Here, we'll set up a destination for audit log storage and a stream to generate them, for either your Linodes or Linode Kubernetes Engine clusters. The process uses Akamai Cloud Pulse Logs operations from the Linode API, and related resources.

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By using this service, you acknowledge your obligations under the United States Department of Justice Bulk Sensitive Data Transaction Rule ("BSD Rule"). You also agree that you will not use the service to transfer, onward transfer, or otherwise make accessible any United States government-related data or bulk United States sensitive personal data to countries of concern or a covered person, as each of those terms and concepts are defined in the BSD Rule. Anyone using the service is solely responsible for compliance with the BSD Rule.

Create a destination

First, you'll need a place to store the logs. You can choose from one of two destination types:

Use our Object Storage service to set up a bucket to store your logs.

Get set up with Object Storage

To start, we'll set up an audit logs bucket using our Object Storage service.

Create the bucket

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This assumes you already have Object Storage on your account. Talk to your Akamai account team about getting it added.

Monitor log support via an audit logs bucket requires that you enable Object Lock when you create the bucket. Object Lock is currently only supported using the S3 API’s; there is currently no support for it with the Linode API or in Cloud Manager.

See Create the audit logs bucket with Object Lock enabled for full details on its configuration. Below is an example of enabling it in a new bucket:

aws s3api put-object-lock-configuration
  --bucket my-audit-logs-bucket
  --endpoint=<https://(bucket_name)-1.(S3 hostname)>
  --object-lock-configuration '{ "ObjectLockEnabled": "Enabled", "Rule": { "DefaultRetention": { "Mode":    "COMPLIANCE", "Days": 365 }}}'

--bucket. A unique name for the bucket. Store this value for future use, as your bucket_name.
--endpoint. The endpoint for access to the bucket. The (bucket_name) variable is the unique name you set for the bucket, and the (S3 hostname) is the assigned S3 hostname for the region where you want the bucket to live. From that linked topic, store the associated Region value from the table, as your region. Finally, store the full --endpoint you set here as the hostname for your bucket.
--object-lock-configuration. Enable and configure Object Lock, using different modes, and setting a life cycle.

Set up an access key

Now, you need a key to access your audit logs bucket.

Run the Create an Object Storage key operation including the region you stored from the previous step.
```
{
  "label": "OBJ Access for logging",
  "regions": [
    "us-iad"
  ]
}
```
From the response, store these values:
- The id. This will serve as your access_key_id for later in the process.
- The secret_key. Used to validate the access key in requests.

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The secret_key is only revealed in the response for this operation. Be sure to store it now because you can't view it later.

Create your Object Storage destination

With your bucket set up in Object Storage, let's set it up as a destination to store your audit logs.

Run the Create a destination operation and target your Object Storage bucket:
```
{
  "label": "my_object_storage_logs_destination",
  "details": {
    "access_key_id": 123,
    "access_key_secret": "1aB2CD3e4fgHi5JK6lmnop7qR8STU9VxYzabcdefHh",
    "bucket_name": "my-audit-logs-bucket",
    "host": "my-audit-logs-bucket-1.us-iad-1.linodeobjects.com",
    "path": "ds-logs"
  },
  "type": "linode_object_storage"
}
```
- label. Give your Object Storage logs destination a name.
- type. Set this to akamai_object_storage.
- access_key_id. This is the id for the Object Storage key you stored.
- access_key_secret. This is the secret_key you stored.
- bucket_name. This is the bucket's label that you stored.
- host. This is the bucket's hostname you stored.
- path (Optional). Enter a name of a directory path where you want the logs stored. This path doesn't have to already exist in the bucket. If you leave this out, logs are stored in this path, by default, based on the type of log:
  - Audit logs (This applies to logs for all other supported services). {stream_type}/{log_type}/{account}/{%Y/%m/%d/}
  - Kubernetes API audit logs (This applies to logs for the Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE) enterprise service). {stream_type}/{log_type}/{account}/{partition}/{%Y/%m/%d/}

Store the id from the response, for use as the destination_id.

{
   "created": "2025-07-20 09:45:13",
   "created_by": "John Q. Linode",
   "details": {
     "access_key_id": 123,
     "bucket_name": "my-audit-logs-bucket",
     "host": "my-audit-logs-bucket-1.us-iad-1.linodeobjects.com",
     "path": "ds-logs"
   },
   "id": 12345, # Store value
   "label": "audit_logs_destination",
   "type": "linode_object_storage",
   "updated": "2025-07-21 12:41:09",
   "updated_by": "Jane Q. Linode",
   "version": 1
}

You're ready to move on to the next phase of the process.

Kubernetes API audit logs prerequisites

If you're configuring a stream to gather Linode Kubernetes engine (LKE) enterprise audit logs, there are a few things you need to do before you can start gathering log data.

Enable the feature

You need to get access to this feature by have a tag for it added on your account. Do this by opening a support ticket:

Run the Open a support ticket operation. Include a request to enable this support in the request:

{
  "summary": "Support for Kubernetes API audit logs"
  "description": "We need to get the appropriate tag added to our account to enable support for Kubernetes API audit logs."
}

Enable Kubernetes API audit logs

You also need to enable audit logs for each cluster you want to track.

Run the Update a Kubernetes cluster operation for an existing cluster, or the Create a Kubernetes cluster operation to create a new cluster.
In the request, set audit_logs_enabled: true in the control_plane object:
```
"control_plane": {
  "audit_logs_enabled": true
},
```
📘
This object is only available with these operations through this beta release. Its status is also revealed in the response for these operations as well as the List Kubernetes clusters and Get a Kubernetes cluster operations.

Create the stream

Run the Create a stream operation to define how logs will be gathered, and include your stored destinationId in the destinations array. You can set up a stream for two different types of audit logs.

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By default, you can only set up a single stream for each audit log type. Talk to your account team if you need additional streams.

You can set up a separate destinationCHAR_LONG_DASHusing either an Object Storage bucket or Custom HTTPSCHAR_LONG_DASHand set a different path for each audit log type.

These let you gather log data for all of the control plane operations for the services in your Linodes.

label. Give the stream a unique, easily recognizable name.
type. Set this to audit_logs.
destinations. Include your stored destinationId in this array.
status (Optional). This defaults to active. When active, Logs should begin to arrive at your configured destination in about 45 minutes.

{
  "label": "Linode_services_logs",
  "type": "audit_logs",
  "destinations": [
    1234
  ],
  "status": "active"
}