How to configure Go-access Real-time HTML Outputs (NGINX)

 

Requirement

Configure Go-Access for NGINX real-time access logs.

GoAccess has the ability the output real-time data in the HTML report. You can even email the HTML file since it is composed of a single file with no external file dependencies, how neat is that!

The process of generating a real-time HTML report is very similar to the process of creating a static report. Only --real-time-html is needed to make it real-time.

Pre-Requisites 

• NGINX web server which support websocket
• Install goaccess on the same server

Step 01: Configure NGINX proxy pass for goaccess real-time push

Add below proxy pass to relevant NGINX configuration.

location /ws-goaccess {

        proxy_pass  http://127.0.0.1:9870;

        proxy_http_version 1.1;

        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;

        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";

}

In my case Go-Access websocket port listen locally with port 9870.

Step 02: Identify log format of your NGINX web server

I used this GitHum repository to find out log format for goaccess.

URL: https://github.com/stockrt/nginx2goaccess 

Command Usage

Usage: ./nginx2goaccess.sh '<log_format>'

NGINX log format u have to get from your web server. It should be in nginx.conf file. Configuration parameter "log_format"

Step 03: Start the Go-Access WebSocket Server

goaccess /var/log/nginx/data.vidutech.org-access.log /var/log/nginx/www.vidutech.org-access.log --log-format='%h - %^ [%d:%t %^] "%r" "%b" "%R" "%u" "%^"' --date-format=%d/%b/%Y --time-format=%T -o /usr/share/nginx/html/goaccess.html --real-time-html --addr=127.0.0.1 --port=9870 --ws-url=data.vidutech.org/ws-goaccess

Command Explanation

We can pass several log files as input

• /var/log/nginx/data.vidutech.org-access.log
• /var/log/nginx/www.vidutech.org-access.log

--log-format  / --date-format / --time-format

• You can obtain it from Step 02

-o <output File>

• Go-Access report should be save under nginx share location.  This file should be accessible via browser with server name.

--real-time-html

• Start server as real-time 

--addr=127.0.0.1 --port=9870

• Listen address and port

--ws-url

• Web Socket URL.

Once you start the Go-Access server use web socket client to check whether web-socket is working. Here I am using Google Chrome extension "Simple Web Socket Client"

URL: Simple Web socket Client

If Web-Socket is working it will display Open.

How you can access the Go-Access html report from your browser. In my case URL for report is 

URL: https://data.vidutech.org/goaccess.html