You can exec into the pods using kubectl exec <pod_name> -n <namespace> <command>
and check if your application is creating log files in the paths that you have mentioned. If you are able to verify the existence of those files, you can add a busybox sidecar to the deployment and you can directly stream your logs using the sidecar and tail them using kubectl logs
You can use the following template to do the same:
Add the following volume-mount to the existing deployment
volumeMounts:
- mountPath: /var/log/nginx
name: logging-mount
And then you can add the sidecar using the following template
- name: log-streaming-sidecar
image: busybox
args: [/bin/sh, -c, 'tail -n+1 -f /var/log/nginx/*']
volumeMounts:
- mountPath: /var/log/nginx
name: logging-mount
volumes:
- name: logging-mount
emptyDir: {}
Please note that this will stream both your error and access logs into the same stream. Although, the correct method to do this is to create symlinks for error and access logs, the method I have mentioned can be used as an alternative.
Hope this helps!