Install Loki & Promtail using Docker

• Before installing Loki & Promtail make sure you have docker installed in your instance.

•     sudo apt-get update
      sudo apt-get install docker.io -y
  
      # Giving docker permission to current user
      sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
      sudo reboot
  
      # Verify Docker version
      docker --version
  

• Download the Loki Config file into your current directory.

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grafana/loki/v2.8.0/cmd/loki/loki-local-config.yaml -O loki-config.yaml

• Run the Loki container using the following Docker command.

docker run -d --name loki -v $(pwd):/mnt/config -p 3100:3100 grafana/loki:2.8.0 -

• We can verify Loki is running using the docker container by using the following Docker command :

  docker ps

• Now to access Loki, Go to the Security Group of your EC2 instance and add port 3100.

• We can see Loki’s metrics using the IPv4 address followed by port 3100 and metrics.

  http://<public_ipV4>:3100/metrics

• To verify whether Loki is ready or not, access the IPv4 address followed by port 3100 and ready.

  http://public_ipV4:3100/ready

• Now download the Promtail Config yaml file into your directory by using the following command:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grafana/loki/v2.8.0/clients/cmd/promtail/pr

• We can verify Promtail configuration file is there in the directory by using the following command:

  ls

  cat promtail-config.yaml

• Now execute the Promtail container by using the following Docker command:

  docker run -d --name promtail -v $(pwd):/mnt/config -v /var/log:/var/log --link

• We can verify both Loki and Promtail are running using docker ps command.

Configure Loki as a Data Source

• Once both Loki and Promtail are configured in the instance, Login to the Grafana Home Page

• In the navigation drawer either there is DataSource click on it or you can get it by clicking on the left hamburger menu, hovering over there is a gear icon (second last one) and clicking on “Data Sources”.

• Click on “Add data source” and search for “Loki”. Click on it.

• As the Loki prompt is opened fill in the details like Name and in the HTTP provide the URL i.e, http://127.0.0.1:3100

• Click on “Save and Test”. You will get a prompt saying “Data Source Successfully Connted” so you can conclude that your connection to Grafana using Loki and Promtail is successful.

• Now click on Explore to create metrics.

• We will create metrics that will show logs containing Docker in it.

  Name -> System Generated Logs
  Label Filters -> jobs, varlogs
  Line Contains -> docker

• Once you get the output we can put the result into a new dashboard, before that named it.