Introduction
The GridPane OpenLiteSpeed (OLS) stack offers the ability to adjust how your website error and access logs are configured on the server. This includes the size they’re allowed to grow to before being rotated, and how long they are retained for.
By default, we configure these settings out of the box to ensure that servers with very high-traffic websites don’t create logs that quickly fill up a server’s disk space and take it offline. This article details how to configure these settings.
Table of Contents
- Definitions
- Part 1. Error Logs
– 1.1. Adjust Error Log Settings for Entire Server
– 1.2. Adjust Error Log Settings for Individual Websites
– 1.3. Adjust Error Log Retention Settings - Part 2. Access Logs
– 2.1. Adjust Access Log Settings for Entire Server
– 2.2. Adjust Access Log Settings for Individual Websites
– 2.3. Adjust Access Log Format Pattern
– 2.4. Adjust Access Log Retention Settings
Definitions
Below you’ll find a definition for terms used in this article. You can also learn more in the official LiteSpeed documentation here:
https://www.litespeedtech.com/docs/webserver/config/slog
Keep Days
- This only applies to access logs, not error logs (OLS limitation, not GridPane decision).
- Specifies how many days the access log files will be kept before deletion.
- Rotated log files older than the specified number of days will be deleted.
Rolling Size
- Specifies when the current log file needs to be rolled over, also known as log rotation.
- When the file size is over the rollover limit, the active log file will be renamed to
site.url.access.log.yyyy_mm_dd(.extension)in the same directory, and a new active log file will be created. - The actual size of the rotated log file, once it is created, can sometimes be slightly larger than this size limit.
Log Level
- Specifies the level of logging to include in your error log file.
- Available levels in the GP-CLI below are:
ERRORandDEBUG. - Only messages with levels higher or equal to the current setting will be logged.
Debug Level
- Specifies the level of debug logging.
- Log Level must be set to
DEBUGto use this feature.
Part 1. Error Logs
OpenLiteSpeed error logs don’t have functioning directives for keepDays or compression. However, at GridPane these can be customized via our ols-max-error-log-count and ols-max-error-log-count settings via GP-CLI – details in section 1.3 below.
1.1. Adjust Error Log Settings for Entire Server
Default Server Settings
GridPane sets the following defaults:
errorlog logs/error.log {
logLevel DEBUG
debugLevel 0
rollingSize 10M
enableStderrLog 1
}Customize rollingsize, loglevel, and debuglevel
Use the following GP-CLI commands to adjust the Server httpd level via ENV:
gp conf write ols-error-log-rollingsize {{integer}}M
gp conf write ols-error-log-loglevel DEBUG||ERROR
gp conf write ols-error-log-debuglevel {{integer:1-10}}Replace {{integer}} with a whole number. For example:
gp conf write ols-error-log-rollingsize 15M
gp conf write ols-error-log-loglevel DEBUG
gp conf write ols-error-log-debuglevel 3
Regenerate the httpd config
To set your changes live, regenerate the httpd config with:
gp ols httpd
1.2. Adjust Error Log Settings for Individual Websites
Site Defaults
GridPane sets the following site defaults:
errorlog $VH_ROOT/logs/site.url.error.log {
useServer 0
logLevel DEBUG
rollingSize 10M
keepDays 7
}Customize rollingsize and loglevel
gp conf write ols-error-log-rollingsize {{integer}}M -site.env {{site.domain}}
gp conf write ols-error-log-loglevel DEBUG||ERROR -site.env {{site.domain}}Replace {{integer}} with a whole number and {{site.domain}} with your website URL. For example:
gp conf write ols-error-log-rollingsize 15M -site.env mywebsite.com
gp conf write ols-error-log-loglevel ERROR -site.env mywebsite.com
Regenerate the vhconf
Finally, regenerate the site.url/vhosts/vhconf config with:
gp ols site {{site.domain}} 1.3. Adjust Error Log Retention Settings
As mentioned, OLS does not have anything for compression or rotating the error log files, so instead, at GridPane you can adjust these ENV values:
ols-max-error-log-countThis sets the maximum number of log files that are allowed before the GridPane hourly worker begins compressing the oldest into archives.ols-max-error-log-archive-countThis sets the maximum number of log file archives allowed before the GridPane hourly worker begins deleting the oldest archives.
