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Logstream

A simple syslog sink: receives logs over UDP/TCP on port 514, stores them in VictoriaLogs, and serves a clean web interface (light/dark theme, live search, live view, color tags, English/French UI).

devices ──514 udp/tcp──▶ logstream (Go) ──HTTP batches──▶ VictoriaLogs
                              ▲    └── SSE (live) ──▶ browser
                              └──── API / UI ◀─────────┘

Architecture

• Ingestion: syslog (UDP/TCP) and Docker container logs both go through sink() (reverse DNS on IP hosts, without holding up the listeners), then the Store queue, which sends them in batches to VictoriaLogs. When VictoriaLogs is unreachable, batches are kept on disk (/data/spool, up to SPOOL_MAX_MB) and sent again, oldest first, once it is back.
• Live view: sink() also publishes each message to the Hub, which streams it to the browsers over SSE.
• Search: the HTTP API turns the UI filters into LogsQL queries sent to VictoriaLogs.
• Timeline: /api/histogram (histogram.go) counts the logs per interval and severity, aligned on the local time; the zoom bounds (from/to) also apply to the list and the export.
• State: tags and source settings live in /data (logstream-data volume); the logs themselves in the vlogs-data volume.

The editable source of the diagram is docs/architecture.excalidraw (open it on excalidraw.com).

Getting started

cp .env.example .env      # optional
docker compose up -d --build
./tools/send-test-logs.sh # sends 100 test messages

Then open http://localhost:8080.

Sending logs

• rsyslog (Linux): add *.* @SERVER_IP:514 (UDP) or *.* @@SERVER_IP:514 (TCP) to /etc/rsyslog.d/90-logstream.conf, then run systemctl restart rsyslog.
• Network gear, NAS, firewalls: set the server IP and port 514 in their "remote syslog" settings.
• Manual test: logger -n 127.0.0.1 -P 514 -d "hello error" (util-linux) or echo "<14>test ok" | nc -u -w1 127.0.0.1 514.

Settings > Log sources > Syslog turns syslog reception on or off and chooses the protocols (UDP, TCP) without restarting; the choice is saved in /data/syslog.json. It also shows the listening state (and the error if the port is already in use). The port itself is published by docker-compose: change SYSLOG_PORT in .env, then run docker compose up -d.

Supported formats: RFC 3164 (BSD) and RFC 5424. Over TCP, both "one message per line" and "octet counting" (RFC 6587) framing are accepted.

Search

Simple mode (default): each word is matched as a case-insensitive substring of the message, host and app. Words are combined with AND.

Input	Meaning
error disk	contains "error" and "disk"
"disk full"	contains the exact phrase
error -timeout	contains "error" but not "timeout"

LogsQL mode (Simple / LogsQL button): the full VictoriaLogs query language, e.g. error AND host:web-01, app:~"ssh|nginx", or * | stats by (host) count(). The live view is disabled in this mode.

Each row shows, from left to right: the reception time (server clock), the timestamp found in the message itself (msg_time), severity, host, app, codes of the tags found and message. Click a host or an app to filter on it.

Logs are indexed, searched and sorted by reception time: devices with a wrong clock (e.g. access points whose NTP fails) still show up in the right time range. Logs stored by versions before this change are indexed by their message timestamp; purge them from Settings to start clean.

Severity badges err/crit and warning use the colors of the error and warning tags. Each row starts with a fixed-width badge naming its source, one color per source: SYSLOG, DOCKER, KERNEL (dmesg), HOST (files of /var/log), AUDIT, FILE and LS (LogStream's own logs).

Shortcuts: / focuses the search box, Esc clears it. Clicking a row shows all its fields.

The column headers stay visible while scrolling. Drag the edge of a header (received, message time, severity, host, app) to resize the column, double-click it to go back to the automatic width; the message takes the remaining space. Widths are remembered by the browser (Settings > Appearance > Reset column widths restores them all). On phones the list keeps its two-line layout without columns.

