Analyzing Nginx Access Logs with Databend

Systems are producing all kinds metrics and logs time by time, do you want to gather them and analyze the logs in real time?

Databend provides integration with Vector, easy to do it now!

Let's load and analyze the Nginx access logs into Databend from Vector step by step.

Step 1. Databend

1.1 Deploy Databend

Make sure you have installed Databend, if not please see:

How to Deploy Databend

1.2 Create a Database and Table

Connect to Databend server with MySQL client:

mysql -h127.0.0.1 -uroot -P3307

CREATE DATABASE nginx;

CREATE TABLE nginx.access_logs (
  `timestamp` TIMESTAMP,
  `remote_addr` VARCHAR,
  `remote_port` INT,
  `request_method` VARCHAR,
  `request_uri` VARCHAR,
  `server_protocol` VARCHAR,
  `status` INT,
  `bytes_sent` INT,
  `http_referer` VARCHAR,
  `http_user_agent` VARCHAR,
  `upstream_addr` VARCHAR,
  `scheme` VARCHAR,
  `gzip_ratio` VARCHAR,
  `request_length` INT,
  `request_time` FLOAT,
  `ssl_protocol` VARCHAR,
  `upstream_response_time` VARCHAR
);

1.3 Create a User for Vector Auth

Connect to Databend server with MySQL client:

mysql -h127.0.0.1 -uroot -P3307

Create a user:

CREATE USER user1 IDENTIFIED BY 'abc123';

Grant privileges for the user:

GRANT INSERT ON nginx.* TO user1;

Step 2. Nginx

2.1 Install Nginx

If you don't install Nginx, please refer to How to Install Nginx.

2.2 Configure Nginx

nginx.conf
user www-data;
worker_processes 4;
pid /var/run/nginx.pid;

events {
        worker_connections 768;
}

http {
        ##
        # Logging Settings
        ##
        log_format upstream '$remote_addr "$time_local" $host "$request_method $request_uri $server_protocol" $status $bytes_sent "$http_referer" "$http_user_agent" $remote_port $upstream_addr $scheme $gzip_ratio $request_length $request_time $ssl_protocol "$upstream_response_time"';

        access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log upstream;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

        include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
        include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

This is how the log message looks:

::1 "09/Apr/2022:11:13:39 +0800" localhost "GET /?xx HTTP/1.1" 304 189 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/98.0.4758.102 Safari/537.36" 50758 - http - 1202 0.000 - "-"

Use the new nginx.conf replace your Nginx configuration and restart the Nginx server.

Step 3. Vector

3.1 Install Vector

Your can install Vector with the installation script:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.vector.dev | bash

3.2 Configure Vector

vector.toml
[sources.nginx_access_log]
type = "file"
include = ["/var/log/nginx/access.log"]
file_key = "file"
max_read_bytes = 10240

[transforms.nginx_access_log_parser]
type = "remap"
inputs = ["nginx_access_log"]
drop_on_error = true

#nginx log_format upstream '$remote_addr "$time_local" $host "$request_method $request_uri $server_protocol" $status $bytes_sent "$http_referer" "$http_user_agent" $remote_port $upstream_addr $scheme $gzip_ratio $request_length $request_time $ssl_protocol "$upstream_response_time"';

source = """
    parsed_log, err = parse_regex(.message, r'^(?P<remote_addr>\\S+) \
\"(?P<time_local>\\S+ \\S+)\" \
(?P<host>\\S+) \
\"(?P<request_method>\\S+) (?P<request_uri>.+) (?P<server_protocol>HTTP/\\S+)\" \
(?P<status>\\d+) \
(?P<bytes_sent>\\d+) \
\"(?P<http_referer>.*)\" \
\"(?P<http_user_agent>.*)\" \
(?P<remote_port>\\d+) \
(?P<upstream_addr>.+) \
(?P<scheme>\\S+) \
(?P<gzip_ratio>\\S+) \
(?P<request_length>\\d+) \
(?P<request_time>\\S+) \
(?P<ssl_protocol>\\S+) \
\"(?P<upstream_response_time>.+)\"$')
    if err != null {
      log("Unable to parse access log: " + string!(.message), level: "warn")
      abort
    }
    . = merge(., parsed_log)
    .timestamp = parse_timestamp!(.time_local, format: "%d/%b/%Y:%H:%M:%S %z")
    .timestamp = format_timestamp!(.timestamp, format: "%F %X")

