Getting started with Grafana Loki, a modern logs database by Kaviraj Kanagaraj - J On The Beach 2023

Loki is a modern log database that has different design tradeoffs (index only metadata) compared to traditional logs databases(index everything). This makes Loki easy to use and operate at Peta Byte scale. It can also use cheaper cloud storages (e.g S3) as persistent storage for indexes and chunks.
First, we try to understand why Loki? Why do we even need a modern logs database? The data model of Grafana Loki is different from traditional logs databases. We will explore why that difference matters when handling logs at a huge scale(Peta Byte) and how that makes it easy for both Loki operators and Loki users. We will then explore how to use Loki. We scrape logs from different targets and send them to Loki, then we use LogQL (powerful query language for logs, inspired from PromQL) to get visibility of your logs instead of just distributed grep. We also explore a few best practices on logging patterns that we use internally and how it helps to effectively investigate SLOW query/endpoints of your application and services.
Sometimes logs may not give you the complete picture, We explore how Loki integrates well with metrics and traces to enhance the observability experience of the users. Finally, we touch on some of the new and upcoming features of Loki.