Stream and Time range modes

The first control of the filter bar switches between two display modes:

• Stream: the latest logs over a sliding duration (5 min to 30 days, or all), with the live view.
• Time range: the logs between a start and an end date, typed in the time zone chosen in Settings. ◀ and ▶ move to the previous or next range of the same length, the magnifier doubles it around its middle. The live view pauses; the mode and the range are kept across reloads.

Timeline

The timeline above the list shows the volume of logs per interval, counted by reception time on the server clock (so it matches the times shown in the rows).

• Hover an interval: its bounds, total and detail per severity.
• Click a bar to show that interval in Time range mode, or drag across several bars to show the selection; "× Back to stream" returns to Stream mode. The list, the counters and the CSV export follow the range.
• In live mode the last interval grows as messages arrive, and the timeline reloads at each new interval. Nothing is refreshed while the browser tab is hidden; it catches up when shown again.

Settings > Appearance > Timeline (remembered per browser): scale (linear, √ by default, log), height (S/M/L: 40/80/120 px), color (stacked by severity, intensity compared with the median of the window: calm, burst above 3×, anomaly above 10×, or none), bars or area, division (automatic, about 100 intervals, or fixed: 1 s, 10 s, 1 min, 5 min, 1 h, 1 day) and refresh (off, 5 s, 15 s, 30 s, 1 min, or at each new interval). A fixed division that would exceed 300 intervals over the range is enlarged (shown as "enlarged"). Intervals are aligned on the local time of the time zone chosen in Settings (days start at local midnight).

API: curl 'localhost:8080/api/histogram?range=24h&step=auto&tz=Europe/Paris' returns step (ms), start (ms), count, now (server clock) and the non-empty buckets (i = interval index, n = total, sev = count per severity). Every log endpoint also accepts from / to (Unix milliseconds) instead of range.

Docker container logs

Logstream also collects the logs of the Docker containers running on the machine where it is installed (DOCKER_LOGS=on, the default in docker-compose.yml). They are searched, filtered, colored and exported like syslog messages:

• host is the Docker host name, app the compose service (or the container name), and each log also carries container, container_id, image, compose_project, compose_service and stream (stdout/stderr), visible in the row details.
• The Source filter shows only syslog or only Docker logs; Docker rows have a small cube before the app name, colored like its compose project.
• The severity comes from the line itself when the application writes it: JSON ("level":"error"), logfmt (level=warn), [ERROR], or an upper-case level word at the start of the line (ERROR, WARN…). Otherwise it is info. Terminal color codes are removed.
• Settings > Log sources shows one label per container (project/service) in a single field: followed containers in color, then not followed ones in grey; a click switches a label. The color identifies the compose project, and Docker app names in the log list use the same color. Stopped containers are hidden by default ("Show stopped containers" displays them, dashed, and they stay editable). A filter box and "Enable all" / "Disable all" (applied to the labels shown) help with many containers. New containers are followed automatically unless that option is turned off. Choices are saved per compose service (or container name) in /data/docker.json, so they survive re-creations.
• Logstream remembers the position of the last line stored for each container (/data/docker-state.json): after a restart it resumes without losing lines. The position only moves once a line is in VictoriaLogs or in the disk buffer, and a full queue slows the reading down instead of dropping lines. A container seen for the first time is read from DOCKER_BACKFILL ago (1 hour by default).
• Logstream itself and the proxy below are never collected; add the label logstream.exclude=true to any other container to exclude it for good.

Security: access to the Docker socket is equivalent to root on the machine. Logstream therefore goes through docker-socket-proxy, which only lets through listing containers, reading logs, events and engine info (GET only).

Host system logs

Logstream can also collect the system logs of the machine hosting the stack, without configuring anything on the host. The source is off by default: turn it on in Settings > Log sources > Host system logs (saved in /data/hostlogs.json).

