Anchore services produce detailed logs that contain information about user interactions, internal processes, warnings and errors. The verbosity of the logs is controlled using the logging.log_level setting in config.yaml (for manual installations) or the corresponding ANCHORE_LOG_LEVEL environment variable (for docker compose or Helm installations) for each service.
The log levels are DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, and CRITICAL, where the default is INFO. Most of the time, the default level is sufficient as the logs will container WARNING, ERROR and CRITICAL messages as well. But for deep troubleshooting, it is always recommended to increase the log level to DEBUG in order to ensure the availability of the maximum amount of information. You can find further info on configuring logs in Configuration
Anchore logs can be accessed by inspecting the docker logs for any anchore service container using the regular docker logging mechanisms, which typically default to displaying to the stdout/stderr of the containers themselves - for example:
docker ps
...
aca91d2bb2ee anchore/enterprise:v5.21.0 "/docker-entrypoint.…" 7 days ago Up About an hour (healthy) 8228/tcp anchore-5210-catalog-1
fd974679cce1 anchore/enterprise:v5.21.0 "/docker-entrypoint.…" 7 days ago Up About an hour (healthy) 8228/tcp anchore-5210-analyzer-1
...
docker logs anchore-5210-analyzer-1
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-02T09:57:44.646254+00:00] [MainProcess] [MainThread] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.common.service/_register_instance_handlers():594] | Registering api handlers
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-02T09:57:44.646589+00:00] [MainProcess] [MainThread] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.common.service/_process_stage_handlers():231] | Processing init handlers for bootstrap stage: pre_config
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-02T09:57:44.646758+00:00] [MainProcess] [MainThread] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.common.service/_configure():293] | Loading and initializing global configuration
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-02T09:57:44.646901+00:00] [MainProcess] [MainThread] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.common.services/_init_versions():105] | Initializing enterprise versions
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-02T09:57:44.647043+00:00] [MainProcess] [MainThread] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.common.service/_configure():296] | Anchore version 5.21.0, DB Schema 5210
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-02T09:57:44.647247+00:00] [MainProcess] [MainThread] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.common.service/_configure():320] | Configuration complete
...
...
If you are using Kubernetes to run Anchore Enterprise, you can retrieve the logs from the service pods directly using kubectl commands:
Tip: You can find the desired pod name with
kubectl get pods
k8s-inventory kubectl logs -n <your-namespace> <your-anchore-pod-name>
[service:anchore-enterprise-apiext-v5.12.0] [2024-11-12T18:11:21.475751+00:00] [MainProcess] [WSGI_2] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.common.service/log_request():948] [req-id-aa93785c77c94d7081b1cff51d59d0aa] | 172.18.0.15:50682 - "GET /health HTTP/1.1" 200 request:0bytes response:5bytes 1.13ms
[service:anchore-enterprise-apiext-v5.12.0] [2024-11-12T18:11:21.494813+00:00] [MainProcess] [WSGI_0] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.common.service/log_request():948] [req-id-fdec0048c96348b9ae3385866908931f] | 172.18.0.15:50694 - "GET /version HTTP/1.1" 200 request:0bytes response:86bytes 1.27ms
[service:anchore-enterprise-apiext-v5.12.0] [2024-11-12T18:11:30.499957+00:00] [MainProcess] [WSGI_2] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.common.service/log_request():948] [req-id-8c6dd69ca53241958cfc63287ff97403] | 172.18.0.16:50360 - "GET /metrics HTTP/1.1" 200 request:0bytes response:18483bytes 14.08ms
[service:anchore-enterprise-apiext-v5.12.0] [2024-11-12T18:11:31.533531+00:00] [MainProcess] [WSGI_0] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.common.service/log_request():948] [req-id-7d0b21bb200d491db6a63fffaeb95bf2] | 172.18.0.15:51316 - "GET /health HTTP/1.1" 200 request:0bytes response:5bytes 1.5ms
[service:anchore-enterprise-apiext-v5.12.0] [2024-11-12T18:11:31.539215+00:00] [MainProcess] [WSGI_2] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.common.service/log_request():948] [req-id-6090039eb148412cb50bd64ceb61a634] | 172.18.0.15:51324 - "GET /version HTTP/1.1" 200 request:0bytes response:86bytes 0.94ms
[service:anchore-enterprise-apiext-v5.12.0] [2024-11-12T18:11:40.149191+00:00] [MainProcess] [WSGI_0] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.common.service/log_request():948]
If you want to trace an image’s journey through the analyzer to track whether it completes successfully, you can do this using the logged events and finding the Thread that the analysis is occurring on - in the below example, we noticed that the processes related to the node:latest image we submitted for analysis were occurring on Thread-5 when observing analyzer logs, so we were able to grep for this to see the entire process;
