The Log Monitoring plugin gives dotCMS teams a practical observability layer for multi-site environments. It captures dotCMS log output, adds site and user context when a request is tied to a host, and forwards events to Grafana Loki for storage, search, dashboards, and alerts.

In addition to normal Log4j2 output, the plugin listens for content lifecycle activity such as publish, unpublish, archive, unarchive, and delete events. Those structured content events are resolved back to the content's site, which makes it easier to separate operational noise from content activity and troubleshoot the right digital property.

Events are held in an in-memory buffer and shipped on a configurable schedule. If Loki is unavailable, the plugin re-queues drained events and retries on the next cycle. Background jobs and other non-request logs are still captured, but are tagged as system because no site request context is available.

Use Cases

• Multi-site troubleshooting - Filter logs by site hostname in Grafana so support and operations teams can isolate errors affecting one brand, region, or customer site.

• Content operations auditing - Track publish, unpublish, archive, unarchive, and delete events alongside application logs for clearer operational history.

• Grafana alerting - Build Loki-backed alerts for error spikes, repeated workflow failures, or site-specific issues without relying on flat server log files.

• Centralized log retention - Forward dotCMS events to Loki or Grafana Cloud for searchable retention outside the application server.

Key capabilities

• Site-aware Log4j2 event capture for HTTP request logs

• Structured content lifecycle events for publish, unpublish, archive, unarchive, and delete actions

• Thread-safe in-memory event buffer with retry behavior if Loki is unavailable

• Configurable Loki push URL, credentials, and shipping interval through dotCMS Apps

• Grafana-compatible labels for app and site, enabling LogQL filtering and dashboards