Question Plesk Docker installation of lightmeter.io

[t.van.der.plas]

Dear all,

I´ve been trying to install lightmeter as a docker container inside plesk, but do not seem to make any progress - settings below - error is always:

No logs sources specified or import flag provided! Use -help to more info.

The lightmeter documentation can be found here:

Lightmeter / ControlCenter · GitLab

Mailserver monitoring

gitlab.com

Did anyone succeed in installing this?

Regards

Tobias

 

[leandrosansilva]

Hi,

First of all, thank you for trying Lightmeter!

If you are using the official Lightmeter Control Center image, you need to make the following changes:

- None of the environment variables you listed is needed. The official Dockerfile [1] might help you to understand how the image is build.
- The docker image requires some command line arguments (docker CMD), namely: `-watch_dir /logs/ -workspace /path/to/writable/persistency/directory`
- You'll need to map the port 8080 as well that contains an http based user interface.

I haven't tried Plesk yet, so please let me know if any information is missing.

Regards,
Leandro (Lightmeter lead developer)

[1] ci/Dockerfile · master · Lightmeter / ControlCenter

Dear all,

I´ve been trying to install lightmeter as a docker container inside plesk, but do not seem to make any progress - settings below - error is always:

No logs sources specified or import flag provided! Use -help to more info.

The lightmeter documentation can be found here:

Lightmeter / ControlCenter · GitLab

Mailserver monitoring

gitlab.com

Did anyone succeed in installing this?

Regards

Tobias

 

[leandrosansilva]

Hi @Ryan Davis

We've just implemented support for received configuration via environment variables on Lightmeter Control Center, enabling it to run within Plesk!
It's still an experimental support, available in the `lightmeter/controlcenter:1.6.0-RC1` docker image,

Could you please test if it works for you?

I've managed to only launch Control Center in Plesk, but we did not have time to test it in depth yet, so please report us any bugs

The correspondent gitlab issue in our side is in the link: Evaluate supporting Plesk, Hosting Control Panel (#371) · Issues · Lightmeter / ControlCenter

I'm attaching some screenshots showing it working out of the box.

The application UI will have the web ui available in the port 8080 of the docker container.

The documentation for the environment variables used can be obtained at Lightmeter / ControlCenter

Depending on your setup, you can have different environment variables defined, but as mandatory values you'll need `LIGHTMETER_WORKSPACE`, pointing to a writable directory where Control Center will store its database and other important files.

If you are reading Postfix logs from the filesystem, you'll need to map the log directory (often /var/log/mail) to the `/logs:ro` volume and set the environemnt variable `LIGHTMETER_WATCH_DIR=/logs`.

If you are using rsync to obtain the logs, in addition to the previous variable, you'll need to set `LIGHTMETER_LOGS_USE_RSYNC=true`.

If you are using Logstash or similar tool to get the logs, please check the link Lightmeter / ControlCenter

Regards,
Leandro

 

[t.van.der.plas]

Hi Leandro,

awesome! lightmeter now starts in Docker without any issues - the only thing missing now is how to access the webinterface - port 8080 has been allowed in centos firewall, as well as in plesk firewall, but unfortunately the panel is not loading - any idea why? When using the listen parameter with the internal address - i get a /src/server/server.go:88 > listen tcp 10.10.100.15:8080: bind: cannot assign requested address

 

[leandrosansilva]

Hi @t.van.der.plas,

Could you please try to use the docker image:tag `lightmeter/controlcenter:nightly-develop` instead?

This version allows plesk to recognize that the port 8080 is used by the container and map it accordingly, as in the image below. Please notice that this exposes the UI in plain HTTP, which is unsafe, so please ensure that you can access this port only through a secure connection or setup Lightmeter Control Center to run behind a reverse proxy that exposes only https connections.

Please let us know if this solution works for you and we are keen for feedback

Regards,
Leandro

 

[t.van.der.plas]

great - one step further - lightmeter is up and running, but does not find the logs - plesk postfix usually uses a file for this /var/log/maillog - if i enter this directly, it´s not working - not sure if it makes sense to map a file to a volume - what do you think?

 

[leandrosansilva]

Hi @t.van.der.plas, thank you for the feedback. We're glad you could get it running

For the log file, you should mount the /var/log/ directory as /logs and use the env var LIGHTMETER_WATCH_DIR=/logs, as Lightmeter Control Center should be able to detect automatically the maillog file.

If it doesn't work, please fill a bug report on Lightmeter / ControlCenter

Regards,
Leandro

 

[t.van.der.plas]

hi Leandro, ok so currently i have the following error:
error":"Could not find any matching log files in the directory: /logs that are more recent than 0001-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC","file":"/src/logeater/dirwatcher/dir_importer.go","line":463}
docker container is afaik ok - see screenshot
/var/log has a symlink to /logs

 

[leandrosansilva]

Hi @t.van.der.plas , You need fill the value "Host" in the "Volume mapping" to "/var/log".

Please also remove the environment variable LIGHTMETER_LOGS_SOCKET.

 

[leandrosansilva]

Oh, please also map a volume for a workspace, otherwise all the data for the container (like database, etc.) will be lost when the container ends.

In order to do that, click on "Add mapping", and map some writable directory in the host, for instance /var/lib/controlcenter to "/workspace" and set the environment variable "LIGHTMETER_WORKSPACE" to "/workspace".

Something that looks like this:

 

[t.van.der.plas]

Hi,

quick update - i have changed the settings two days ago, but lightmeter is stuck in generating insights

 

[leandrosansilva]

Hi @t.van.der.plas,

Could you please try to stop the container, remove the directory mapped in the variable `LIGHTMETER_WORKSPACE` and start it again?
Also, could you please if there's any content in the file `/var/log/maillog`?

 

[t.van.der.plas]

Hi Leandro,
directory has been removed - lightmeter is working now - any idea how to map this properly to a directory, so that the settings & data are stored properly
Regards
Tobias

 

[leandrosansilva]

Hi Leandro,
directory has been removed - lightmeter is working now - any idea how to map this properly to a directory, so that the settings & data are stored properly
Regards
Tobias

If you kept the /workspace volume mapped to somewhere in the host filesystem and the LIGHTMETER_WORKSPACE variable, the data should be kept safe if the container is restarted.

One possible explanation is that Plesk is in the background removing/rotating the log files before Lightmeter Control Center is able to read them. If this is the case, please try removing such directory from the filesystem again.

Regards,
Leandro

 

[leandrosansilva]

Hi @t.van.der.plas,

We've released Lightmeter Control Center 1.6, with support for being deployed in Plesk. Please have a look at our release notes and video tutorial about the setup: Lightmeter 1.6: Plesk support and Walkthrough Guide - Lightmeter

Direct link to the video:

We hope that'll help you

Regards,
Leandro

 

[t.van.der.plas]

awesome - thanks - just updated to the 1.6 final version - everything up and running so far

 

[leandrosansilva]

awesome - thanks - just updated to the 1.6 final version - everything up and running so far

We are glad to year that