Nextcloud Logs and System Configuration Guide

Nextcloud logs can be overwhelming, but understanding how to configure and read them is essential for troubleshooting and maintaining your server.

The log levels in Nextcloud are divided into three categories: fatal, error, and info. Fatal logs indicate a critical error that can cause Nextcloud to crash, error logs indicate a non-critical issue that still needs to be addressed, and info logs provide general information about Nextcloud's activities.

To configure log levels, you can use the Nextcloud web interface and navigate to Settings > Server > Logging. From there, you can select the desired log level for each category.

The log rotation feature in Nextcloud automatically removes old logs to prevent them from taking up too much space.

Log levels in Nextcloud are crucial for diagnosing issues and understanding system activity. The default log level is set to 2 (WARN), which means that only warnings, errors, and fatal errors are logged.

You can adjust the log level to suit your needs, but be aware that DEBUG logging can affect server performance. DEBUG outputs a lot of information, so it's best to use it only when troubleshooting.

Here's a breakdown of the available log levels:

Remember to set the log level parameters in the config/config.php file.

The log level is a crucial setting that determines the level of detail in your logs. It ranges from DEBUG, which logs all activity, to FATAL, which logs only fatal errors.

You can set the log level in the config/config.php file, and the default setting is WARN (level 2). If you're trying to diagnose a problem, you might want to temporarily switch to DEBUG (level 0) to get more detailed information.

The log level parameters are set in the config/config.php file. This is where you can adjust the level of logging to suit your needs.

Here's a breakdown of the log levels:

If your system log level is set to 2 or higher, you'll need to trigger audit logging explicitly by adding a setting to the config.php file.

Error messages are prefixed with a specific string to identify their origin. This can be particularly helpful when troubleshooting issues.

In Nextcloud versions prior to 25, error log entries were prefixed with [owncloud]. I recall having to deal with this in an older version of Nextcloud, but fortunately, the prefix changed with the update.

From Nextcloud 26 onwards, error messages start with [nextcloud], making it easier to distinguish between different versions and their respective issues.

To set up your Nextcloud instance for optimal logging, you'll want to configure the system correctly. This involves setting the log level to a suitable level, which can be done by editing the config/config.php file.

The default log level is set to 3, which is suitable for most cases. However, you may want to adjust this depending on your specific needs.

For example, setting the log level to 1 will log all messages, while setting it to 5 will only log critical messages.

Sys is a crucial part of your system configuration. All log information will be sent to your default syslog daemon.

If you're not familiar with syslog, it's a system service that collects and stores log messages. This information can be useful for troubleshooting issues with your system.

In our setup, you can expect to see a steady stream of log messages being sent to syslog. This is a normal part of the system's operation.

Syslog can be configured to store log messages in various formats and locations. However, in our default configuration, it will use the standard syslog format and store the messages in the default location.

The config file is where you can customize the Nextcloud client to suit your needs. You can save log files directly to a predefined file or directory for easier troubleshooting.

To enable logging to a directory, you'll need to stop the client and add a specific line to the General section in the configuration file. Use a slash (/) as a path separator, regardless of your platform.

You can find the configuration file in different locations depending on your operating system. Here's a quick rundown:

extcloud.cfgmacOS systems: $HOME/Library/Preferences/Nextcloud/nextcloud.cfgLinux distributions: $HOME/.config/Nextcloud/nextcloud.cfg

Alternatively, you can start the client in the command line with parameters to change the logging settings. To save to a file, use the --logfile command, and to save to a directory, use the --logdir command.