📜 Loki Flashcards
Open-source log aggregation system for cost-efficient observability
💡 What is Loki?
Loki is a horizontally scalable, highly available log aggregation system from Grafana Labs, designed to work seamlessly with Prometheus and Grafana.
🗄️ Log Storage Model
Stores logs in compressed chunks and indexes only labels instead of the full text, making it more cost-effective than traditional log storage systems.
🏷️ Labels & Metadata
Labels are key-value pairs used for organizing and querying logs efficiently. The label set defines a log stream.
🔍 LogQL
Query language inspired by PromQL that allows filtering, parsing, and aggregating logs using labels and line content.
📥 Log Ingestion
Collects logs from agents such as Promtail, Fluentd, Fluent Bit, Grafana Agent, or custom integrations.
📤 Log Output
Logs can be visualized directly in Grafana, allowing correlation with metrics and traces for complete observability.
📑 Log Streams
A stream is a set of logs with identical label pairs. Streams are the fundamental unit of storage and querying in Loki.
🔗 Metrics from Logs
Supports generating metrics from log data by parsing fields and applying aggregation functions in LogQL.
🛡️ Multi-Tenancy
Provides isolation between tenants using unique tenant IDs, enabling secure log storage for multiple users or organizations.
⚙️ Scalability & Modes
Can run as a single-process monolith for small setups or as microservices for large-scale, distributed deployments.
🧩 Integrations
Integrates with Grafana for visualization, Prometheus for metrics, Tempo for traces, and supports OpenTelemetry pipelines.
🚀 Deployment Options
Deployable via Docker, Kubernetes, Helm charts, or as a fully managed service through Grafana Cloud.