Servers
Logs tab
Read the files where your server writes what happened, without a terminal.
When something goes wrong, the server writes it down. This tab is how you read what it wrote.
Two places logs live
Files in /var/log — the classic location. nginx/error.log,
mysql/error.log, auth.log, syslog, and whatever your app writes.
The system journal — systemd's own record, filterable by service. Pick a unit and you see only that service's lines.
Both are in the left-hand list. On a phone, the list opens as a full-screen panel.
Reading a log
Pick one and the most recent lines appear. Newest at the bottom, as usual.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Lines to show | How much history to pull back |
| Filter text | Only lines containing what you type. Press Enter |
| Errors / Warnings | Filter the journal by priority |
| Follow | Keep the view live as new lines arrive |
Follow is the one to use while reproducing a problem: turn it on, then reload your website in another tab, and watch what the server says as the request arrives.
Which log for which problem
| Problem | Look at |
|---|---|
| Website shows 502 / 504 | nginx/error.log |
| Website shows 500 | Your app's log, then the nginx error log |
| Site slow | nginx/access.log for the slow URLs |
| Database refusing connections | mysql/error.log or postgresql/*.log |
| Cannot log in over SSH | auth.log (Debian/Ubuntu) or secure (RHEL) |
| Something was killed for no reason | syslog / journal — look for Out of memory |
| A service will not start | The journal for that unit |
Largest logs, and truncating
A largest logs view sorts by size. This is where runaway disk usage usually hides: one log file that has grown to 40 GB because something has been erroring every second for a month.
Truncate empties a log file in place and gives the space back immediately.
What truncating does and does not do. It deletes the history in that file — permanently. It does not stop whatever is writing to it, so if the cause is still there the file will grow again. Truncate to get your disk back now, then fix the cause.
Truncating is recorded in the Activity log.
Getting help with what you read
Logs are written for the person who wrote the program, not for you. Two ways through that:
- Paste the lines into a chat and ask what they mean.
- Ask AI bot from the server card. The assistant reads logs itself, in Read mode, without changing anything. See The AI assistant.
Permissions
Viewers can read logs but cannot truncate. Because reading a log can expose configuration and secrets, file reading is restricted for Viewers in some places.