Use CreateFlowLogs with an AWS SDK or CLI

Example 1: To create a flow log

The following create-flow-logs example creates a flow log that captures all rejected traffic for the specified network interface. The flow logs are delivered to a log group in CloudWatch Logs using the permissions in the specified IAM role.

aws ec2 create-flow-logs \
    --resource-type NetworkInterface \
    --resource-ids eni-11223344556677889 \
    --traffic-type REJECT \
    --log-group-name my-flow-logs \
    --deliver-logs-permission-arn arn:aws:iam::123456789101:role/publishFlowLogs

Output:

{
    "ClientToken": "so0eNA2uSHUNlHI0S2cJ305GuIX1CezaRdGtexample",
    "FlowLogIds": [
        "fl-12345678901234567"
    ],
    "Unsuccessful": []
}

For more information, see VPC Flow Logs in the Amazon VPC User Guide.

Example 2: To create a flow log with a custom format

The following create-flow-logs example creates a flow log that captures all traffic for the specified VPC and delivers the flow logs to an Amazon S3 bucket. The --log-format parameter specifies a custom format for the flow log records. To run this command on Windows, change the single quotes (') to double quotes (").

aws ec2 create-flow-logs \
    --resource-type VPC \
    --resource-ids vpc-00112233344556677 \
    --traffic-type ALL \
    --log-destination-type s3 \
    --log-destination arn:aws:s3:::flow-log-bucket/my-custom-flow-logs/ \
    --log-format '${version} ${vpc-id} ${subnet-id} ${instance-id} ${srcaddr} ${dstaddr} ${srcport} ${dstport} ${protocol} ${tcp-flags} ${type} ${pkt-srcaddr} ${pkt-dstaddr}'

For more information, see VPC Flow Logs in the Amazon VPC User Guide.

Example 3: To create a flow log with a one-minute maximum aggregation interval

The following create-flow-logs example creates a flow log that captures all traffic for the specified VPC and delivers the flow logs to an Amazon S3 bucket. The --max-aggregation-interval parameter specifies a maximum aggregation interval of 60 seconds (1 minute).

aws ec2 create-flow-logs \
    --resource-type VPC \
    --resource-ids vpc-00112233344556677 \
    --traffic-type ALL \
    --log-destination-type s3 \
    --log-destination arn:aws:s3:::flow-log-bucket/my-custom-flow-logs/ \
    --max-aggregation-interval 60

For more information, see VPC Flow Logs in the Amazon VPC User Guide.

Example 1: This example creates EC2 flowlog for the subnet subnet-1d234567 to the cloud-watch-log named 'subnet1-log' for all 'REJECT' traffic using the perimssions of the 'Admin' role

New-EC2FlowLog -ResourceId "subnet-1d234567" -LogDestinationType cloud-watch-logs -LogGroupName subnet1-log -TrafficType "REJECT" -ResourceType Subnet -DeliverLogsPermissionArn "arn:aws:iam::98765432109:role/Admin"

Output:

ClientToken                                  FlowLogIds             Unsuccessful
-----------                                  ----------             ------------
m1VN2cxP3iB4qo//VUKl5EU6cF7gQLOxcqNefvjeTGw= {fl-012fc34eed5678c9d} {}