homelab/compose/services/dozzle/QUICKSTART.md

Dozzle - Quick Start

Access Now

Open: https://logs-docker.fig.systems

What You'll See

• List of all running Docker containers
• Click any container to see its logs
• Real-time streaming (updates automatically)
• Search box at top to filter logs

Common Tasks

View logs from a specific container

1. Click the container name from the list
2. Logs appear instantly

Search for errors

1. Open any container's logs
2. Type error in the search box at top
3. Only matching lines show

View multiple containers at once

1. Open first container
2. Click the "+" button in the header
3. Select another container
4. View side-by-side

Download logs

1. Open container logs
2. Click "Download" button (top right)
3. Saves visible logs as .txt file

View older logs

• Scroll up in the log view
• Note: Only shows what Docker has stored (default: all logs)

Pause live streaming

• Click the pause button (⏸️) to stop auto-scrolling
• Useful when examining specific log entries
• Click play (▶️) to resume

Settings

Click the gear icon (⚙️) to:

• Change theme (dark/light)
• Adjust font size
• Change date/time format
• Toggle compact mode

Limitations

Dozzle shows logs Docker currently has. For logs older than a week:

1. Check Docker's log retention:

   docker inspect <container-name> | grep -A 5 "LogConfig"
   

2. If logs are rotating too quickly, configure Docker log rotation:

   Edit /etc/docker/daemon.json:

   {
     "log-driver": "json-file",
     "log-opts": {
       "max-size": "50m",
       "max-file": "5"
     }
   }
   

   This keeps ~250MB of logs per container.

3. Restart Docker:

   sudo systemctl restart docker
   

4. Recreate containers (they inherit new log settings)

vs Loki/Grafana

Feature	Dozzle	Loki/Grafana
Setup	✅ Simple (1 container)	⚠️ Complex (3 containers + config)
Real-time logs	✅ Excellent	✅ Good
Search	✅ Simple text search	✅ Advanced LogQL queries
History	⚠️ Limited to Docker's retention	✅ Configurable retention
Multi-server	⚠️ Requires setup	✅ Built-in
Log aggregation	❌ No	✅ Yes
Alerts	❌ No	✅ Yes
Resource usage	✅ Minimal (~10MB)	⚠️ Higher (~200MB+)

Recommendation: Use both!

• Dozzle for quick log checks and real-time monitoring
• Loki for historical analysis and complex queries

Tips

1. Bookmark the URL - Quick access to your logs
2. Use keyboard shortcuts:
   • / - Focus search
   • Space - Pause/resume
   • Esc - Clear search
3. Multi-tab viewing - Open different containers in browser tabs
4. Container stats - Click "Stats" tab to see CPU/memory usage

Troubleshooting

No containers showing?

docker logs dozzle

Can't access the web UI?

# Check if Dozzle is running
docker ps | grep dozzle

# Check Traefik routing
docker logs traefik | grep dozzle

Logs are truncated?

• Docker may be rotating logs too aggressively
• See "Limitations" section above to increase retention

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Need more help? Check the full README.md in this directory.