Nginx JSON Log Format Generator

Default Format (Text):
192.168.1.1 - - [12/Oct/2024:14:00:00] "GET /api/v1/users HTTP/1.1" 200 512

↓

JSON Format (Structured):
{ "time": "2024-10-12T14:00:00Z", "ip": "192.168.1.1", "method": "GET", "status": 200, "latency": 0.045 }

Standard Nginx logs are difficult to parse and analyze. This tool generates a valid log_format configuration to output structured JSON. Structured logging makes your data instantly readable by observability tools like LogLens, ELK Stack (Elasticsearch), and Datadog without complex regex parsing rules.

How to Configure Nginx for JSON Logging

1 Open your Nginx Config

Usually located at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

2 Paste the Format Definition

Paste the generated code inside the http { ... } block, before any server blocks.

http {
  include mime.types;
  default_type application/octet-stream;

  # PASTE THE GENERATED CODE HERE
  log_format json_combined escape=json '{ ... }';

  access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
}

3 Update your Access Log Directive

Find the line starting with access_log and change the format name.

# Option A: Replace text logs with JSON (Standard)
access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log combined;
access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log json_combined;

💡 Safe Mode: Want to try JSON without losing your text logs? You can keep both!

                    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log combined;

                    access_log /var/log/nginx/access_json.log json_combined;

4 Test & Reload

sudo nginx -t # Check for syntax errors
sudo nginx -s reload