How To Access AEMaaCS Logs with Adobe I/O CLI

Why logs matter in AEM as a Cloud Service

Logs are the fastest way to understand runtime behavior across author, publish, and dispatcher services. With AIO CLI, engineers can securely stream or download logs from Cloud Manager environments without shell access to containers, enabling quick triage, performance insights, and post-incident analysis.

Prerequisites

• Access to Adobe Cloud Manager within your organization

• Node.js (LTS) and npm installed locally

• Git installed

• Membership in appropriate Adobe Admin Console product profiles/roles (see Required permissions section)

Step 1 — Install Adobe I/O CLI locally

1. Ensure Node.js is installed:

   • Run: node --version

   • If not installed, download from nodejs.org

2. Install Adobe I/O CLI globally:

   • Run: npm install -g @adobe/aio-cli

3. Verify installation:

   • Run: aio --version

Use your OS package manager or Node Version Manager (nvm) to install or switch Node.js versions if needed.

Step 2 — Add the Cloud Manager plugin

Install the plugin that exposes Cloud Manager commands:

| aio plugins:install @adobe/aio-cli-plugin-cloudmanager |

Step 3 — Authenticate the CLI

1. Sign in to Adobe Developer Console and ensure you’re acting in the organization that has Cloud Manager.

2. Open an existing IO Project or create a new IO Integration Project using “Empty Project” (do not use a template) and add the Cloud Manager API with an OAuth Server-to-Server credential.

3. Grant the credential a product profile that includes Cloud Manager access (see Required permissions).

4. Download the JSON credentials file:

   1. Open OAuth Server-to-Server

      

   2. Click Download JSON

      

5. JSON keys are expected by the plugin in lowercase, so rename all keys in the JSON to lowercase (e.g., CLIENT_ID → client_id).

6. Load the credential into the AIO CLI context:aio config:set ims.contexts.aio-cli-plugin-cloudmanager /path/to/credentials.json --file --json

Keep credentials secure. Do not commit credentials to source control. Rotate credentials according to your security policy.

Step 4 — Create or confirm your Cloud Manager Project

1. In Cloud Manager, ensure that your Program exists and includes the required environments (author, publish, dispatcher) or set them as needed.

2. Capture Program ID and Environment IDs; you’ll use them in CLI commands.

Step 5 — Access logs with AIO CLI

1. List programs:

   aio cloudmanager:list-programs

2. Optionally set a default Program ID:

   aio config:set cloudmanager_programid

3. List environments for a program:

   aio cloudmanager:list-environments

   Example output:

   Environment ID	Name	Type	Description
   1000	myprogram-rde	rde	RDE Environment
   1001	myprogram-dev	dev	Dev Environment
   1002	myprogram-qa	qa	QA Environment
   1003	myprogram-stage	stage	Stage Environment
   1004	myprogram-prod	prod	Prod Environment

4. Discover available log types for an environment:

   aio cloudmanager:list-available-log-options

   Example: aio cloudmanager:list-available-log-options 1001

   Environment ID	Service	Name
   1001	preview_dispatcher	httpdaccess
   1001	preview_dispatcher	httperror
   1001	preview_dispatcher	aemdispatcher
   1001	author	aemaccess
   1001	author	aemerror
   1001	author	aemrequest
   1001	author	cdn
   1001	publish	aemaccess
   1001	publish	aemerror
   1001	publish	aemrequest
   1001	publish	cdn
   1001	preview_publish	aemaccess
   1001	preview_publish	aemerror
   1001	preview_publish	aemrequest
   1001	preview_publish	cdn
   1001	dispatcher	httpdaccess
   1001	dispatcher	httperror
   1001	dispatcher	aemdispatcher

5. Tail logs in real time (service can be author, publish, or dispatcher):

   aio cloudmanager:tail-logs

   Example: aio cloudmanager:tail-logs 1001 author aemerror

6. Download logs for offline analysis (DAYS is how many days back to fetch, per availability):

   aio cloudmanager:download-logs

   Example: aio cloudmanager:download-logs 1001 author aemerror 2

Required permissions

Your Adobe Admin Console setup must provide the following access to the identity used by AIO CLI:

• Cloud Manager product profile access for your organization

• A role that grants API-powered environment and log access (for example, Deployment Manager - Cloud Service, or equivalent role that allows log retrieval)

• Access to the target Program and Environments (author/publish/dispatcher)

If your organization uses fine-grained product profiles, ask an admin to verify that the Cloud Manager API is enabled for your profile and that your credential is assigned to that profile.

Troubleshooting common issues

• CLI not found: Ensure Node.js/npm are installed, and your shell PATH includes the global npm bin. Reinstall with npm install -g @adobe/aio-cli and reopen your terminal.

• Authentication failures: Validate that your downloaded JSON matches the expected format and that you loaded it using aio config:set ... --file --json. Confirm your org, project, and workspace in Developer Console correspond to the Cloud Manager org.

• Insufficient permissions: Ask an admin to add your user to the correct Cloud Manager product profile/role that allows program and environment access, including logs.

• Error: [cloudmanagercli:no_cm_orgs] No Cloud Manager authorized organizations found:

  • Log out of the AIO CLI by running aio auth logout.

  • Log back in using aio auth login -f to force a fresh authentication and allow you to select the correct profile/organization.

• Error: [cloudmanagersdk:error_list_programs] Cannot retrieve programs: https://cloudmanager.adobe.io/api/programs (403 Forbidden)

  • Same steps as with Authentication failures and [cloudmanagercli:no_cm_orgs]

• No logs returned: Verify the Environment ID and service name. Confirm the environment is running and log option names via aio cloudmanager:list-available-log-options .

• Rate limits or throttling: Retry after a short interval. For sustained usage, prefer downloads over real-time tailing.

Conclusion

Accessing AEM as a Cloud Service logs via the Adobe I/O CLI empowers teams to quickly diagnose issues, monitor environments, and maintain operational excellence without direct server access. By following the steps and troubleshooting tips in this guide, you can streamline your debugging workflow and ensure compliance with Adobe’s security model. For further learning, refer to the referenced documentation or contact your Cloud Manager administrator for assistance with advanced scenarios.