How to View and Manage Web Server Logs in RunCloud

We’ve updated the Web Server Log viewer in RunCloud to make it easier to review and troubleshoot server activity. Instead of displaying logs only as unstructured text, the new viewer organizes entries into a searchable table and provides an interactive timeline for identifying traffic spikes and errors.

You can still switch to the original raw-text view whenever you need it.

Navigating to the Web Server Log

To access the logs for a specific website, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your RunCloud dashboard and click on the name of the web application you want to inspect.
2. Click on Web Server Log in the left sidebar menu located under the “Web Settings” section.

Understanding the Log Tabs

At the top of the log viewer, you’ll find several tabs. Each tab contains a different type of server record.

• NGINX Access Log: This tab displays requests made to your website, including their paths, request methods, IP addresses, and response status codes. NGINX buffers these logs and writes them to the log file after the buffer reaches approximately 16 kilobytes, unless your web application is in Development Mode.
• NGINX Error Log: This tab displays errors encountered by the NGINX server.
• “Apache Access Log” and “Apache Error Log”: These tabs provide access and error records for the Apache server.
• “G-Firewall“: This tab displays security and firewall events when the feature is enabled for your application.

Searching and Filtering Logs

RunCloud offers helpful filtering tools so you don’t have to manually sift through thousands of lines of data.

1. Click inside the “Search by path, IP, status…” box to find specific entries. You can enter an IP address, HTTP status code, or file path.
2. Click the “All methods” drop-down menu to filter the logs by HTTP request methods, such as GET or POST.
3. Click the All statuses drop-down menu to filter the logs by HTTP response status codes, such as 200 for successful responses or 404 for resources that could not be found. 

Note: Only the most recent 500 lines of the actual log files are read and processed for display in the dashboard.

Reading the Log Data

The interface provides both an interactive timeline and a structured table to help you analyze your server traffic and locate specific log entries. 

1. Review the interactive bar chart to see how requests are distributed over time.
   1. Hover over a bar to view the number and types of requests recorded during that period.
   2. Click a bar to jump directly to the corresponding entries in the table.

2. Scroll down to the table to review the individual log entries. The table displays the “Time”, “IP Address”, “Method”, and “Path” for each request.
3. Click the down arrow on the left side of a row to view the full details recorded for that log entry. 

Using Log Action Buttons

You can perform additional actions using the buttons in the top-right corner of the log viewer.

1. Click the Reload button to refresh the page and fetch the most recent log entries.
2. Click Raw to switch from the structured table to the original raw-text view of the log file. 
3. Click the “…” button to see additional options for managing your log files.
   1. Click Copy to copy the log entries to your clipboard. You can then paste them into a text editor for further review or processing. 
   2. Click the Download button to download the raw log file to your system.

If you have any other questions or need help, please feel free to get in touch with our 24/7 support team. We’re here to help!