• docker-compose.yml mounts /var/log and /run/log/journal read-only under /host.
• When the host runs systemd, Logstream reads the systemd journal files directly (no journalctl needed in the image): host is the machine name, app the program (SYSLOG_IDENTIFIER), severity and facility come from the journal, and the systemd unit is kept in unit. Otherwise it follows the text files of /var/log (syslog, messages, *.log), parsed like syslog lines, with the file name in log_file.
• These logs have the host source: the Source filter shows them alone.
• When the source is turned on, the last hour is read first (HOST_LOGS_BACKFILL); the position reached is saved in /data/hostlogs-state.json, so a restart neither loses nor duplicates entries.
• Permissions: the container runs as an unprivileged user and gets the adm group (gid 4), which can read the journal and /var/log on Debian and Ubuntu. On other systems, set HOST_LOGS_GID in .env to the gid of systemd-journal (getent group systemd-journal | cut -d: -f3). Settings > Log sources shows a clear message when access is denied.
• Limits: journal fields compressed by journald (messages longer than 512 bytes, compressed with zstd/lz4/xz) cannot be decoded without extra libraries; they are counted in Settings and shown as "(compressed journal entry)". Rotated or compressed text files (*.1, *.gz) are not read.

Kernel messages (dmesg)

Logstream can collect the kernel ring buffer of the host (what dmesg shows: hardware, drivers, OOM killer, firewall…) by reading /dev/kmsg. The source is off by default: turn it on in Settings > Log sources > Kernel messages (dmesg) (saved in /data/dmesg.json).

• Device: the container does not see /dev/kmsg by default. Uncomment the devices section of docker-compose.yml (/dev/kmsg:/dev/kmsg:r, read-only), then docker compose up -d.

• Permissions: when the host has kernel.dmesg_restrict=1 (the default on Debian and Ubuntu), only processes with the CAP_SYSLOG capability can read the kernel log, and the container runs as an unprivileged user. Either:

  • allow it on the host: sysctl -w kernel.dmesg_restrict=0, kept across reboots with echo kernel.dmesg_restrict=0 | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/50-dmesg.conf (every user of the host can then run dmesg); this setting cannot be changed from a container;
  • or run Logstream as root with the SYSLOG capability: uncomment user: "0:0" and cap_add: [SYSLOG] in docker-compose.yml.

  Settings > Log sources says when the device is missing or access is denied; the rest of Logstream keeps working and the device is tried again every 10 seconds.

• Fields: app is kernel (or the program name for messages written by programs such as systemd[1]: …), severity and facility come from the record, host is localhost, subsystem and device are kept when the kernel gives them. These logs have the kernel source (proto kmsg): the Source filter shows them alone.

• Time: records carry the time since boot; Logstream turns it into a date using the boot time (/proc/uptime). As with dmesg -T, the time can be early after the host was suspended.

• When the source is turned on, the last hour is read first (DMESG_BACKFILL, 0 = only new messages). The sequence number of the last message and the boot ID are saved in /data/dmesg-state.json: after a restart of Logstream, reading resumes after the last message (no duplicates); after a reboot of the host, the new buffer is read from DMESG_BACKFILL ago. Messages overwritten in the kernel buffer before being read are counted in Settings.

Linux audit (auditd)

Logstream can follow the log of the Linux audit daemon (/var/log/audit/audit.log): logins, sudo, watched files, syscalls matched by your auditctl rules… The source is off by default: turn it on in Settings > Log sources > Linux audit (auditd), where the file path can also be changed (saved in /data/audit.json; AUDIT_LOG sets the default path).

• Mount: uncomment /var/log/audit:/var/log/audit:ro in docker-compose.yml, then docker compose up -d. (/var/log is already mounted under /host for the host system logs, so /host/var/log/audit/audit.log also works as the path, without a new volume.)
• Permissions (host side): auditd writes its log as root, mode 0600, in a 0700 directory, and Logstream runs as UID 10001. The reliable way is the group the container already gets for the host logs (HOST_LOGS_GID, adm by default):

  sudo sed -i 's/^log_group.*/log_group = adm/' /etc/audit/auditd.conf
  sudo chgrp adm /var/log/audit && sudo chmod 750 /var/log/audit
  sudo service auditd restart        # systemctl refuses to restart auditd on some distributions
  

  auditd then creates every rotated file with mode 0640 and group adm. An ACL also works (sudo setfacl -m u:10001:rx /var/log/audit && sudo setfacl -m u:10001:r /var/log/audit/audit.log) but must be applied again to each new file after a rotation. Settings > Log sources says when the file is missing or access is denied; it is tried again every second.
• Events: the records of one event (SYSCALL, EXECVE, CWD, PATH, PROCTITLE…) share the same msg=audit(time:serial) and become one log, once no record came for 2 seconds. The message is a summary — who, what, result — such as cedric (as root): exec apt install nginx [exec] → success or bob: PAM:authentication via /usr/sbin/sshd from 203.0.113.9 on ssh → failed; the raw records are kept in audit_raw and shown under the summary (folded in compact density until the line is opened). Hexadecimal values (proctitle, cmd, arguments with spaces) are decoded.
• Fields: audit_type (type of the first record, also used as app), audit_serial, auid (login user ID), user (its name, or the uid when it cannot be resolved), exe, res (success / failed, from res= or success=) and key (rule key). Severity is warning when the result is a failure, info otherwise; facility authpriv; source audit. In the list, audit lines have a violet left edge, a light tint and the AUDIT source badge; the Source filter shows them alone.
• Names: user comes from the enriched format (log_format = ENRICHED, the default of recent auditd versions), else from the host's /etc/passwd when it is mounted as /host/etc/passwd. host is the node= of the records (name_format = hostname in auditd.conf), else AUDIT_HOST, else /host/etc/hostname, else localhost.
• When the source is turned on, the last hour is read first (AUDIT_BACKFILL, 0 = only new events). The inode and an offset before which every event was sent are saved in /data/audit-state.json: after a restart, reading resumes there; after a rotation by auditd, the end of audit.log.1 is read before the new file.

Log files (Traefik, nginx, applications…)

Logstream can follow the log files of other programs: Traefik, nginx, Apache, or any application that writes to a file. Declare each file in Settings > Log sources > Log files (saved in /data/files.json, up to 50): a name (the app of its entries, by default the file name), the path of the file as mounted in the container, a format (Automatic by default), an optional host (default: /host/etc/hostname, else localhost) and a switch.

• Mount the directory read-only, e.g. in docker-compose.yml: - /var/log/traefik:/logs/traefik:ro, then docker compose up -d. Files under /var/log are already reachable as /host/var/log/…. The files must be readable by UID 10001 or the group of HOST_LOGS_GID (adm by default); Settings > Log sources says when no file matches or access is denied.

• Path: one file, e.g. /logs/traefik/access.log (no wildcards). As soon as it is typed, the file is checked: found or not, readable or not, its detected format and its last line.

• Format detection (Automatic): from the last lines of the file (50 at most), the structured format that at least 80 % of them follow — Traefik access JSON, JSON lines, access log CLF, logfmt — else plain text. It is done again when the format is changed; the format found is shown in the status of the file. Choose another format to force it (a regular expression is never detected).

• Formats:

  • Plain text: one entry per line; the level is detected as for Docker logs, a timestamp at the start of the line (ISO 8601, 2006/01/02 15:04:05, [02/Jan/2006:15:04:05 +0200], Jan 2 15:04:05) becomes the message time and is removed from the message. Indented lines (stack traces) are added to the previous entry.
  • JSON lines: msg / message, time / ts / @timestamp (text or Unix time) and level (word or number, pino/bunyan included) are recognized; the other keys become fields, nested objects with dotted names (req.id).
  • logfmt: key=value pairs, as in Traefik's default logs or Go programs; same keys as JSON.
  • Access log (CLF): Common / Combined Log Format of nginx and Apache, and Traefik's access log in this format (router, server URL and duration included). Fields client_ip, http_method, http_path, http_status, http_size, user_agent, http_referer, router, backend, duration_ms.
  • Traefik access (JSON): the JSON access log of Traefik (accessLog.format: json), summarized as GET app.example.com/ 200 · 12.5 ms · app@docker · 203.0.113.9, every key in the fields. Traefik's own logs in the same file are read as JSON lines.
  • Regular expression (RE2 / Go syntax): the named groups time, level, msg, host and app fill these fields, status gives the level of an access log, the other groups become fields, e.g. ^(?P<time>\S+ \S+) \[(?P<level>\w+)\] (?P<module>\S+): (?P<msg>.*)$. A line that does not match is added to the previous entry.

