Logs

About 3 min

Database logs

EventStoreDB logs its internal operations to the console (stdout) and to log files. The default location of the log files and the way to change it is described below.

There are a few options to change the way how EventStoreDB produces logs and how detailed the logs should be.

Warning

The EventStoreDB logs may contain sensitive information such as stream names, usernames, and projection definitions.

Log format

EventStoreDB uses the structured logging in JSON format that is more machine-friendly and can be ingested by vendor-specific tools like Logstash or Datadog agent.

Here is how the structured log looks like:

{
  "PID": "6940",
  "ThreadID": "23",
  "Date": "2020-06-16T16:14:02.052976Z",
  "Level": "Debug",
  "Logger": "ProjectionManager",
  "Message": "PROJECTIONS: Starting Projections Manager. (Node State : {state})",
  "EventProperties": {
    "state": "Master"
  }
}
{
  "PID": "6940",
  "ThreadID": "15",
  "Date": "2020-06-16T16:14:02.052976Z",
  "Level": "Info",
  "Logger": "ClusterVNodeController",
  "Message": "========== [{internalHttp}] Sub System '{subSystemName}' initialized.",
  "EventProperties": {
    "internalHttp": "127.0.0.1:2112",
    "subSystemName": "Projections"
  }
}
{
  "PID": "6940",
  "ThreadID": "23",
  "Date": "2020-06-16T16:14:02.052976Z",
  "Level": "Debug",
  "Logger": "MultiStreamMessageWriter",
  "Message": "PROJECTIONS: Resetting Worker Writer",
  "EventProperties": {}
}
{
  "PID": "6940",
  "ThreadID": "23",
  "Date": "2020-06-16T16:14:02.055000Z",
  "Level": "Debug",
  "Logger": "ProjectionCoreCoordinator",
  "Message": "PROJECTIONS: SubComponent Started: {subComponent}",
  "EventProperties": {
    "subComponent": "EventReaderCoreService"
  }
}

This format is aligned with Serilog Compact JSON format.

Log files are located in /var/log/eventstore for Linux and macOS, and in the logs subdirectory of the EventStoreDB installation directory on Windows. You can change the log files location using the Log configuration option.

Tips

Moving logs to a separate storage might improve the database performance if you keep the default verbose log level.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--log`
YAML	`Log`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_LOG`

For example, adding this line to the eventstore.conf file will force writing logs to the /tmp/eventstore/logs directory:

Log: /tmp/eventstore/logs

Log level

You can change the level using the LogLevel setting:

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--log-level`
YAML	`LogLevel`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_LOG_LEVEL`

Acceptable values are: Default, Verbose, Debug, Information, Warning, Error, and Fatal.

Logging options

You can tune the EventStoreDB logging further by using the logging options described below.

Log configuration file

Specifies the location of the file which configures the logging levels of various components.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--log-config`
YAML	`LogConfig`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_LOG_CONFIG`

By default, the application directory (and /etc/eventstore on Linux and Mac) are checked. You may specify a full path.

HTTP requests logging

EventStoreDB can also log all the incoming HTTP requests, like many HTTP servers do. Requests are logged before being processed, so unsuccessful requests are logged too.

Use one of the following ways to enable the HTTP requests logging:

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--log-http-requests`
YAML	`LogHttpRequests`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_LOG_HTTP_REQUESTS`

Default: false, logging HTTP requests is disabled by default.

Log failed authentication

For security monitoring, you can enable logging failed authentication attempts by setting LogFailedAuthenticationAttempts setting to true.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--log-failed-authentication-attempts`
YAML	`LogFailedAuthenticationAttempts`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_LOG_FAILED_AUTHENTICATION_ATTEMPTS`

Default: false

Log console format

The format of the console logger. Use Json for structured log output.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--log-console-format`
YAML	`LogConsoleFormat`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_LOG_CONSOLE_FORMAT`

Acceptable values are: Plain, Json

Default: Plain

Log file size

The maximum size of each log file, in bytes.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--log-file-size`
YAML	`LogFileSize`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_LOG_FILE_SIZE`

Default: 1GB

Log file interval

How often to rotate logs.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--log-file-interval`
YAML	`LogFileInterval`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_LOG_FILE_INTERVAL`

Acceptable values are: Minute, Hour, Day, Week, Month, Year

Default: Day

Log file retention count

Defines how many log files need to be kept on disk. By default, logs for the last month are available. Tune this setting if you need to have more history in the logs, or you need to save disk space.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--log-file-retention-count`
YAML	`LogFileRetentionCount`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_LOG_RETENTION_COUNT`

Default: 31

Disable log file

You can completely disable logging to a file by changing the DisableLogFile option.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--disable-log-file`
YAML	`DisableLogFile`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_DISABLE_LOG_FILE`

Default: false

Logs download

License Required

The Logs Download feature provides HTTP access to EventStoreDB logs so that they can be viewed without requiring file system access.

You require a license key to use this feature.

Tips

You can use this API to download log files from your managed EventStoreDB clusters in Event Store Cloud.

On startup the server will log a message similar to:

LogsEndpoint: Serving logs from "<FULL-PATH-TO-LOGS>" at endpoint "/admin/logs"

Access the logs via the /admin/logs endpoint on your server. Construct the full URL as follows:

http(s)://<node ip or hostname>:<node port>/admin/logs

Example:

https://localhost:2113/admin/logs

Only authenticated users belonging to the $admins or $ops groups can use this endpoint.

Listing log files

To list the current log files, issue a GET to the /admin/logs endpoint

Example:

curl https://user:password@localhost:2113/admin/logs | jq

Sample response:

[
  {
    "name": "log-stats20240205.json",
    "lastModified": "2024-02-05T13:14:14.2789475+00:00",
    "size": 1058614
  },
  {
    "name": "log20240205.json",
    "lastModified": "2024-02-05T13:14:37.0781601+00:00",
    "size": 158542
  }
]

The response is ordered from most recent change first, is limited to a maximum of 1000 items, and includes:

Name	Description
name	File name of the log file
createdAt	Timestamp of when the log file was created in round-trip format (local time with time zone information)
lastModified	Timestamp of the last modification in round-trip format (local time with time zone information)
size	Size of the log file in bytes

Downloading log files

To download a specific log file, append its name to the URL:

Example:

curl https://user:password@localhost:2113/admin/logs/log20240205.json --output log20240205.json

Troubleshooting

404 Not Found: Verify that you have a valid license key.
401 Unauthorized: Confirm the credentials are correct and the user belongs to the $ops or $admins group.