Welcome back to the Docker series! Now that we’ve covered security, volumes, networking, and orchestration, it’s time to ensure your containers are healthy and observable. In production, logging and monitoring are key to detecting issues early and maintaining uptime.
🔹 Why Logging & Monitoring Matter
- Containers are ephemeral — logs inside them can vanish if the container stops.
- Monitoring helps track CPU, memory, network usage, and container health.
- Alerts help prevent downtime and detect anomalies.
🔹 Container Logging Basics
- Docker captures logs for each container by default.
- View logs:
docker logs <container_name>
- Follow logs in real-time:
docker logs -f <container_name>
🔹 Using Logging Drivers
Docker supports multiple logging drivers:
- json-file (default)
- syslog
- journald
- fluentd
- awslogs
- splunk
Example: Using syslog driver
docker run -d --log-driver=syslog nginx
🔹 Monitoring Containers
1. Docker Stats
docker stats
Shows CPU, memory, network, and disk usage in real-time.
2. Third-Party Tools
- Prometheus + Grafana → Metrics collection + visualization.
- cAdvisor → Resource usage per container.
- ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) → Centralized logs.
🔹 Logging in Docker Compose
services:
web:
image: nginx
logging:
driver: json-file
options:
max-size: "10m"
max-file: "3"
- Rotate logs automatically to prevent disk overflow.
🔹 Best Practices
- Always centralize logs for production.
- Monitor container metrics continuously.
- Set up alerts for high CPU, memory, or container crashes.
- Rotate logs to avoid disk space issues.
🔹 Hands-On Challenge
- Run a container and view logs using
docker logs. - Set up a
json-filelogging driver with rotation. - Install
cAdvisorand observe container metrics.
✅ Next Episode: Episode 22 — Docker Networking Advanced: Multi-Host & Overlay Networks — take your networking skills to production-level setups.
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