---
title: "Traefik Access Log Rotation"
description: "How to manage and rotate Traefik access logs when CrowdSec is installed"
---

import PangolinCloudTocCta from "/snippets/pangolin-cloud-toc-cta.mdx";

<PangolinCloudTocCta />

When CrowdSec is installed, Traefik access logging is enabled automatically so CrowdSec can analyze traffic. This means `config/traefik/logs/access.log` will grow indefinitely without log rotation in place.

<Note>
  The default Pangolin install (without CrowdSec) does not enable access
  logging, so this only applies if you have CrowdSec installed.
</Note>

## How it works

The CrowdSec installer enables Traefik's `accessLog` block and mounts `./config/traefik/logs/` into the container at `/var/log/traefik/`. CrowdSec reads that log via its `acquis.d/traefik.yaml` acquisition config.

Without rotation, that file grows forever. The fix is `logrotate` with `copytruncate` — it copies the log file and truncates the original in place, so Traefik never needs to be restarted or sent a signal.

## Automatic setup (installer v1.x+)

If you installed CrowdSec using a recent version of the Pangolin installer, logrotate is configured automatically at `/etc/logrotate.d/pangolin-traefik`. You can verify it's there:

```bash
cat /etc/logrotate.d/pangolin-traefik
```

You should see something like:

```
/opt/pangolin/config/traefik/logs/access.log {
    daily
    rotate 7
    compress
    delaycompress
    missingok
    notifempty
    copytruncate
}
```

## Manual setup

If you installed CrowdSec before automatic log rotation was added, set it up manually:

<Steps>
<Step title="Create the logrotate config">
  Replace `/opt/pangolin` with your actual Pangolin install directory if it differs.

```bash
sudo tee /etc/logrotate.d/pangolin-traefik > /dev/null <<'EOF'
/opt/pangolin/config/traefik/logs/access.log {
    daily
    rotate 7
    compress
    delaycompress
    missingok
    notifempty
    copytruncate
}
EOF
```

</Step>
<Step title="Test the configuration">
  Do a dry run to confirm logrotate picks it up without errors:

```bash
sudo logrotate --debug /etc/logrotate.d/pangolin-traefik
```

No errors means you're good. You can also force a rotation immediately to verify end-to-end:

```bash
sudo logrotate --force /etc/logrotate.d/pangolin-traefik
```

</Step>
</Steps>

## Customizing retention

The defaults (daily rotation, 7 compressed copies) work for most setups. To adjust:

| Option          | What it does                                                                           |
| --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `daily`         | Rotate once per day. Use `weekly` or `monthly` if preferred.                           |
| `rotate 7`      | Keep 7 rotated files before deleting the oldest.                                       |
| `compress`      | Gzip rotated files to save disk space.                                                 |
| `delaycompress` | Skip compressing the most recent rotated file (useful if something still has it open). |

For example, to keep 30 days of compressed weekly logs:

```
/opt/pangolin/config/traefik/logs/access.log {
    weekly
    rotate 30
    compress
    delaycompress
    missingok
    notifempty
    copytruncate
}
```

## Verifying rotation is working

Check that rotated files are appearing in the logs directory:

```bash
ls -lh /opt/pangolin/config/traefik/logs/
```

After the first rotation you should see files like `access.log.1` and `access.log.2.gz` alongside the active `access.log`.

To see when logrotate last ran and whether it succeeded:

```bash
cat /var/lib/logrotate/status | grep pangolin
```
