Cloudwatch Export Task stuck on "Started successfully"

Question

We stream logs from our services to a cloudwatch log group under a couple different log streams. We want to export several days worth of logs to an S3 bucket so that it can be shared with a client.

We're following the steps from here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/logs/S3ExportTasksConsole.html#ExportSingleAccount

We get through the steps and create the export task. The "aws-logs-write-test" is successfully created, but no actual logs showed up. The export task is stuck in the status "Started successfully" without any objects showing up in the S3 prefix.

The stream prefix has been left empty. We tried to specify the stream prefix for a specific stream but the same outcome happened.

How do I figure out what's going wrong and/or just get my logs exported to S3?

Answer

You can use describe export tasks using the AWS CLI to get the current status of the task.. In a command prompt, use the following describe-export-tasks command.

```
aws logs --profile CWLExportUser describe-export-tasks --task-id "cda45419-90ea-4db5-9833-aade86253e66"
```

[+] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/logs/DescribeExportTasks.html

Answer

Log data can take up to 12 hours to become available for export. Export tasks time out after 24 hours. If your export tasks are timing out, reduce the time range when you create the export task.

**Reference Document:** https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/logs/S3Export.html

Cloudwatch Export Task stuck on "Started successfully"

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