Alright, so I wanted to install a Graylog2 server on my Ubuntu Natty for managing various system logs, custom tasks output, and specially capturing Rails exceptions. Configuring a Graylog2 instance to run on Ubuntu was bit of a daunting task, but I, finally, have it – installed, running and logging :) And, I must say, this is a beauty – the dashboard, the filters, analytics and what not – in a very clean, elegant Rails UI – heavily pink in color ;)

We need Java since Graylog2 server utilizes the awesome performce of it. We need MongoDB for thats the database our logs would be saved into. And, o’course, we need Ruby to run our web interface.

Installing Java & MongoDB

Java and MongoDB are both available via APT/Synaptic.

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sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jre mongodb

Installing Graylog2 Server

The commands below will download the graylog2 server, unzip it and copy the configuration file, as needed. Finally, it will run MongoDB shell.

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cd $HOME
mkdir -p $HOME/.graylog2
cd $HOME/.graylog2
wget https://github.com/downloads/Graylog2/graylog2-server/graylog2-server-0.9.5p1.tar.gz
tar xzf graylog2-server-0.9.5p1.tar.gz
sudo cp $HOME/.graylog2/graylog2-server/graylog2.conf.example /etc/graylog2.conf
mongo

Once we have the shell, type the following commands to configure a database to be used by Graylog2 Server.

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use graylog2
db.addUser("graylog2", "password")
exit

Now, open your favorite editor and edit the etc/graylog2.conf file with root access. Change the configuration in there to match the MongoDB, you just created. Typically, it would be:

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mongodb_useauth = true
mongodb_user = graylog2
mongodb_password = password
mongodb_host = 127.0.0.1
# mongodb_replica_set = localhost:27017,localhost:27018,localhost:27019
mongodb_database = graylog2
mongodb_port = 27017

Once, everything above is configured, we can start our graylog2 server, using:

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sudo java -jar /home//.graylog2/graylog2-server/graylog2-server.jar

Hopefully, if you received no error, we can proceed with installing Graylog2 Web Interface.

Installing Ruby

Ruby can be installed in many ways. However, I prefer installing Ruby via RVM and utilizing 1.8.7-p334 branch with Graylog2. I leave the task of installing Ruby to the reader.

Installing Graylog2 Web Interface

Lets, download the Graylog2 web interface, and run bundle install so as to install all the gems needed.

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cd $HOME/.graylog2
wget https://github.com/downloads/Graylog2/graylog2-web-interface/graylog2-web-interface-0.9.5p2.tar.gz
tar xzf graylog2-web-interface-0.9.5p2.tar.gz
cd graylog2-web-interface-0.9.5p2
(rvm use 1.8.7@graylog2)
(rvmsudo) gem install bundler
(rvmsudo) bundle install

Finally, add the MongoDB configuration to the Web interface (edit config/mongoid.yml)

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production:
host: localhost
port: 27017
Username: graylog2
Password: password
database: graylog2

Now, you can run the web interface with Rails command:

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rails server -e production

You should now be able to run: http://localhost:3000 and see your Graylog2 Web Interface.

Automating (always-running) Graylog2 instance

You may, optionally, want to keep the Graylog2 interface always running, while the above commands will need you to run an instance of graylog2 server and web interface everytime. Therefore, you can follow the steps below to configure the Graylog2 instance as always-on.

Use Passenger

To avoid starting the web interface everytime, you can use Passenger gem by ModRails. Configuring the passenger server is covered in a lot more details in the documentations and hence, I am not covering that specific part.

Use StartUp scripts

With Ubuntu, you can use startup scripts to run some particular scripts when the system is started, saving you from running those sudo service .. start commands after logging in, etc.

Graylog2 StartUp Script

Create a file: /etc/init.d/graylog2-server and copy the contents below, in it.

Now, register the Graylog2-server Init script with startup, and run an instance:

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sudo update-rc.d graylog2-server defaults
sudo service graylog2-server start

This should get you up and running with a Graylog2 instance. Happy, loggin!