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How to set up logrotate for automatic log archiving and saving server space

· 2 min read
Andres Saar
Customer Care Engineer

Log management is a crucial part of any server administrator's job. Logs that are not rotated can quickly occupy all available disk space, slow down the server, and cause unpredictable errors. In this article, we’ll explain how to configure and use logrotate for automatic log cleanup and rotation on a server. 

What is logrotate and why is it important to use?​

Logrotate is a tool designed for automatic log management. It helps to:

  • Clear old logs — automatically deletes or archives old log files.
  • Save disk space — compresses and removes unnecessary logs.

Log rotation prevents logs from accumulating and causing disk overflow, which could result in crashes and data loss. Logrotate automatically archives old logs and makes room for new data.

How does logrotate work?​

When logrotate is active, it automatically performs the following steps:

  1. Log rotation — old logs are renamed and stored, while new files are created in their place.
  2. Compression — old logs can be compressed into .gz format to save space.
  3. Deletion — outdated logs can be deleted if they are no longer needed.

Example: A log file named access.log can be transformed into access.log.1, then compressed into access.log.1.gz, and eventually deleted after a specified retention period.

How to configure logrotate​

1. Installing logrotate​

On most Linux systems, logrotate is pre-installed. To check if logrotate is installed, run the command:

sudo logrotate --version

 If logrotate is not installed, it can be installed via a package manager. 

  • For Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install logrotate
  • For CentOS/RockyLinux/AlmaLinux:
sudo yum install logrotate

2. Configuring logrotate​

Logrotate configuration is usually stored in /etc/logrotate.conf. This file contains general parameters for all logs on the server. To configure the rotation of individual logs, you can create separate configuration files for different services in the /etc/logrotate.d/ directory.

Example of a standard Nginx configuration:

/var/log/nginx/*.log {
	daily          # Logs are rotated daily
	missingok      # Do not display an error if the log is missing
	rotate 7       # Keep 7 archived files
	compress       # Compress old logs
	delaycompress  # Delay compression until the next rotation
	notifempty     # Do not rotate empty files
	create 0640 www-data adm  # Create new logs with specific permissions
}

3. Key configuration parameters​

  • daily/weekly/monthly — defines how often the log file will be rotated (daily, weekly, or monthly).
  • rotate [N] — specifies the number of archived logs to retain.
  • compress — enables log file compression (typically into .gz).
  • missingok — prevents errors if a log file is missing.
  • notifempty — skips rotation for empty files.
  • create — creates new logs with specified permissions.

4. Running logrotate​

Logrotate usually runs automatically via cron. However, you can run it manually if you need to check the configuration or perform a rotation immediately:

sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf

5. Verifying logrotate's operation​

To ensure that logrotate is working correctly, you can check the latest entries in its service log:

sudo journalctl -u logrotate -n 10