Where is the kibana error log? Is there a kibana error log?

Solution 1:

Kibana 4 logs to stdout by default. Here is an excerpt of the config/kibana.yml defaults:

# Enables you specify a file where Kibana stores log output.
# logging.dest: stdout

So when invoking it with service, use the log capture method of that service. For example, on a Linux distribution using Systemd / systemctl (e.g. RHEL 7+):

journalctl -u kibana.service

One way may be to modify init scripts to use the --log-file option (if it still exists), but I think the proper solution is to properly configure your instance YAML file. For example, add this to your config/kibana.yml:

logging.dest: /var/log/kibana.log

Note that the Kibana process must be able to write to the file you specify, or the process will die without information (it can be quite confusing).

As for the --log-file option, I think this is reserved for CLI operations, rather than automation.

Solution 2:

In kibana 4.0.2 there is no --log-file option. If I start kibana as a service with systemctl start kibana I find log in /var/log/messages