  For access logs, 5xx statuses are err, 4xx warning, the others info. A line that does not fit the chosen format is kept as plain text. Fields named like LogStream's own ones (host, app…) are renamed field_host, field_app…

• Display: source file, the path in log_file. In the list these lines have a green left edge, a light tint and the FILE source badge; the Source filter shows them alone.

• When a file is turned on, the lines of the last hour already in it are read first (FILES_BACKFILL, 0 = only new lines; lines without a timestamp are then left out). The start of that hour is found by bisection on the dates of the lines, so a large file that holds months of logs is not read from its start; a file created later is read from its start, up to 64 MB per second, the status showing what is left to read. The inode and an offset are saved per file in /data/files-state.json: after a restart reading resumes there; after a rotation (access.log renamed access.log.1), the end of the old file is read before the new one; a file truncated in place (copytruncate) is read again from its start.

LogStream internal logs

Logstream records its own events as logs, with host logstream, app the component (store, syslog, docker, host, dmesg, audit, files, main) and the logstream source: VictoriaLogs unreachable and back, lost batches, batches refused from the disk buffer, syslog listener errors, Docker API or container streams lost, sources that cannot read, start and stop. They are on by default from level warning; Settings > Log sources > LogStream internal logs turns them off or changes the minimum level (saved in /data/selflog.json). The same event (component and message) is recorded at most once every 30 seconds, with the number of repeats left out; events go through a bounded queue and never wait for the storage, so an unreachable VictoriaLogs cannot make them pile up or loop. Everything still goes to docker compose logs logstream as before. In the list, these lines have a turquoise left edge and an LS badge before the app; the Source filter shows them alone.

CSV export

The Export button (next to the log count) downloads every stored log matching the current filters (search, time range, severity, host, app), newest first, up to EXPORT_MAX rows (100,000 by default), not only the rows on screen. Two variants:

• CSV: comma separated, UTF-8.
• CSV for Excel: semicolon separated with a UTF-8 BOM, so French Excel opens it directly with accents. Cells starting with =, +, - or @ are prefixed with ' so that a crafted log message cannot run as a formula.

Columns: received, message_time (both as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.mmm in the time zone chosen in Settings), severity, facility, host, host_ip, app, pid, source_ip, proto, message. In LogsQL mode, only the filter part is supported (no | pipes).

From the command line: curl -o logs.csv 'localhost:8080/api/export.csv?q=error&range=24h&tz=Europe/Paris'.

Settings

The gear icon opens the settings, organized in tabs. Changes show at once but are only kept with the Save button, under the tab labels: it takes the accent color while changes are waiting. Cancel goes back to the saved settings, and closing the window with unsaved changes asks before dropping them. Localization and Appearance are remembered per browser; color tags and log sources are saved on the server. Purging and resetting column widths act at once.

