Logging Configuration

Configure structured logging in Gate proxy with Zap logger, log levels, and log aggregation

Logging Configuration

Gate uses structured logging with Uber’s Zap logger, providing high-performance, leveled logging with structured fields. Logs can be configured via command-line flags and environment variables.

Log Levels

Gate supports multiple log verbosity levels, controlled by the --verbosity flag or GATE_VERBOSITY environment variable:

Verbosity	Level	Use Case
0	Info	Production (default) - Essential operational messages
1	Debug	Development - Detailed debugging information
2+	Trace	Deep debugging - Very detailed internal operations

Setting Log Level

# Via command-line flag
gate --verbosity 1

# Via environment variable
export GATE_VERBOSITY=1
gate

# Enable debug mode (sets highest verbosity)
gate --debug
export GATE_DEBUG=true

Configuration

Command-Line Flags

# Verbosity control
gate --verbosity 2         # Set specific verbosity level
gate -v 2                  # Short form

# Debug mode (maximum verbosity)
gate --debug               # Enable debug logging
gate -d                    # Short form

# Show version
gate --version             # Display version and exit
gate -V                    # Short form (Unix convention)

Environment Variables

export GATE_VERBOSITY=1    # Set verbosity level
export GATE_DEBUG=true     # Enable debug mode
export GATE_CONFIG="/path/to/config.yml"  # Config file location

Configuration File

# config.yml
config:
  debug: false  # Enable debug mode

Log Format

Gate uses different log formats depending on the mode:

Production Format (Default)

JSON-structured logs optimized for machine parsing:

{
  "level": "info",
  "ts": "2024-03-04T10:30:45.123Z",
  "logger": "gate",
  "msg": "starting Gate proxy",
  "version": "v0.28.0"
}

Development Format (Debug Mode)

Human-readable console logs with colors:

2024-03-04T10:30:45.123Z  INFO  gate  starting Gate proxy  {"version": "v0.28.0"}

Logger Implementation

Gate’s logger is configured in cmd/gate/root.go:191:

func newLogger(debug bool, v int) (l logr.Logger, err error) {
    var cfg zap.Config
    if debug {
        cfg = zap.NewDevelopmentConfig()
    } else {
        cfg = zap.NewProductionConfig()
    }
    cfg.Level = zap.NewAtomicLevelAt(zapcore.Level(-v))
    
    cfg.Encoding = "console"
    cfg.EncoderConfig.EncodeLevel = zapcore.CapitalColorLevelEncoder
    cfg.EncoderConfig.EncodeTime = zapcore.ISO8601TimeEncoder
    
    zl, err := cfg.Build()
    if err != nil {
        return logr.Discard(), err
    }
    
    return zapr.NewLogger(zl), nil
}

Structured Fields

Gate logs include structured fields for easy filtering:

log.Info("player connected", 
    "username", player.Name,
    "uuid", player.UUID,
    "address", conn.RemoteAddr(),
)

Output:

{
  "level": "info",
  "msg": "player connected",
  "username": "Notch",
  "uuid": "069a79f4-44e9-4726-a5be-fca90e38aaf5",
  "address": "192.168.1.100:54321"
}

OpenTelemetry Integration

When OpenTelemetry tracing is enabled, logs automatically include trace context:

export OTEL_TRACES_ENABLED="true"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="http://localhost:4318"

Logs will include trace and span IDs:

{
  "level": "info",
  "msg": "processing packet",
  "trace_id": "4bf92f3577b34da6a3ce929d0e0e4736",
  "span_id": "00f067aa0ba902b7"
}

This enables correlation between logs and traces in observability platforms.

Log Aggregation

Grafana Loki

Loki is designed for aggregating logs from multiple sources.

Docker Compose with Loki

services:
  gate:
    image: ghcr.io/minekube/gate:latest
    environment:
      - GATE_VERBOSITY=1
    logging:
      driver: loki
      options:
        loki-url: "http://localhost:3100/loki/api/v1/push"
        loki-external-labels: "service=gate,environment=production"
    networks:
      - logging

  loki:
    image: grafana/loki:latest
    command: -config.file=/etc/loki/local-config.yaml
    ports:
      - "3100:3100"
    networks:
      - logging

  grafana:
    image: grafana/grafana:latest
    environment:
      - GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ENABLED=true
      - GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ORG_ROLE=Admin
    volumes:
      - ./grafana-datasources.yml:/etc/grafana/provisioning/datasources/datasources.yaml
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    networks:
      - logging

networks:
  logging:

Loki Configuration

# grafana-datasources.yml
apiVersion: 1

datasources:
  - name: Loki
    type: loki
    access: proxy
    url: http://loki:3100
    isDefault: true