kubectl logs -n anchore anchore-enterprise-analyzer-5f49795899-9zc65 | grep Thread-5
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:12:10.145453+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.analysis/process_analyzer_job():468] | image dequeued for analysis: admin : sha256:89fd332d61ce0d8ebb85c847a9171c67d00fd9309d20a83d45b1fe2a7207af5c
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:12:10.190503+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.analysis/perform_analyze():264] | performing analysis on image: ['admin', 'docker.io/library/node@sha256:89fd332d61ce0d8ebb85c847a9171c67d00fd9309d20a83d45b1fe2a7207af5c', 'docker.io/library/node:latest']
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:12:10.193547+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.analysis/perform_analyze():269] | analyzing image admin: docker.io/library/node@sha256:89fd332d61ce0d8ebb85c847a9171c67d00fd9309d20a83d45b1fe2a7207af5c
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:12:10.193750+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.localanchore_standalone/analyze_image():812] | Analyzing Full Tag: docker.io/library/node:latest with Source: registry Dockerfile Mode: Guessed and Contents: False
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:12:10.194239+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.localanchore_standalone/pull_image():501] | Downloading image docker.io/library/node@sha256:89fd332d61ce0d8ebb85c847a9171c67d00fd9309d20a83d45b1fe2a7207af5c for analysis to /analysis_scratch/5538f6c3-366e-4e47-8d18-690bb2eb66dd/raw
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:12:30.139926+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.utils/timer():910] | Execution of Executing analyzer /home/anchore/venv/lib64/python3.12/site-packages/anchore_enterprise/services/analyzer/analyzers/modules/01_analyzer_meta.py took: 1.13681960105896 seconds
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:12:31.355471+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.utils/timer():910] | Execution of Executing analyzer /home/anchore/venv/lib64/python3.12/site-packages/anchore_enterprise/services/analyzer/analyzers/modules/02_analyzer_windows.py took: 1.2146642208099365 seconds
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:15:02.832641+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.analyzers.syft.adapters/_convert_syft_to_engine():322] | filtering owned packages
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:15:04.437364+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.analysis/perform_analyze():286] | performing analysis on image complete admin: docker.io/library/node@sha256:89fd332d61ce0d8ebb85c847a9171c67d00fd9309d20a83d45b1fe2a7207af5c
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:15:04.438051+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.analysis/process_analyzer_job():521] | No anchore hints found in retrieved image data
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:15:04.439172+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.analysis/store_analysis_results():726] | adding image analysis data to catalog: account_name=admin image_id=0b58171b7f6dcafeb1893f84ae02f743f3e7facb3112987afc5c6f2b66e591dc image_digest=sha256:89fd332d61ce0d8ebb85c847a9171c67d00fd9309d20a83d45b1fe2a7207af5c
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:15:04.439421+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.utils/upload_document_with_retry():269] | Attempting upload of syft_sbom
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:15:05.219587+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.utils/upload_document_with_retry():276] | Successfully uploaded syft_sbom
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:15:05.219947+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.utils/upload_document_with_retry():269] | Attempting upload of analysis_data
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:15:06.323650+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.utils/upload_document_with_retry():276] | Successfully uploaded analysis_data
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:15:06.975603+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.analysis/import_to_policy_engine():350] | loading image into policy engine: account_name=admin image_id=0b58171b7f6dcafeb1893f84ae02f743f3e7facb3112987afc5c6f2b66e591dc image_digest=sha256:89fd332d61ce0d8ebb85c847a9171c67d00fd9309d20a83d45b1fe2a7207af5c
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:15:11.908357+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.utils/update_analysis_complete():126] | Updating image catalog record with analysis results
[service:anchore-enterprise-analyzer-v5.21.0] [2025-10-10T11:15:11.935663+00:00] [MainProcess] [Thread-5] [INFO] [anchore_enterprise.services.analyzer.analysis/process_analyzer_job():553] | analysis complete: admin sha256:89fd332d61ce0d8ebb85c847a9171c67d00fd9309d20a83d45b1fe2a7207af5c