dropshell-templates/simple-logs/README.md

Simple Logs

A dead-simple log viewer using Grafana + Loki. Much easier than ELK/Kibana!

Features

• ALL logs in one place - Docker containers + system logs
• Simple interface - Just one dashboard, no complex setup
• Fast & lightweight - Uses 10x less resources than ELK
• Real-time - Logs appear instantly
• No configuration - Works out of the box

Quick Start

1. Install

dropshell install simple-logs

2. Access

• Go to: http://<server-ip>:3000
• Login: admin / admin (change on first login)

3. View Logs

• Click the Dashboards icon (4 squares) on left
• Click "Simple Logs"
• That's it! All your logs are there

How to Use

Filter by Container

Click any container_name label to see only that container's logs

Search Text

Use the search box at the top to find specific text

Change Time Range

Top-right corner - set to "Last 5 minutes" for recent logs

View Details

Click any log line to expand and see full details

What Gets Logged

• All Docker container logs
• System logs (/var/log/syslog)
• Authentication logs (/var/log/auth.log)

Ports

• 3000 - Grafana Web UI
• 3100 - Loki API (internal)

Why This Instead of ELK?

• 10x simpler - One dashboard vs Kibana's complexity
• 10x smaller - ~200MB RAM vs 2-3GB for ELK
• Instant setup - No index patterns, no field mappings
• Just works - No configuration needed

Advanced: Custom Queries

In the logs panel, you can use LogQL queries:

• {container_name="myapp"} - Specific container
• {job="syslog"} |= "error" - System errors
• {job="docker"} |~ "(?i)error|warn" - All Docker warnings/errors