    # Convert from string into integer.
    .remote_port, err = to_int(.remote_port)
    if err != null {
      log("Unable to parse access log: " + string!(.remote_port), level: "warn")
      abort
    }

    # Convert from string into integer.
    .status, err  = to_int(.status)
    if err != null {
      log("Unable to parse access log: " + string!(.status), level: "warn")
      abort
    }

    # Convert from string into integer.
    .bytes_sent, err = to_int(.bytes_sent)
    if err != null {
      log("Unable to parse access log: " + string!(.bytes_sent), level: "warn")
      abort
    }

    # Convert from string into integer.
    .request_length, err = to_int(.request_length)
    if err != null {
      log("Unable to parse access log: " + string!(.request_length), level: "warn")
      abort
    }

    # Convert from string into float.
    .request_time, err = to_float(.request_time)
    if err != null {
      log("Unable to parse access log: " + string!(.request_time), level: "warn")
      abort
    }
  """


[sinks.nginx_access_log_to_databend]
  type = "clickhouse"
  inputs = ["nginx_access_log_parser"]
  database = "nginx" #Your database
  table = "access_logs" #Your table
  #Databend ClickHouse REST API: http://{http_handler_host}:{http_handler_port}/clickhouse
  endpoint = "http://localhost:8124/"
  compression = "gzip"


[sinks.nginx_access_log_to_databend.auth]
  strategy = "basic"
  user = "user1" #Databend username
  password = "abc123" #Databend password

[[tests]]
name = "extract fields from access log"

[[tests.inputs]]
insert_at = "nginx_access_log_parser"
type = "raw"
value = '::1 "09/Apr/2022:11:13:39 +0800" localhost "GET /?xx HTTP/1.1" 304 189 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/98.0.4758.102 Safari/537.36" 50758 - http - 1202 0.000 - "-"'

[[tests.outputs]]
extract_from = "nginx_access_log_parser"

[[tests.outputs.conditions]]
type = "vrl"
source = """
        assert_eq!(.remote_addr, "::1")
        assert_eq!(.time_local, "09/Apr/2022:11:13:39 +0800")
        assert_eq!(.timestamp, "2022-04-09 03:13:39")
        assert_eq!(.request_method, "GET")
        assert_eq!(.request_uri, "/?xx")
        assert_eq!(.server_protocol, "HTTP/1.1")
        assert_eq!(.status, 304)
        assert_eq!(.bytes_sent, 189)
        assert_eq!(.http_referer, "-")
        assert_eq!(.http_user_agent, "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/98.0.4758.102 Safari/537.36")
        assert_eq!(.remote_port, 50758)
        assert_eq!(.upstream_addr, "-")
        assert_eq!(.scheme, "http")
        assert_eq!(.gzip_ratio, "-")
        assert_eq!(.request_length, 1202)
        assert_eq!(.request_time, 0.000)
        assert_eq!(.ssl_protocol, "-")
        assert_eq!(.upstream_response_time, "-")
      """

[[tests]]
name = "no event from wrong access log"
no_outputs_from = ["nginx_access_log_parser"]

[[tests.inputs]]
insert_at = "nginx_access_log_parser"
type = "raw"
value = 'I am not access log'

3.3 Configuration Validation

Check the nginx_access_log_parser transform works or not:

vector test ./vector.toml

If it works the output is:

Running tests
test extract fields from access log ... passed
2022-04-09T04:03:09.704557Z  WARN transform{component_kind="transform" component_id=nginx_access_log_parser component_type=remap component_name=nginx_access_log_parser}: vrl_stdlib::log: "Unable to parse access log: I am not access log" internal_log_rate_secs=1 vrl_position=479
test no event from wrong access log ... passed