• Localization
  • Language: English or French.
  • Date & time: time zone (browser zone, UTC, or about 80 common zones) and the display format of the reception time: DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM:SS (default, the usual French display), with milliseconds, YYYY-MM-DD, 12-hour clock, ISO 8601 or Unix epoch. The time zone applies to every date shown.
• Patterns: color tags. Each tag has a keyword, a background color (the text automatically switches to black or white to stay readable) and options: whole word, match case, regular expression, active. Tags are stored on the server in /data/tags.json (logstream-data volume), so they are shared by every browser. Default tags (pastel): warning (orange) and error (red); ok (green) is in the Log levels preset. Default tags still using the colors of earlier versions are switched to the pastel ones automatically. The + Preset… menu adds ready-made tags: HTTP/HTTPS access logs (status codes, methods, probes, bots, TLS and proxy errors), system logs (SSH, sudo, kernel, systemd, firewall), applications (Docker, databases) and general patterns (log levels, IPv4 addresses). Tags already in the list are skipped, and the added tags can be edited like any other. The list comes from a text file you can edit (PRESETS_FILE): see docs/presets.md for each preset and the file format. In a regular expression, a group named hl ((?<hl>…)) colors only that part of the match: the presets use it to color the status code or the method, not the text around it. Each tag gets a two-digit code (01, 02…) assigned by the server: it stays with the tag until the tag is deleted (codes are also given to tags created by earlier versions). The Pattern column of the log list shows, as grey badges, the codes of the active tags found in each message; it has room for 3, beyond that it shows 2 and +N, and the tooltip lists them all.
• Appearance
  • Theme: System (follows the computer/phone preference), Light or Dark. The sun/moon button in the header switches between light and dark.
  • Log display: font size (tiny, small, medium, large), density (normal, or compact to fit about 50% more lines on screen) and font: the system monospace font, one of 3 narrow built-in fonts served by LogStream itself, which work offline (Inconsolata Condensed, the narrowest, Iosevka and Ubuntu Mono), or one of 11 free fonts made for dense text (JetBrains Mono, Fira Code, Source Code Pro, IBM Plex Mono, Cascadia Code, Roboto Mono, Inconsolata, Red Hat Mono, Noto Sans Mono, Victor Mono, DM Mono). These 11 are loaded by the browser from Bunny Fonts, a privacy-friendly European font service; without internet access, the system font is used. Ligatures are disabled so -> or != show as typed. The densest setting is Tiny + Compact + Inconsolata Condensed.
• Database: database figures read from VictoriaLogs (refreshed at most every 30 s): stored lines, size on disk (index included), raw size and compression ratio, period covered with the retention, lines of the last 24 h and last hour, distinct hosts and apps, free disk space. Sizes use KB/MB/GB (Ko/Mo/Go in French). "Delete all logs" permanently erases every stored log (you must type PURGE to confirm). Tags and settings are kept. VictoriaLogs needs -delete.enable (already set in docker-compose.yml). The feature is off by default: set ALLOW_PURGE=true to allow it. Any admin can then purge: turn on authentication if the UI is reachable by others.

Authentication

AUTH_MODE picks how the UI and the API are protected (/healthz always stays open):

• local (default): a login page with the account AUTH_USER / AUTH_PASS; leave them empty to have no authentication (for instance behind a reverse proxy that already checks). The UI then shows a warning banner, which can be closed.
• oidc: login through an OpenID Connect provider (Keycloak, Authentik, Authelia, Zitadel…), authorization code flow with PKCE.

In local mode the login page follows the theme and language of the UI. The session lasts SESSION_TTL (12 h by default), survives restarts (its signing key is in /data/session.key) and ends when AUTH_USER or AUTH_PASS changes; the log out button (top right) ends it. Failed logins are written in the logs with the client address (auth: failed login for "bob" from 192.0.2.7). Scripts can still call the API with HTTP Basic credentials (curl -u user:pass).

An optional read-only account, AUTH_VIEWER_USER / AUTH_VIEWER_PASS, can search, follow the live view and export, but cannot change tags, sources or purge: those settings are greyed out in its UI and the API answers 403.

To show your logo on the login page, mount a PNG in the container and point LOGIN_LOGO to it:

# docker-compose.yml, logstream service
    volumes:
      - ./logo.png:/config/logo.png:ro

# .env
LOGIN_LOGO=/config/logo.png

To use OIDC:

1. In the provider, create a confidential client (with a secret) for logstream and register the redirect URL https://logs.example.org/auth/callback (your address).
2. In .env:

   AUTH_MODE=oidc
   OIDC_ISSUER=https://sso.example.org/realms/home      # exactly the "issuer" of the provider
   OIDC_CLIENT_ID=logstream
   OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET=...
   OIDC_REDIRECT_URL=https://logs.example.org/auth/callback
   

3. docker compose up -d. The logs show oidc authentication enabled, or the reason the provider could not be read (wrong issuer, unreachable…).

