Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate (ACA) Practice Test

The primary function of Logtail in Alibaba Cloud Log Service is to collect logs from system log files non-intrusively. Logtail is designed to efficiently gather log data from various sources, such as servers and applications, in a way that does not disrupt the normal operations of these systems. It operates as a lightweight agent, which monitors specified log files and streams the log data to Alibaba Cloud Log Service for storage, analysis, and retrieval.

This non-intrusive collection is crucial as it ensures that the performance of the systems being monitored is not hindered during the log gathering process. Logtail identifies changes in the log files and only processes new entries without causing any significant load on the server.

In contrast, the other options serve different roles within the overall log management ecosystem. While Log Service does provide a web interface for log management, that is not the primary function of Logtail itself. Similarly, encryption and backup services are important aspects of log safety and management respectively, but they are not specific to Logtail's role as a log collector. Understanding the core function of Logtail highlights its importance in facilitating efficient log data management in a cloud environment.