NGINX - Customizing Logging to Fit Your Needs

Become the root user:

sudo su -

Edit the bigstatecollege.edu.conf file:

cd /etc/nginx/sites-available

vi bigstatecollege.edu.conf

After the server_name line, add the following:

        access_log /var/log/nginx/bigstatecollege.edu_access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/bigstatecollege.edu_error.log;

Save and exit.

Validate / reload NGINX:

nginx -t

systemctl reload nginx

Test the new configuration:

curl --insecure https://www.bigstatecollege.edu

ls -al /var/log/nginx/

We should see the new logs. Take a look at the contents of the new access log:

cat /var/log/nginx/bigstatecollege.edu_access.log

Access the virtual host several more times. Access a file that doesn't exist, then take a look at the contents of the log again.

We're going to set the error logs to the debug level, the most verbose:

vi bigstatecollege.edu.conf

On the error_log line, add debug:

error_log /var/log/nginx/bigstatecollege.edu_error.log debug;

Save and exit.

Validate / reload NGINX:

nginx -t

systemctl reload nginx

Test the new configuration:

curl --insecure https://www.bigstatecollege.edu

curl --insecure https://www.bigstatecollege.edu/foo.txt

Let's see what we generated in the new error log:

cat /var/log/nginx/bigstatecollege.edu_error.log

We'll see there's more detail in there.

Edit the virtual host configuration file:

vi bigstatecollege.edu.conf

On the access_log line, add the following:

access_log /var/log/nginx/bigstatecollege.edu_access.log custom;

Save and exit.

We will need to define the custom logging level in the nginx.conf file:

vi ../nginx.conf

After the error_log line, add the following:

log_format  custom '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] '
                             '"$request" $status $body_bytes_sent '
                             '"$http_referer" "$http_user_agent" '
                             '"$http_x_forwarded_for" $request_id '
                             '$geoip_country_name $geoip_country_code '
                             '$geoip_region_name $geoip_city ';

Save and exit.

Validate and reload NGINX:

nginx -t

systemctl reload nginx

Let's test the new configuration:

curl --insecure https://www.bigstatecollege.edu

curl --insecure https://www.bigstatecollege.edu/foo.txt

Now, let's see what we generated in the new access log:

cat /var/log/nginx/bigstatecollege.edu_access.log

You'll see the format of the access log has changed.