Logging

Capture Edge can write logs to three destinations:

• Log files (recommended for troubleshooting and support)
• Console (useful when you already aggregate stdout/stderr, e.g., Docker)
• Capture portal (realtime diagnostics view - no history)

Recommendation

File logging should be enabled in virtually all cases. If disk writes are a concern, move logs to separate storage using CAPTURE_LOGS_DIR.

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Log destinations

Log files (recommended)

File logging is the primary method for troubleshooting because it provides persistent history and can be collected and shared.

How to enable

• In the Source configuration, go to General
• Enable Log to file

note

If Log to file is disabled, logs will not be written to disk even if debug logging is enabled.

Console

Console logging is useful when other tools make it easy to follow logs (for example Docker, systemd journal, Kubernetes).

Defaults

• Linux: console logging is enabled by default
• Windows: console logging is disabled by default (performance reasons)

How to enable on Windows Set the environment variable:

• CAPTURE_LOG_TO_CONSOLE=true

tip

Console logging works best when you already have centralized log collection for stdout/stderr.

Capture portal (realtime diagnostics)

Logs can be viewed in the Capture portal when you open:

• Sources → Edge Gateways → Your gateway → Messages

How it works

• Logging to the portal is enabled only while the page is open. All log messages generated from that point are sent over MQTT to the Capture portal.
• One minute after closing the page, Capture Edge will stop sending realtime logs.
• There is no history: you see logs from the moment you open the page onward.

Requirement

Portal logging requires a realtime MQTTS connection between the device and the Capture portal. Ensure the firewall allows port 8883 outbound.

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Log level (minimum severity)

The minimum log severity is controlled by the Debug mode checkbox:

• Debug mode OFF: Information level and above is logged.
• Debug mode ON: Debug level and above is logged.

warning

Debug logging produces significantly more output, but helps with troubleshooting.

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Retrieving logs

Option A: Download logs via CloudManager UI (recommended)

You can download logs from the CloudManager UI:

• Open: http://localhost:5004 on the device running Capture Edge.
• On the home page, select Download logs

This collects logs from the Capture services.

Containerized environments

This also works in containerized deployments, as long as CloudManager can reach the other services over HTTP.

Option B: Copy log files manually

Copy log files directly from the log directories described below.

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Log file locations

Default log directory

By default, each Capture service writes logs into its own logs folder.

• Windows

  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Capture\<service>\logs
  • Example: C:\Program Files (x86)\Capture\Collector\logs

• Linux

  • /opt/capture/<service>/logs
  • Example: /opt/capture/collector/logs

These Capture services generate logs:

• CloudManager
• Collector
• Syncer
• Analytics

Containers

If services run in separate containers, each service’s logs are inside its own container filesystem unless you mount a shared volume.

Custom log directory

You can override the log directory with:

• CAPTURE_LOGS_DIR

A separate subdirectory will be created for each Capture Edge service.

tip

If disk writes are an issue, mount a dedicated volume for logs and point CAPTURE_LOGS_DIR to that location.

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Log rotation and retention

Daily log files

A new log file is created each day, for example:

• log20260211.log (all logs for Feb 11, 2026)

A separate error-only file is also created by default:

• errors20260211.log (errors only)

Why separate error logs exist

Even though logYYYYMMDD.log also contains errors, the separate errorsYYYYMMDD.log keeps a longer error trace if the main file hits its size and/or retention limit.

Disable separate error files

To disable error-only files:

• CAPTURE_SEPARATE_ERROR_LOG=false

File size limit

Log files have a default size limit of 100 MB. You can override the limit using:

• CAPTURE_LOGS_MAX_SIZE (bytes)

Retention limits

Defaults:

• Keep 14 normal log files
• Keep 30 error log files (when error logs are separate)

Override using:

• CAPTURE_LOG_FILE_COUNT_LIMIT
• CAPTURE_LOG_ERROR_FILE_COUNT_LIMIT

Startup log

A separate file startups.log records service startups (time + version). The last 1000 startups are kept.

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Environment variables

note

Environment variables apply per service process/container. In multi-container setups, configure them for each container.

Variable	Purpose	Default	Example value
CAPTURE_LOG_TO_CONSOLE	Enable console logging (stdout/stderr).	Linux: true, Windows: false	true
CAPTURE_LOGS_DIR	Override base directory where log files are written.	Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Capture\<service>\logs Linux: /opt/capture/<service>/logs	/var/log/capture
CAPTURE_SEPARATE_ERROR_LOG	Create separate errorsYYYYMMDD.log files.	true	false
CAPTURE_LOGS_MAX_SIZE	Max log file size in bytes before rolling.	104857600 (100 MB)	209715200 (200 MB)
CAPTURE_LOG_FILE_COUNT_LIMIT	Number of daily normal log files to keep.	14	30
CAPTURE_LOG_ERROR_FILE_COUNT_LIMIT	Number of daily error log files to keep (when separate errors are enabled).	30	60