Server Access Dashboard

A real-time monitoring dashboard for analyzing and visualizing NGINX server access logs with advanced filtering and suspicious activity detection.

Problem Statement

Web server logs are often cluttered and difficult to analyze effectively. Traditional log analysis tools lack user-friendly interfaces and real-time capabilities. The goal was to create an intuitive dashboard that allows administrators to filter, search, and quickly identify suspicious activities or traffic patterns from server access logs.

My Solution

I developed a comprehensive full-stack application consisting of several integrated components:

• FastAPI Backend: A robust Python backend built with FastAPI providing a comprehensive REST API for querying processed log data with advanced filtering capabilities and real-time updates.
• Log Parser Service: A dedicated Python service that periodically reads, parses, and processes NGINX access logs, extracting relevant information and storing it in a PostgreSQL database with optimized indexing for fast queries.
• Vue.js Frontend: An interactive single-page application built with Vue.js, featuring real-time data visualization, advanced filtering by time ranges, IP addresses, status codes, user agents, and geographic location mapping.
• Database Architecture: Efficient PostgreSQL database design with proper indexing and data retention policies to handle large volumes of log data while maintaining query performance.
• Containerized Deployment: The entire application is containerized with Docker and can be easily deployed via Docker Compose on any server infrastructure with automated setup and configuration.

Key Features

• Real-Time Monitoring: Live updates of server access patterns and traffic analysis
• Advanced Filtering: Filter by IP addresses, status codes, time ranges, and request patterns
• Suspicious Activity Detection: Automated identification of potential security threats and unusual traffic
• Geographic Visualization: IP geolocation mapping for traffic source analysis
• Performance Metrics: Response time analysis and server performance monitoring
• Export Capabilities: Data export functionality for further analysis and reporting

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