Logging Configuration

Log system configuration, rotation, and troubleshooting for PxeLab.

Related: Config File Reference | Troubleshooting

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Log Levels

Level	Description	Use Case
debug	Detailed debug info	Development debugging, issue investigation
info	Normal operation info (default)	Production
warn	Warning messages	Needs attention but doesn't affect operation
error	Error messages	Issues requiring fix

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Configuration

Configure in the log section of config.yaml:

log:
  level: info                    # Log level
  format: text                   # text / json
  file: ""                       # Log file path (empty=default ~/.pxelab/logs/pxelab.log)
  max_size_mb: 100                # Max file size (MB), 0=unlimited
  max_backups: 5                  # Number of rotated files to keep, 0=unlimited
  max_age_days: 30                # Retention days, 0=unlimited
  compress: true                  # gzip compress old logs
  cleanup_interval: 24            # Cleanup check interval (hours), 0=no auto-cleanup

Web UI: Settings → Log Management (rotation changes require service restart)

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Log Files

• Default path: ~/.pxelab/logs/pxelab.log
• Format: Text (one log entry per line)
• Contains: timestamp, level, service name, message
• Written to both stderr (terminal) and file

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Log Rotation

PxeLab has built-in log rotation supporting:

• Size-based rotation: Auto-rotate when file exceeds max_size_mb
• Age-based cleanup: Auto-delete logs older than max_age_days
• Backup limit: Keep up to max_backups rotated files
• gzip compression: Auto-compress old logs when compress: true

The Log Management UI also supports manual log cleanup (by retention days/backups).

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Log Troubleshooting

# View logs in real-time
tail -f ~/.pxelab/logs/pxelab.log

# Filter by service
grep "DHCP" ~/.pxelab/logs/pxelab.log
grep "TFTP" ~/.pxelab/logs/pxelab.log
grep "HTTP" ~/.pxelab/logs/pxelab.log

# Filter by level
grep "ERROR" ~/.pxelab/logs/pxelab.log

# Web UI
# Sidebar → Monitoring → Logs (real-time SSE stream)

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Service Metrics

PxeLab provides a metrics snapshot endpoint (JSON format, not Prometheus text format):

GET /api/v1/metrics

Returns a services map; each service includes:

• Common metrics: requests, errors, bytes in/out, active connections, rejected, request rate, error rate, bandwidth, latency (5-minute window)
• DHCP extras: Offer/Ack/Nak/Decline/Discover counts, active leases, architecture & platform breakdown
• HTTP extras: 2xx/3xx/4xx/5xx status counts, request duration

Services with registered metrics: http, tftp, dns, dhcp, nfs, wol.