Querying Logs in Grafana

# All Gate logs
{service="gate"}

# Error logs only
{service="gate"} |= "level=error"

# Player connection logs
{service="gate"} |= "player connected"

# Logs for specific player
{service="gate"} | json | username="Notch"

# Logs with trace ID
{service="gate"} | json | trace_id=~".+"

Promtail for Log Shipping

Use Promtail to ship logs from files to Loki:

# promtail-config.yml
server:
  http_listen_port: 9080
  grpc_listen_port: 0

positions:
  filename: /tmp/positions.yaml

clients:
  - url: http://loki:3100/loki/api/v1/push

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: gate
    static_configs:
      - targets:
          - localhost
        labels:
          job: gate
          __path__: /var/log/gate/*.log

Elasticsearch and Kibana

For Elasticsearch-based log aggregation:

services:
  gate:
    image: ghcr.io/minekube/gate:latest
    environment:
      - GATE_VERBOSITY=1
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "10m"
        max-file: "3"

  filebeat:
    image: docker.elastic.co/beats/filebeat:8.10.0
    user: root
    volumes:
      - ./filebeat.yml:/usr/share/filebeat/filebeat.yml:ro
      - /var/lib/docker/containers:/var/lib/docker/containers:ro
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro

  elasticsearch:
    image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:8.10.0
    environment:
      - discovery.type=single-node
      - xpack.security.enabled=false
    ports:
      - "9200:9200"

  kibana:
    image: docker.elastic.co/kibana/kibana:8.10.0
    ports:
      - "5601:5601"
    environment:
      - ELASTICSEARCH_HOSTS=http://elasticsearch:9200

Best Practices

1. Production Logging

# Production: Info level, JSON format
export GATE_VERBOSITY=0
export GATE_DEBUG=false

Log only essential information:

• Service startup/shutdown
• Player connections/disconnections
• Configuration changes
• Errors and warnings

2. Development Logging

# Development: Debug level, console format
gate --debug --verbosity 2

Includes:

• Detailed packet information
• Authentication flows
• Internal state changes
• Performance metrics

3. Structured Fields

Always use structured fields instead of string formatting:

// Good - Structured
log.Info("player joined",
    "player", player.Name,
    "server", server.Name,
    "time", time.Now(),
)

// Bad - String formatting
log.Info(fmt.Sprintf("Player %s joined server %s", player.Name, server.Name))

4. Log Sampling

For high-frequency events, use sampling to reduce log volume:

// Log only 10% of packet events
if rand.Float64() < 0.1 {
    log.V(1).Info("packet received", "type", packet.Type)
}

5. Sensitive Data

Never log sensitive information:

// Bad - Logs sensitive data
log.Info("auth token", "token", authToken)

// Good - Redacted
log.Info("auth token", "token", "<redacted>")

6. Error Context

Include context when logging errors:

if err := connectToServer(server); err != nil {
    log.Error(err, "failed to connect to server",
        "server", server.Name,
        "attempt", retryCount,
        "max_retries", maxRetries,
    )
}

Log Rotation

Using logrotate (Linux)

# /etc/logrotate.d/gate
/var/log/gate/*.log {
    daily
    missingok
    rotate 14
    compress
    delaycompress
    notifempty
    create 0640 gate gate
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        systemctl reload gate || true
    endscript
}

Using Docker logging driver

services:
  gate:
    image: ghcr.io/minekube/gate:latest
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "100m"
        max-file: "10"
        compress: "true"

Custom Plugin Logging

Use the context logger in your plugins:

import (
    "context"
    "github.com/go-logr/logr"
)

func MyPluginInit(ctx context.Context) error {
    log := logr.FromContextOrDiscard(ctx).WithName("my-plugin")
    
    log.Info("plugin initialized", "version", "1.0.0")
    
    // Debug logging (only shown at verbosity >= 1)
    log.V(1).Info("debug information", "detail", "value")
    
    // Error logging
    if err := doSomething(); err != nil {
        log.Error(err, "operation failed", "context", "additional info")
    }
    
    return nil
}

Troubleshooting

No Logs Appearing

1. Check verbosity level:

   echo $GATE_VERBOSITY
   

2. Ensure debug mode is not disabled in config:

   config:
     debug: true  # Enable for development
   

3. Verify logger initialization in Gate startup logs

Too Many Logs

1. Reduce verbosity:

   export GATE_VERBOSITY=0
   

2. Disable debug mode:

   unset GATE_DEBUG
   

3. Implement log sampling for high-frequency events

Logs Not in JSON Format

Gate uses console encoding by default. For JSON logs, you need to modify the logger configuration or use a log shipper to parse console logs.

Next Steps

OpenTelemetry

Set up comprehensive observability

Metrics

Monitor proxy performance metrics