1.3.1. Current Defaults
The following defaults are set by GridPane:
ols-max-error-log-count:3 ols-max-error-log-archive-count:7
1.3.2. Adjust httpd Server logs
You can adjust these defaults for all websites on a server using the following GP-CLI:
gp conf write ols-max-error-log-count {{integer}}
gp conf write ols-max-error-log-archive-count {{integer}}Replace {{integer}} with a whole number. As an example, the following sets compression to begin at day 7, and files older than 30 days will be automatically deleted:
gp conf write ols-max-error-log-count 7 gp conf write ols-max-error-log-archive-count 30
Regenerate the httpd config
To set your changes live, regenerate the httpd config with:
gp ols httpd
1.3.3. Adjust vhconf Site logs
gp conf write ols-max-error-log-count {{integer}} -site.env {{site.domain}}
gp conf write ols-max-error-log-archive-count {{integer}} -site.env {{site.domain}}Replace {{integer}} with a whole number and {{site.domain}} with your website URL. As an example, the following applies to one specific site and sets compression to begin at day 5, and files older than 21 days will be automatically deleted:
gp conf write ols-max-error-log-count 5 -site.env mywebsite.com
gp conf write ols-max-error-log-archive-count 21 -site.env mywebsite.com
Regenerate the vhconf
Finally, regenerate the site.url/vhosts/vhconf config with:
gp ols site {{site.domain}} Part 2. Access Logs
For access logs, we have the following directives we can manage via ENV: rollingSize, keepDays, compressArchive.
Access Log Defaults
GridPane sets the following default settings:
accesslog logs/access.log {
rollingSize 10M
keepDays 30
compressArchive 1
} 2.1. Adjust Access Log Settings for Entire Server
You can adjust the log settings for all websites on the server at the httpd level with the following GP-CLI:
gp conf write ols-access-log-rollingsize {{integer}}M
gp conf write ols-access-log-keepdays {{integer}}
gp conf write ols-log-compressarchive 1||0Replace {{integer}} with a whole number. For example:
gp conf write ols-access-log-rollingsize 15M
gp conf write ols-access-log-keepdays 30
gp conf write ols-log-compressarchive 1
Regenerate the httpd config
To set your changes live, regenerate the httpd config with:
gp ols httpd
2.2. Adjust Access Log Settings for Individual Websites
You can adjust the log settings for individual websites at the vhconf level with the following GP-CLI:
gp conf write ols-access-log-rollingsize {{integer}}M -site.env {{site.domain}}
gp conf write ols-access-log-keepdays {{integer}} -site.env {{site.domain}}
gp conf write ols-log-compressarchive 1||0 -site.env {{site.domain}}Replace {{integer}} with a whole number and {{site.domain}} with your website URL. For example:
gp conf write ols-access-log-rollingsize 15M -site.env mywebsite.com gp conf write ols-access-log-keepdays 30 -site.env mywebsite.com gp conf write ols-log-compressarchive 1 -site.env mywebsite.com
We recommend that you always keep compressing archives active, but you can choose not to if you wish.
Regenerate the vhconf
Finally, regenerate the site.url/vhosts/vhconf config with:
gp ols site {{site.domain}} 2.3. Adjust Access Log Format Pattern (Individual Websites Only)
At the website level, logFormat can also be adjusted for the access log using an include.
Log Format Default
GridPane site defaults are like so:
accesslog $VH_ROOT/logs/site.url.access.log {
useServer 0
logFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-agent}i\"
logHeaders 7
rollingSize 10M
keepDays 30
compressArchive 1
}Customize Log Format
If you want to customize the log format, you can add your pattern to the access_log_format.conf include.
Run the following command to create the config (replacing site.url with your website’s URL):
nano /var/www/site.url/ols/access_log_format.conf
Add your pattern, for example:
%t %h %l %u "%r" %>s %b "%{Referer}i" "%{User-agent}i"Save the file with CTRL+O followed by Enter. Exit nano with CTRL+X.
Regenerate the vhconf
Finally, regenerate the site.url/vhosts/vhconf config with:
gp ols site {{site.domain}} 2.4. Adjust Access Log Retention Settings
Since access logs do have the rotation on size, days, and compression, there is less need for management of the archive count. For this reason, we do not set this by default.
However, while it is unlikely to be needed for most servers, it is available if you have sites with extremely high traffic and need to get log size under control.
2.4.1 Server-Level Log Rotation
Use the following command to set the log retention for all sites on a server:
gp conf write ols-max-access-log-archive-count {{integer}}Replace {{integer}} with a whole number. For example:
gp conf write ols-max-access-log-archive-count 30
Regenerate the httpd config
To set your changes live, regenerate the httpd config with:
gp ols httpd
2.4.2. Site Level Log Rotation
Use the following command to set the log retention for a specific website:
gp conf write ols-max-access-log-archive-count {{integer}} -site.env {{site.domain}}Replace {{integer}} with a whole number and {{site.domain}} with your website URL. For example:
gp conf write ols-max-access-log-archive-count 30 -site.env mywebsite.com
Regenerate the vhconf
Next, regenerate the site.url/vhosts/vhconf config with:
gp ols site {{site.domain}}