Deploy OpenObserve

Deploy and Host OpenObserve on Railway

OpenObserve is an open-source observability platform for logs, metrics, traces, real user monitoring and dashboards. It ingests OpenTelemetry, Elasticsearch, Loki, Prometheus and JSON data, stores it in compressed columnar files, and lets you search with SQL or PromQL, build dashboards, and set alerts from one web UI.

About Hosting OpenObserve

This template deploys OpenObserve v1.0.3 in single-node mode from the official image, with data on a Railway volume. The root user is created from environment variables with a generated password that meets OpenObserve's complexity rules. Every API and UI request needs authentication, and telemetry is off. Data older than 30 days is removed by compaction. The server listens on IPv4 and IPv6, so applications and OpenTelemetry collectors on Railway send data over the private network. It fits the Hobby plan for small volumes. Use ingestion-only service accounts for applications instead of the root user.

Common Use Cases

• One place for logs, metrics and traces from Railway services
• OpenTelemetry backend for application tracing
• SQL search and dashboards over application logs

Dependencies for OpenObserve Hosting

• openobserve/openobserve:v1.0.3 (official image)
• A Railway volume at /data

Deployment Dependencies

• OpenObserve documentation
• OpenObserve v1.0.3 release
• Environment variables
• Railway private networking

Implementation Details

curl -u "admin@example.com:$ZO_ROOT_USER_PASSWORD" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -X POST https:///api/default/app_logs/_json -d '[{"level":"error","message":"payment failed"}]'

OpenTelemetry exporters use https:///api/default as the OTLP/HTTP endpoint with basic auth.

Notes:

• The root password must contain upper and lower case letters, a digit and a symbol, or OpenObserve refuses to start; the template adds -Aa1 to the generated value.
• Create service accounts with ingestion-only tokens for applications in the UI.

This is a community-maintained deployment package and does not imply affiliation with or endorsement by the OpenObserve project or its maintainers.

Why Deploy OpenObserve on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying OpenObserve on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.