Opening the UI sends you to the provider's login page, then back to logstream. The session lasts SESSION_TTL (12 h by default) and survives restarts (its signing key is in /data/session.key); when it ends, the page goes through the login again. The log out button (top right) ends the logstream session, then opens the provider's log out page if it has one.

Every user the provider accepts for this client can log in: restrict access in the provider (Keycloak: client roles or a dedicated realm; Authentik: application bindings). Logins are written in the logstream logs (oidc: alice logged in). With an https redirect URL, the cookies are only sent over HTTPS: logstream must be reached through a TLS reverse proxy.

To give read-only access to some users, set OIDC_ADMIN_GROUP (for instance logstream-admins): only its members are admins, the others are read-only. The groups are read from the groups claim of the ID token (OIDC_GROUPS_CLAIM to use another one); in Keycloak, add a "Group Membership" mapper to the client (a leading / is ignored).

Whatever the mode, every answer carries security headers (Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options…), and the API refuses changes sent from another site (cross-site requests).

Host names (reverse DNS)

When a device sends its IP address as host name (or no host name at all), Logstream looks up its DNS name (PTR record) and stores the name in host and the IP in host_ip. Results are cached (1 hour, 10 minutes when there is no name). Logs stored earlier with an IP are resolved on display, and the host filter shows name (IP).

The container uses Docker's DNS, which forwards to the host's resolvers. If your local names are only known by your router or a local DNS (Pi-hole, AdGuard, Unbound…), set DNS_SERVER=192.168.1.1 (its address). Set RDNS=off to disable lookups.

Configuration

Variable	Default	Purpose
SYSLOG_PORT	514	syslog port published on the host
HTTP_PORT	8080	web UI port
RETENTION	30d	how long VictoriaLogs keeps logs
AUTH_MODE	local	local (login page) or oidc, see Authentication
AUTH_USER / AUTH_PASS	empty	account of the login page (local mode); empty = no authentication
AUTH_VIEWER_USER / AUTH_VIEWER_PASS	empty	optional read-only account (local mode)
LOGIN_LOGO	empty	PNG shown on the login page, path inside the container (local mode)
SESSION_TTL	12h	session lifetime (both modes; OIDC_SESSION_TTL still works)
OIDC_ISSUER	empty	issuer URL of the OpenID Connect provider (oidc mode)
OIDC_CLIENT_ID / OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET	empty	client registered in the provider
OIDC_REDIRECT_URL	empty	callback URL of logstream, e.g. https://logs.example.org/auth/callback
OIDC_SCOPES	openid profile email	requested scopes
OIDC_ADMIN_GROUP	empty	only members of this group are admins, the others read-only (empty = everyone is admin)
OIDC_GROUPS_CLAIM	groups	ID token claim that lists the groups
RDNS	on	resolve IP hosts to DNS names
DNS_SERVER	empty	DNS server for reverse lookups (ip or ip:port)
ALLOW_PURGE	false	allow "Delete all logs" in Settings
SYSLOG_TCP_MAX_CONNS	512	syslog TCP connections open at once; more are refused
SYSLOG_TCP_IDLE	30m	a syslog TCP connection silent this long is closed (senders reconnect)
EXPORT_MAX	100000	maximum number of rows in a CSV export
PRESETS_FILE	/data/presets.json	color tag presets file; the built-in list when missing (see docs/presets.md)
DOCKER_LOGS	on in compose	collect the logs of the local Docker containers
DOCKER_HOST	tcp://docker-proxy:2375 in compose	Docker API address (unix:///var/run/docker.sock outside compose)
DOCKER_BACKFILL	1h	history read from a container seen for the first time
HOST_LOGS_GID	4 (adm) in compose	group given to the container to read the host logs
HOST_LOGS_BACKFILL	1h	history read when the host system logs source is turned on
HOST_LOGS_ROOT	/host	where the host directories are mounted
DMESG_BACKFILL	1h	history read when the kernel messages source is turned on
DMESG_DEVICE	/dev/kmsg	kernel log device read by the kernel messages source
AUDIT_LOG	/var/log/audit/audit.log	default path of the Linux audit log (can be changed in Settings > Log sources)
AUDIT_BACKFILL	1h	history read when the Linux audit source is turned on
AUDIT_HOST	empty	host name of the audit events when the records carry no node=
FILES_BACKFILL	1h	history read when a log file is turned on (Settings > Log sources > Log files)
TZ	Europe/Paris	time zone for RFC 3164 timestamps (which carry none)
BATCH_SIZE, FLUSH_MS, QUEUE_SIZE	1000, 1000, 100000	ingestion tuning
SPOOL_MAX_MB	1024	disk buffer size for batches VictoriaLogs could not take (0 = no buffer: retried for 15 s, then dropped)

