How to install Grafana Loki on Ubuntu 25.10

Grafana Loki is a lightweight and efficient log aggregation system. This guide will help you install and configure Loki on Ubuntu 25.10 quickly and clearly.

Step 1: Update Your System

Keeping your Ubuntu 25.10 server fully updated ensures a stable base and avoids potential errors during the installation of Grafana Loki.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Required Dependencies

Installing essential tools like wget and tar ensures that downloading and extracting Grafana Loki and Promtail on Ubuntu 25.10 is smooth and error-free.

sudo apt install wget tar -y

Step 3: Download Grafana Loki

Download the latest Loki and Promtail binaries from the official Grafana repository to ensure you have the most stable and up-to-date version for your Ubuntu 25.10 server.

wget https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/latest/download/loki-linux-amd64.zip
wget https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/latest/download/promtail-linux-amd64.zip

Step 4: Extract Loki and Promtail

Unzip the downloaded Loki and Promtail packages so that the binaries are ready for installation and configuration on your Ubuntu 25.10 system.

unzip loki-linux-amd64.zip
unzip promtail-linux-amd64.zip

Step 5: Move Files and Make Them Executable

Move the Loki and Promtail binaries to a system directory and set executable permissions to ensure they can run properly on Ubuntu 25.10.

sudo mv loki-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/loki
sudo mv promtail-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/promtail
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/loki /usr/local/bin/promtail

Step 6: Create Loki Configuration File

Set up a basic configuration file for Loki to define how it will store, manage, and serve logs efficiently on your Ubuntu 25.10 server.

sudo nano /etc/loki-config.yml

Step 7: Create a Systemd Service for Loki

 Creating a systemd service ensures Loki starts automatically on boot and runs reliably in the background on your Ubuntu 25.10 server.

sudo systemctl enable --now loki

Step 8: Create Promtail Configuration File

Set up Promtail to collect system logs and send them to Loki, ensuring centralized log aggregation on Ubuntu 25.10.

sudo nano /etc/promtail-config.yml