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Analyzing 10M+ Traefik Requests with GoAccess to Detect Traffic Patterns

GoAccess Monitoring Guide for Traefik Logs

This guide explains how to use GoAccess to analyze Traefik access logs and quickly detect traffic patterns, spikes, or possible abuse.

1. Install GoAccess

sudo apt update
sudo apt install goaccess -y

Verify installation:

goaccess --version

2. Generate a Quick HTML Report

From the directory containing access.log:

tail -n 200000 access.log | goaccess -o /tmp/traefik_report.html --log-format=COMBINED

Explanation:

  • tail -n 200000 → analyze recent traffic only (faster)
  • -o → output HTML report
  • COMBINED → common web log format

Open the report:

firefox /tmp/traefik_report.html

Or copy the file to your local machine.

3. Generate a Full Report

If the log is not extremely large:

goaccess access.log -o /tmp/traefik_report.html --log-format=COMBINED

4. Create a Real‑Time Live Dashboard

goaccess access.log \
  --log-format=COMBINED \
  --real-time-html \
  -o /tmp/traefik_live.html

Open:

/tmp/traefik_live.html

The page updates automatically as new traffic arrives.

5. Key Panels to Monitor

Visitor Hostnames and IPs

Shows the most active IP addresses hitting your services.

Useful for detecting:

  • Heavy users
  • Possible attackers
  • Bots
  • Network scans

Requested URLs

Displays the most requested endpoints.

Helps identify:

  • API usage
  • File downloads
  • Scanning attempts
  • Misbehaving clients

HTTP Methods

Examples:

  • GET → normal browsing
  • POST → login/API requests
  • PROPFIND → WebDAV (Nextcloud)
  • PUT → uploads

Response Codes

Examples:

  • 200 → success
  • 301/302 → redirects
  • 401 → authentication required
  • 403 → forbidden
  • 404 → missing resources
  • 500 → server errors

Useful to detect brute force attempts or broken services.

Traffic Timeline

Shows traffic spikes by time. Helpful for correlating with:

  • CPU spikes
  • sync activity
  • scheduled jobs
  • potential attacks

6. Useful Filters for Large Logs

Analyze recent traffic only:

tail -n 500000 access.log | goaccess -o /tmp/report.html --log-format=COMBINED

Analyze a specific service (example Nextcloud):

grep cloud-ina access.log | goaccess -o /tmp/nextcloud.html --log-format=COMBINED

Analyze a specific IP:

grep 89.247.171.108 access.log | goaccess -o /tmp/ip.html --log-format=COMBINED

7. Quick Incident Workflow

When something unusual happens:

  1. Generate a report from recent logs
  2. Check Top Visitor IPs
  3. Check HTTP Methods
  4. Check Requested URLs
  5. Identify unusual traffic patterns

Example:

  • Many PROPFIND → Nextcloud sync activity
  • Many 404 → vulnerability scanner
  • Many 401 → brute force login attempts

8. Automate Daily Reports

Example cron job:

0 * * * * tail -n 500000 /path/access.log | goaccess -o /var/www/html/traefik.html --log-format=COMBINED

This generates a regularly updated monitoring dashboard.

For larger infrastructures:

  • Traefik Metrics → Prometheus
  • Visualization → Grafana
  • Log Analysis → GoAccess

This combination provides both real‑time traffic monitoring and long‑term analytics.

10. Summary

GoAccess is an excellent tool for quickly understanding proxy traffic:

  • Detect heavy users
  • Identify scanning attempts
  • Monitor API usage
  • Correlate traffic spikes with system load

In environments like Traefik + Proxmox + multiple services, GoAccess is one of the fastest ways to debug traffic issues.

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