloudTrail record contents, see [CloudTrail record contents](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-event-reference-record-contents.html) in the *AWS CloudTrail User Guide*.