Why VictoriaLogs Is the Fastest, Most Efficient Log Database for Modern Infrastructures

What is VictoriaLogs

VictoriaLogs is an open‑source, high‑performance log management database that is part of the VictoriaMetrics ecosystem. It stores large volumes of log data with very low CPU and RAM usage, making it a lightweight alternative to solutions such as Elasticsearch or Grafana Loki.

Key Features

Low resource consumption : Uses roughly 30 % of the RAM and 6 % of the disk space required by Elasticsearch, thanks to column‑oriented storage and a dedicated compression algorithm that achieves >10× compression.

Multi‑protocol ingestion : Accepts logs via Loki API, Elasticsearch API, OpenTelemetry, Syslog and JSON Lines, enabling seamless migration from existing stacks.

LogsQL query language : Provides full‑text search with sub‑second latency, aggregation and statistical functions, real‑time data transformation, and stream‑context queries for examining surrounding log entries.

Installation and Deployment

Single‑node deployment

Download the binary for the target OS/architecture, extract it and start the server. The service listens on TCP port 9428 for ingestion and queries and automatically adapts to available CPU and RAM.

curl -L -O https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaLogs/releases/download/v1.41.1/victoria-logs-linux-amd64-v1.41.1.tar.gz
 tar xzf victoria-logs-linux-amd64-v1.41.1.tar.gz
 ./victoria-logs-prod -storageDataPath=victoria-logs-data

Docker image

docker run --rm -it -p 9428:9428 -v $(pwd)/victoria-logs-data:/victoria-logs-data \
  docker.io/victoriametrics/victoria-logs:v1.41.1 -storageDataPath=victoria-logs-data

Cluster deployment

For high‑availability and horizontal scalability, start the cluster with the provided Make target. The cluster consists of four dedicated components: vlinsert – receives logs and forwards them to storage nodes. vlstorage – distributed storage nodes (typically 2 + for redundancy). vlselect – query processing nodes for read operations. vmauth – load‑balancer and authentication gateway.

make docker-vl-cluster-up

Environment management

# Stop single‑node environment
make docker-vl-single-down

# Stop cluster environment
make docker-vl-cluster-down

Configuration

VictoriaLogs works with sensible defaults, but the following flags are commonly customized: -storageDataPath – directory where log data is stored. -retentionPeriod – duration for keeping logs (e.g., 30d, 8w, 1y). -httpListenAddr – address for the HTTP server (default :9428). -defaultMsgValue – value used when the _msg field is empty.

Viewing all options

./victoria-logs-prod -help

Adjusting data retention

# Keep logs for 30 days
./victoria-logs-prod -retentionPeriod=30d

# Keep logs for 8 weeks
./victoria-logs-prod -retentionPeriod=8w

# Keep logs for 1 year
./victoria-logs-prod -retentionPeriod=1y

Repository

https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaLogs