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Server Mode

Server mode runs LynxDB as a persistent HTTP server with on-disk storage, full REST API, materialized views, alerts, and dashboards.

Start the Server​

# Start with defaults (localhost:3100, data in ~/.local/share/lynxdb)
lynxdb server

# Specify a data directory
lynxdb server --data-dir /var/lib/lynxdb

# Custom listen address
lynxdb server --addr 0.0.0.0:3100

# In-memory mode (no persistence, useful for testing)
lynxdb server --data-dir ""

On startup, you'll see:

  Config:  /home/user/.config/lynxdb/config.yaml
  Data:    /var/lib/lynxdb
  Listen:  localhost:3100

time=2026-01-15T10:00:00Z level=INFO msg="starting LynxDB" version=0.5.0 addr=localhost:3100

Ingest Data​

From the CLI​

# Ingest a log file
lynxdb ingest access.log --source web-01

# Ingest with metadata
lynxdb ingest access.log --source web-01 --sourcetype nginx

# Pipe data
cat events.json | lynxdb ingest

From the API​

# Single JSON event
curl -X POST localhost:3100/api/v1/ingest \
  -d '{"message": "user login", "user_id": 42, "level": "info"}'

# NDJSON batch
curl -X POST localhost:3100/api/v1/ingest \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/x-ndjson' \
  -d '{"level":"info","msg":"event 1"}
{"level":"error","msg":"event 2"}'

# Raw text
echo '192.168.1.1 - - [14/Feb/2026:14:23:01] "GET /api HTTP/1.1" 200' | \
  curl -X POST localhost:3100/api/v1/ingest/raw --data-binary @-

No schema needed. Fields are discovered and indexed automatically.

Query Data​

CLI​

# Basic search
lynxdb query 'level=error'

# Aggregation
lynxdb query 'level=error | stats count by source | sort -count'

# Time range
lynxdb query 'level=error | stats count' --since 1h

# Output formats
lynxdb query 'level=error | stats count by source' --format table
lynxdb query 'level=error | stats count by source' --format csv > report.csv

API​

# Synchronous query
curl -s localhost:3100/api/v1/query \
  -d '{"q": "level=error | stats count by source", "from": "-1h"}' | jq .

# Streaming results (NDJSON)
curl -s localhost:3100/api/v1/query/stream \
  -d '{"q": "level=error", "from": "-1h"}'

Monitor with Live Tail​

Stream log events in real-time:

# Tail all events
lynxdb tail

# Tail with filter
lynxdb tail 'level=error'

# Tail with pipeline
lynxdb tail 'source=nginx status>=500 | fields _time, uri, status'

Check Server Status​

# Server overview
lynxdb status

# Health check (for load balancers)
lynxdb health

# Field catalog
lynxdb fields

# Cache statistics
lynxdb cache stats

Run as a Service​

The easiest way to set up LynxDB as a system service. One command creates a dedicated user, directories, config file, and a hardened systemd/launchd unit:

sudo lynxdb install
sudo systemctl start lynxdb

See the full install reference for all flags and customization options.

Manual systemd​

If you prefer to manage the service unit yourself:

# /etc/systemd/system/lynxdb.service
[Unit]
Description=LynxDB Log Analytics
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=lynxdb
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/lynxdb server --data-dir /var/lib/lynxdb
Restart=on-failure
LimitNOFILE=65536

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
sudo systemctl enable lynxdb
sudo systemctl start lynxdb

Docker​

docker run -d --name lynxdb \
  -p 3100:3100 \
  -v lynxdb-data:/data \
  OrlovEvgeny/Lynxdb server --data-dir /data

Configuration​

Create a config file for persistent settings:

lynxdb config init

This creates ~/.config/lynxdb/config.yaml:

listen: "localhost:3100"
data_dir: "/var/lib/lynxdb"
retention: "7d"
log_level: "info"

storage:
  compression: "lz4"
  flush_threshold: "512mb"

See the full Configuration Reference for all options.

Next Steps​