Loki Agent for AIX
$ 75
Native AIX error log forwarder for Grafana Loki – real-time errpt monitoring with 9 structured labels. Requires only gcc-libs, TLS support, BFF packaged. Centralize AIX error logs across your fleet.
AIX Error Log Forwarder for Grafana Loki
Loki Agent for AIX reads the native AIX error log (errlog) in real-time and forwards structured entries to Grafana Loki via HTTP or HTTPS. Turn your errpt into searchable, alertable log streams.
How It Works
- Loki Agent monitors the AIX error log continuously
- New entries are parsed and enriched with structured labels
- Entries are pushed to your Loki instance via the Push API
- Query and alert in Grafana using LogQL
Structured Labels
Every log entry includes rich metadata for powerful filtering:
| Label | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
hostname |
System hostname | aix-prod-01 |
job |
Job identifier | aix-errpt |
errpt_class |
Error class | H (hardware), S (software), O (operator) |
errpt_type |
Error type | PERM, TEMP, PERF, INFO, UNKN |
errpt_resource |
Resource name | hdisk0, ent0, SRC |
Example LogQL Queries
# All errors from a specific host
{hostname="aix-prod-01", job="aix-errpt"}
# Hardware permanent errors
{job="aix-errpt", errpt_class="H", errpt_type="PERM"}
# Disk-related errors across all hosts
{job="aix-errpt", errpt_resource=~"hdisk.*"}
# Error rate per host over 24h
count_over_time({job="aix-errpt"}[24h]) by (hostname)Use Cases
- Centralized error monitoring — all AIX servers in one Grafana dashboard
- Alerting — get notified on hardware errors, service crashes, disk failures
- Correlation — combine with Prometheus metrics from AIX_exporter
- Compliance — searchable audit trail of system errors
- Troubleshooting — filter by class, type, resource across your fleet
Zero Dependencies
The standard build has no external dependencies — only AIX base libraries. The TLS build requires only libssl and libcrypto from AIX base OpenSSL 3.
Four Build Variants
| Package | TLS | License |
|---|---|---|
| loki-agent | No | Full |
| loki-agent-tls | Yes | Full |
| loki-agent-trial | No | 30-day trial |
| loki-agent-tls-trial | Yes | 30-day trial |
Enterprise-Grade Integration
- SRC subsystem — managed via
startsrc/stopsrc - BFF packaging — standard AIX
installpinstall/uninstall - Auto-start — inittab entry created at install
- Config file —
/etc/loki/loki-agent.conf - TLS support — optional HTTPS with CA certificate validation
Compatibility
- AIX 7.1, 7.2, 7.3
- IBM Power Systems (POWER7 and above)
- Grafana Loki 2.x and 3.x
- Grafana 9.x, 10.x, 11.x, 12.x
Licensing
Perpetual license — pay once, use forever. First year of maintenance (updates + support) included. Per-LPAR pricing with volume discounts.
Configuration & Runtime Options
Loki Agent is fully configurable via command-line flags or a configuration file (/etc/loki/loki-agent.conf).
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Loki server | Hostname or IP of your Loki instance with -s <server> |
| Configurable port | Connect on any port with -p <port> (default: 3100) |
| TLS encryption | Secure connection to Loki with -t flag |
| Custom API path | Override the Loki Push API endpoint with -u <path> |
| Custom error log path | Read from a different errlog with -e <path> |
| Configuration file | All options in /etc/loki/loki-agent.conf |
| Batch replay mode | Parse entire error log history with -b and exit |
| Syslog integration | All events logged to syslog – startup, errors, forwarding status |
| SRC managed | Registered as AIX SRC subsystem – startsrc/stopsrc |
| Auto-start on boot | Inittab entry created automatically |
| Standard BFF package | Native AIX installp installation |
Structured Labels
Every errpt entry is enriched with structured labels for powerful filtering in Grafana:
| Label | Description |
|---|---|
service_name |
Always “errpt” – identifies the log stream |
node_id |
LPAR hostname |
machine_id |
Machine serial number |
class |
Error class (H=Hardware, S=Software, O=Operator, U=Undetermined) |
type |
Error type (PERM, TEMP, PERF, PEND, INFO, UNKN) |
crcid |
Unique error template identifier |
resource |
Resource name (e.g., hdisk0, ent0) |
rclass |
Resource class |
description |
Human-readable error description |
Quick Start
Get Loki Agent running in under 5 minutes:
# 1. Install the BFF package installp -aXYgd /path/to/loki-agent.1.0.0.1.bff all # 2. Edit configuration vi /etc/loki/loki-agent.conf # 3. Start the agent startsrc -s loki-agent # 4. Verify in Grafana Explore {service_name="errpt"} | json
System Requirements
| Operating System | IBM AIX 7.1, 7.2, or 7.3 |
| Architecture | IBM Power Systems (POWER7 and later) |
| Disk Space | < 1 MB |
| Memory | < 3 MB RSS |
| CPU Overhead | Negligible – event-driven, sleeps between errpt entries |
| Dependencies | GCC runtime libraries (gcc-libs) |
| Network | Outbound HTTP/HTTPS to Loki server (default port 3100) |
| Grafana Loki | 2.x or 3.x |