3.4 Run Vector

vector -c ./vector.toml

Step 4. Analyze Nginx Log in Databend

4.1 Generate logs

Reload the home page at http://localhost/xx/yy?mm=nn many times, or using the wrk HTTP benchmarking tool to generate a large amount Nginx logs quickly:

wrk -t12 -c400 -d30s http://localhost

4.2 Analyzing the Nginx Access Logs in Databend

mysql -h127.0.0.1 -uroot -P3307

Top 10 Request Status

SELECT count() AS count, status FROM nginx.access_logs GROUP BY status LIMIT 10;

+-----------+--------+
| count     | status |
+-----------+--------+
| 106218701 |    404 |
+-----------+--------+

Top 10 Request Method

SELECT count() AS count, request_method FROM nginx.access_logs GROUP BY request_method LIMIT 10;

+-----------+----------------+
| count     | request_method |
+-----------+----------------+
| 106218701 |      GET       |
+-----------+----------------+

Top 10 Request IPs

SELECT count(*) AS count, remote_addr AS client FROM nginx.access_logs GROUP BY client ORDER BY count DESC LIMIT 10;

+----------+-----------+
| count    | client    |
+----------+-----------+
| 98231357 | 127.0.0.1 |
|        2 | ::1       |
+----------+-----------+

Top 10 Request Pages

SELECT count(*) AS count, request_uri AS uri FROM nginx.access_logs GROUP BY uri ORDER BY count DESC LIMIT 10;

+----------+--------------------+
| count    | uri                |
+----------+--------------------+
| 60645174 | /db/abc            |
| 41727953 | /a/b/c/d/e/f/d     |
|   199852 | /index.html        |
|        2 | /xx/yy             |
+----------+--------------------+

Top 10 HTTP 404 Pages

SELECT count_if(status=404) AS count, request_uri AS uri FROM nginx.access_logs GROUP BY uri ORDER BY count DESC LIMIT 10;

+----------+--------------------+
| count    | uri                |
+----------+--------------------+
| 64290894 | /db/abc            |
| 41727953 | /a/b/c/d/e/f/d     |
|   199852 | /index.html        |
|        2 | /xx/yy             |
+----------+--------------------+

Top 10 Requests

SELECT count(*) AS count, request_uri AS request FROM nginx.access_logs GROUP BY request ORDER BY count DESC LIMIT 10;

+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| count  | request                                                                                             |
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 199852 | /index.html HTTP/1.0                                                                                |
|   1000 | /db/abc?good=iphone&uuid=9329836906 HTTP/1.1                                                        |
|    900 | /miaosha/i/miaosha?goodsRandomName=0e67e331-c521-406a-b705-64e557c4c06c&mobile=17967444396 HTTP/1.1 |
|    900 | /miaosha/i/miaosha?goodsRandomName=0e67e331-c521-406a-b705-64e557c4c06c&mobile=16399821384 HTTP/1.1 |
|    900 | /miaosha/i/miaosha?goodsRandomName=0e67e331-c521-406a-b705-64e557c4c06c&mobile=17033481055 HTTP/1.1 |
|    900 | /miaosha/i/miaosha?goodsRandomName=0e67e331-c521-406a-b705-64e557c4c06c&mobile=17769945743 HTTP/1.1 |
|    900 | /miaosha/i/miaosha?goodsRandomName=0e67e331-c521-406a-b705-64e557c4c06c&mobile=15414263117 HTTP/1.1 |
|    900 | /miaosha/i/miaosha?goodsRandomName=0e67e331-c521-406a-b705-64e557c4c06c&mobile=18945218607 HTTP/1.1 |
|    900 | /miaosha/i/miaosha?goodsRandomName=0e67e331-c521-406a-b705-64e557c4c06c&mobile=19889051988 HTTP/1.1 |
|    900 | /miaosha/i/miaosha?goodsRandomName=0e67e331-c521-406a-b705-64e557c4c06c&mobile=15249667263 HTTP/1.1 |
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Step 1. Databend​

1.1 Deploy Databend​

1.2 Create a Database and Table​

1.3 Create a User for Vector Auth​

Step 2. Nginx​

2.1 Install Nginx​

2.2 Configure Nginx​

Step 3. Vector​

3.1 Install Vector​

3.2 Configure Vector​

3.3 Configuration Validation​

3.4 Run Vector​

Step 4. Analyze Nginx Log in Databend​

4.1 Generate logs​

4.2 Analyzing the Nginx Access Logs in Databend​