Show HN: My Single-File Python Script I Used to Replace Splunk in My Startup

📰 Hacker News · eigenvalue

Replace Splunk with a single-file Python script for log collection and analysis, saving thousands of dollars a year

intermediate Published 21 Sept 2023
Action Steps
  1. Write a Python script to collect logs from cloud instances using APIs or SSH
  2. Enrich log lines with metadata like IP address, machine name, and log source
  3. Store logs in a SQLite database for efficient querying
  4. Expose the database to a web interface using Datasette for easy access
  5. Configure a cronjob to run the script automatically
Who Needs to Know This

DevOps and engineering teams can benefit from this script to simplify log management and analysis, reducing reliance on expensive tools like Splunk

Key Insight

💡 A custom Python script can be a cost-effective and efficient alternative to commercial log management tools like Splunk

Share This
🚀 Replace Splunk with a single-file Python script and save thousands of dollars a year! 💸

Key Takeaways

Replace Splunk with a single-file Python script for log collection and analysis, saving thousands of dollars a year

Full Article

My immediate reaction to today's news that Splunk was being acquired was to comment in the HN discussion for that story: "I hated Splunk so much that I spent a couple days a few months ago writing a single 1200 line python script that does absolutely everything I need in terms of automatic log collection, ingestion, and analysis from a fleet of cloud instances. It pulls in all the log lines, enriches them with useful metadata like the IP address of the instance, the machine name, the log source, the datetime, etc. and stores it all in SQlite, which it then exposes to a very convenient web interface using Datasette. I put it in a cronjob and it's infinitely better (at least for my purposes) than Splunk, which is just a total nightmare to use, and can be customized super easily and quickly. My coworkers all prefer it to Splunk as well. And oh yeah, it's totally free instead of costing my company thousands of dollars a year! If I owned CSCO stock I would sell it-- this
Read full article → ← Back to Reads