November 8, 2020

Web-based Server Logfile

Running multiple servers and (web-)services, sometimes makes it hard to keep track of possible problems and errors. I had the same problem, when I came up with the idea of a centralized online-logfile. Searching the internet revealed tons of logfile applications, also for centralized logfile collection and evaluation. The problem with most of those applications is that they are either not open-source, too advanced and therefore complicated or require an own server instance. I was looking for a simple solution that runs on any webserver and displays log messages that can be reviewed from time to time. And so I sat down and came up with a simple web application, written in PHP and based on a SQLite database. Basically, any application with internet access can add a new entry to the logfile by calling a specific URL. This is especially useful when running Bash scripts performing different tasks, like backups or restarts of devices. The code of the logfile application is available on GitHub.

faullab.com by Fabian Faul