This post kicks off a new series written by the Graylog Development Team. In these updates, we’ll highlight the features and fixes that make daily work in Graylog smoother.
We want to show the work we care so much about and present the challenges we faced and overcame. Today, we’re starting with one of those minor but functional enhancements: Graylog time-range stepping.
The Problem: Manual Time-Range Adjustments
One Graylog user encountered a frustrating issue while scanning large sets of log messages. The message table displayed the correct number of messages and pages, but due to the OpenSearch indexer limit, only a portion of the messages could be displayed at once.
If your Graylog message table only lets you view the first few pages, you’re likely hitting index.max_result_window—the cap on from + size (default 10,000). That means the max page count is roughly 10,000 ÷ page_size (e.g., page size 150 ≈ 66 pages). You can raise that setting (not ideal—costly at scale).
To continue reviewing, the user had to manually adjust the time range repeatedly.
The Graylog Development Team relentlessly strives to develop towards an Intuitive Analyst Experience, and this repetitive task slows down investigations and adds unnecessary clicks.
The Fix: Graylog Time-Range Stepping Buttons
To tackle this problem, we implemented two new time range navigation buttons that let you step forward and backward through your logs one time range at a time.
Instead of manually redefining ranges, you just click and keep moving. No more tedious adjustments.
Time-Range Stepping
The Result
With fewer clicks, the user saves time during log review. The smoother workflows let the user keep momentum when investigating. This helps everyone, whether you’re chasing down a specific incident or just scanning routine logs.
It’s a reminder that even small enhancements like Graylog Time-Stepping buttons can significantly affect how quickly analysts can find answers. That is why we want to raise awareness of these changes.
This is just the beginning of our Developer Series. Please stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes updates as we refine and improve the Graylog experience.
Author: Konrad Merz, Engineering Manager in the Graylog Development Team
