# Use Non-JSON Formatted Logging

ESS services uses JSON as the default log message format.

{% hint style="info" %}
ESS services refer specifically to ESS code and not its dependencies. Dependencies (such as Kafka) use their own logging libraries and as such may use another format and have different fields.
{% endhint %}

Although JSON formatting allows the log messages to be enriched with details that non-JSON formatting does not allow, you can change the log format to non-JSON messages.

## Example Customization

To change log messages to non-JSON formatting, you can use the **`disable-json-logging-for-quarkus`** component.

{% hint style="info" %}
Note\
Non-JSON formatted messages do not contain all the details that JSON messages contain.
{% endhint %}

1. Go to your ESS installation directory:

   ```sh
   cd ${HOME}/ess
   ```
2. Modify the **`kustomization.yaml`** (i.e., step 3 of the [Applying Your Customizations](/ess/2.3/installation/customize-configurations.md#applying-your-customizations) procedure).\
   Specifically, add the highlighted content to the `components` field in the **`kustomization.yaml`** file:

   <pre class="language-yaml"><code class="lang-yaml">
    # kustomization.yaml in your ESS installation directory
    # ...  Preceding content omitted for brevity 
    # ...
    components:
   <strong>   - ../release/ess/deployment/kubernetes/components/disable-json-logging-for-quarkus
   </strong><strong> 
   </strong> 
   </code></pre>
3. Continue with the rest of the [Applying Your Customizations](/ess/2.3/installation/customize-configurations.md#applying-your-customizations) procedure.

{% hint style="info" %}
**Tip**\
To return to JSON-formatted logging, remove (or revert) the above changes.
{% endhint %}


---

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```

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