Debugging

• docker compose logs -f logstream: receive errors and errors sending to VictoriaLogs.
• The bottom bar shows received / stored / dropped counters, the messages waiting in the disk buffer, and the last storage error.
• http://localhost:9428/select/vmui: VictoriaLogs' own UI to try LogsQL queries.
• API:

  curl 'localhost:8080/api/logs?q=error&range=1h&limit=5'   # the response includes the generated LogsQL query
  curl localhost:8080/api/stats
  curl localhost:8080/api/tags
  

• Running outside Docker (Go 1.22+): VLOGS_URL=http://localhost:9428 DATA_DIR=./data SYSLOG_ADDR=:5514 go run .

Updating

Every image version is pinned, so a docker compose pull or a rebuild never changes a component behind your back:

Where	Image	Version
docker-compose.yml	victoriametrics/victoria-logs	v1.52.0
docker-compose.yml	tecnativa/docker-socket-proxy	v0.5.0
Dockerfile (build)	golang	1.27.1-alpine3.24
Dockerfile (runtime)	alpine	3.24.2

To update one of them:

1. Check the release notes: VictoriaLogs, docker-socket-proxy, Go, Alpine. VictoriaLogs keeps its storage format across minor versions; read the changelog before a major version change.
2. Change the version in the file above, then run docker compose up -d --build.
3. Check the bottom bar (received / stored / dropped) and Settings > Log sources. To go back, restore the previous version and run the same command.

Code layout

File	Contents
main.go	configuration, startup
auth.go	authentication: OpenID Connect (discovery, PKCE, ID token checks) and the signed session cookie
auth_local.go	local mode: login page (web/login.html), session cookie, LOGIN_LOGO
syslog.go	UDP/TCP listeners and RFC 3164 / 5424 parsing
store.go	batched inserts into VictoriaLogs and LogsQL queries
query.go	turns UI filters into LogsQL; live-view filter
histogram.go	timeline: division, interval alignment, /api/histogram
hub.go	pushes new messages to browsers (SSE)
rdns.go	cached reverse DNS lookups
export.go	streamed CSV export
docker.go	Docker container logs (API, followers, positions, level detection)
syslogserver.go	syslog listeners opened and closed from Settings > Log sources
hostlogs.go, journal.go	host system logs: systemd journal reader (no journalctl) and /var/log follower
dmesg.go	kernel messages: /dev/kmsg reader, record parsing, position by boot ID and sequence number
audit.go	Linux audit: audit.log follower (rotation, saved offset), record parsing, grouping by event, summary
filesource.go, fileformats.go	log files: follower (rotation, saved offsets, continuation lines) and formats (detection, text, JSON, logfmt, CLF, Traefik, regular expression)
selflog.go	LogStream internal logs: logEvent, minimum level, throttling, bounded queue
tags.go	color tag storage
presets.go, presets.json	color tag presets (/api/presets), built-in list
api.go	/api/* HTTP routes
web/	UI (HTML, CSS, plain JavaScript, no build step), embedded in the binary; translations live in web/app.js (I18N), and in web/login.html for the login page

Note

With Docker Desktop (macOS/Windows), the source IP seen by the container for UDP packets is the Docker gateway. The host field still comes from the syslog header, which normally carries the sender's real name.