promtail Installation Guide Installation Guide

promtail is a free and open-source log collector. Promtail collects logs and sends them to Loki

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 256MB minimum

Storage: 1GB for positions

Network: Push to Loki

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 9080 (default promtail port)

None

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install promtail
sudo dnf install -y promtail

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now promtail

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
promtail --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install promtail
sudo apt install -y promtail

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now promtail

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 9080

# Verify installation
promtail --version

bash

# Install promtail
sudo pacman -S promtail

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now promtail

# Verify installation
promtail --version

bash

# Install promtail
apk add --no-cache promtail

# Enable and start service
rc-update add promtail default
rc-service promtail start

# Verify installation
promtail --version

bash

# Install promtail
sudo zypper install -y promtail

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now promtail

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
promtail --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install promtail

# Start service
brew services start promtail

# Verify installation
promtail --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install promtail

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'promtail_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service promtail start

# Verify installation
promtail --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install promtail

# Or using Scoop
scoop install promtail

# Verify installation
promtail --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/promtail

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
promtail --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable promtail

# Start service
sudo systemctl start promtail

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop promtail

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart promtail

# Check status
sudo systemctl status promtail

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u promtail -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add promtail default

# Start service
rc-service promtail start

# Stop service
rc-service promtail stop

# Restart service
rc-service promtail restart

# Check status
rc-service promtail status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'promtail_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service promtail start

# Stop service
service promtail stop

# Restart service
service promtail restart

# Check status
service promtail status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start promtail
brew services stop promtail
brew services restart promtail

# Check status
brew services list | grep promtail

powershell

# Start service
net start promtail

# Stop service
net stop promtail

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service promtail
Stop-Service promtail
Restart-Service promtail

# Check status
Get-Service promtail

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream promtail_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:9080;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name promtail.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name promtail.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/promtail.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/promtail.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://promtail_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName promtail.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://promtail.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName promtail.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/promtail.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/promtail.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:9080/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:9080/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend promtail_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/promtail.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend promtail_backend

backend promtail_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server promtail1 127.0.0.1:9080 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R promtail:promtail /etc/promtail
sudo chmod 750 /etc/promtail

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status promtail

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u promtail -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep promtail)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/promtail"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/promtail-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/promtail /var/lib/promtail

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/promtail-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop promtail

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/promtail/promtail-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start promtail

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u promtail -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/promtail/promtail.log

# Check configuration
promtail --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/promtail

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 9080

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 9080

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep promtail)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep promtail)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 9080

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  promtail:
    image: promtail:latest
    ports:
      - "9080:9080"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/promtail
      - ./data:/var/lib/promtail
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update promtail

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade promtail

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu promtail

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade promtail

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update promtail

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade promtail

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/promtail-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/promtail

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart promtail

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/promtail

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/promtail -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/promtail

Official Documentation: https://docs.promtail.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/promtail/promtail

Community Forum: https://forum.promtail.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.promtail.org/best-practices

---

Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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