diff --git a/devstack/plugin.sh b/devstack/plugin.sh
index fff593dde..ff6b00336 100644
--- a/devstack/plugin.sh
+++ b/devstack/plugin.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-IRONIC_INSPECTOR_DEBUG=${IRONIC_INSPECTOR_DEBUG:-false}
+IRONIC_INSPECTOR_DEBUG=${IRONIC_INSPECTOR_DEBUG:-True}
 IRONIC_INSPECTOR_DIR=$DEST/ironic-inspector
 IRONIC_INSPECTOR_BIN_DIR=$(get_python_exec_prefix)
 IRONIC_INSPECTOR_BIN_FILE=$IRONIC_INSPECTOR_BIN_DIR/ironic-inspector
diff --git a/ironic_inspector/firewall.py b/ironic_inspector/firewall.py
index d2cfb9135..2f160a9fd 100644
--- a/ironic_inspector/firewall.py
+++ b/ironic_inspector/firewall.py
@@ -41,11 +41,12 @@ def _iptables(*args, **kwargs):
     try:
         subprocess.check_output(cmd, **kwargs)
     except subprocess.CalledProcessError as exc:
+        output = exc.output.replace('\n', '. ')
         if ignore:
-            LOG.debug('ignoring failed iptables %s:\n%s', args, exc.output)
+            LOG.debug('Ignoring failed iptables %s: %s', args, output)
         else:
-            LOG.error(_LE('iptables %(iptables)s failed:\n%(exc)s') %
-                      {'iptables': args, 'exc': exc.output})
+            LOG.error(_LE('iptables %(iptables)s failed: %(exc)s') %
+                      {'iptables': args, 'exc': output})
             raise
 
 
diff --git a/ironic_inspector/main.py b/ironic_inspector/main.py
index 6351e7613..05fd9a886 100644
--- a/ironic_inspector/main.py
+++ b/ironic_inspector/main.py
@@ -367,14 +367,18 @@ def create_ssl_context():
 def main(args=sys.argv[1:]):  # pragma: no cover
     log.register_options(CONF)
     CONF(args, project='ironic-inspector')
-    debug = CONF.debug
 
     log.set_defaults(default_log_levels=[
-        'urllib3.connectionpool=WARN',
-        'keystonemiddleware.auth_token=WARN',
-        'requests.packages.urllib3.connectionpool=WARN',
-        ('ironicclient.common.http=INFO' if debug else
-         'ironicclient.common.http=ERROR')])
+        'sqlalchemy=WARNING',
+        'keystoneclient=INFO',
+        'iso8601=WARNING',
+        'requests=WARNING',
+        'urllib3.connectionpool=WARNING',
+        'keystonemiddleware=WARNING',
+        'swiftclient=WARNING',
+        'keystoneauth=WARNING',
+        'ironicclient=WARNING'
+    ])
     log.setup(CONF, 'ironic_inspector')
 
     app_kwargs = {'host': CONF.listen_address,
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/compact-debug-logging-b15dd9bbdd3ce27a.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/compact-debug-logging-b15dd9bbdd3ce27a.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..583306a53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/compact-debug-logging-b15dd9bbdd3ce27a.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+---
+other:
+  - Make debug-level logging more compact by removing newlines from firewall
+    logging and disabling some 3rdparty debug messages by default.