Server Logs

This article contains information about accessing and configuring the storage of server logs. The particulars will depend on your deployment method:

Docker

Logs in real time

If you've deployed Bitwarden with Docker, use the docker compose logs -f command to follow logging in real-time from the terminal or command-line. Note that this command should be run from the /bwdata/docker directory:

cd /opt/bitwarden/bwdata/docker
docker compose logs -f

Logs in storage

Logs created by self-hosted Bitwarden servers are, by default, stored in bwdata/logs/.

To change the default log storage location, access your global.override.env file and set the environment variable globalSettings__logDirectory= to the desired location.

After changing environment variables, you will be required to restart your server to apply the new configuration:

• If you're using the standard deployment method, use the bitwarden.sh or bitwarden.ps1 restart command.
• If you're deploying Bitwarden manually or offline, use docker compose down and back up, for example:

docker compose -f ./docker/docker-compose.yml down && docker compose -f ./docker/docker-compose.yml up -d

Download logs

If you've deployed Bitwarden with Docker using the bitwarden.sh installation script, you can also use the compresslogs command to download a tarball of all server logs, or all server logs in a specified date range:

./bitwarden.sh compresslogs 20240304 20240305

Helm

By default, logs for Helm deployments are ephemeral and aren't stored in a central location. While the server is running, logs can be accessed in real time through a container's stdout, for example by running the following command:

kubectl logs pod api

You can configure the server to save logs to a persistent volume (PVC) by setting the volume.logs.enabled: value in your my-values.yaml file to true. By default logs are saved to a new PVC, however you can use an existing PVC by configuring the volume.logs.existingClaim: value.