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syslog-ng Open Source Edition 3.33 - Administration Guide

Preface Introduction to syslog-ng The concepts of syslog-ng Installing syslog-ng The syslog-ng OSE quick-start guide The syslog-ng OSE configuration file source: Read, receive, and collect log messages
How sources work default-network-drivers: Receive and parse common syslog messages internal: Collecting internal messages file: Collecting messages from text files wildcard-file: Collecting messages from multiple text files linux-audit: Collecting messages from Linux audit logs network: Collecting messages using the RFC3164 protocol (network() driver) nodejs: Receiving JSON messages from nodejs applications mbox: Converting local email messages to log messages osquery: Collect and parse osquery result logs pipe: Collecting messages from named pipes pacct: Collecting process accounting logs on Linux program: Receiving messages from external applications python: writing server-style Python sources python-fetcher: writing fetcher-style Python sources snmptrap: Read Net-SNMP traps sun-streams: Collecting messages on Sun Solaris syslog: Collecting messages using the IETF syslog protocol (syslog() driver) system: Collecting the system-specific log messages of a platform systemd-journal: Collecting messages from the systemd-journal system log storage systemd-syslog: Collecting systemd messages using a socket tcp, tcp6, udp, udp6: Collecting messages from remote hosts using the BSD syslog protocol— OBSOLETE unix-stream, unix-dgram: Collecting messages from UNIX domain sockets stdin: Collecting messages from the standard input stream
destination: Forward, send, and store log messages
amqp: Publishing messages using AMQP collectd: sending metrics to collectd elasticsearch2: Sending messages directly to Elasticsearch version 2.0 or higher (DEPRECATED) elasticsearch-http: Sending messages to Elasticsearch HTTP Bulk API file: Storing messages in plain-text files graphite: Sending metrics to Graphite Sending logs to Graylog hdfs: Storing messages on the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) Posting messages over HTTP http: Posting messages over HTTP without Java kafka: Publishing messages to Apache Kafka (Java implementation) kafka(): Publishing messages to Apache Kafka (C implementation, using the librdkafka client) loggly: Using Loggly logmatic: Using Logmatic.io mongodb: Storing messages in a MongoDB database mqtt() destination: sending messages from a local network to an MQTT broker network: Sending messages to a remote log server using the RFC3164 protocol (network() driver) osquery: Sending log messages to osquery's syslog table pipe: Sending messages to named pipes program: Sending messages to external applications pseudofile() python: writing custom Python destinations redis: Storing name-value pairs in Redis riemann: Monitoring your data with Riemann slack: Sending alerts and notifications to a Slack channel smtp: Generating SMTP messages (email) from logs snmp: Sending SNMP traps Splunk: Sending log messages to Splunk sql: Storing messages in an SQL database stomp: Publishing messages using STOMP Sumo Logic destinations: sumologic-http() and sumologic-syslog() syslog: Sending messages to a remote logserver using the IETF-syslog protocol syslog-ng(): Forward logs to another syslog-ng node tcp, tcp6, udp, udp6: Sending messages to a remote log server using the legacy BSD-syslog protocol (tcp(), udp() drivers) Telegram: Sending messages to Telegram unix-stream, unix-dgram: Sending messages to UNIX domain sockets usertty: Sending messages to a user terminal: usertty() destination Write your own custom destination in Java or Python Client-side failover
log: Filter and route log messages using log paths, flags, and filters Global options of syslog-ng OSE TLS-encrypted message transfer template and rewrite: Format, modify, and manipulate log messages parser: Parse and segment structured messages db-parser: Process message content with a pattern database (patterndb) Correlating log messages Enriching log messages with external data Statistics of syslog-ng Multithreading and scaling in syslog-ng OSE Troubleshooting syslog-ng Best practices and examples The syslog-ng manual pages Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd) License Glossary

Troubleshooting syslog-ng

This chapter provides tips and guidelines about troubleshooting problems related to syslog-ng.

  • As a general rule, first try to log the messages to a local file. Once this is working, you know that syslog-ng is running correctly and receiving messages, and you can proceed to forwarding the messages to the server.

  • Always check the configuration files for any syntax errors on both the client and the server using the syslog-ng --syntax-only command.

  • If the syslog-ng OSE server does not receive the messages, verify that the IP addresses and ports are correct in your sources and destinations. Also, check that the client and the server uses the same protocol (a common error is to send logs on UDP, but configure the server to receive logs on TCP).

    If the problem persists, use tcpdump or a similar packet sniffer tool on the client to verify that the messages are sent correctly, and on the server to verify that it receives the messages.

  • To find message-routing problems, run syslog-ng OSE with the following command syslog-ng -Fevd. That way syslog-ng OSE will run in the foreground, and display debug messages about the messages that are processed.

  • If syslog-ng is closing the connections for no apparent reason, be sure to check the log messages of syslog-ng. You may also want to run syslog-ng with the --verbose or --debug command-line options for more-detailed log messages. You can enable these messages without restarting syslog-ng using the syslog-ng-ctl verbose --set=on command. For details, see the syslog-ng-ctl man page at The syslog-ng control tool manual page.

  • Build up encrypted connections step-by-step. First create a working, unencrypted (for example, TCP) connection, then add TLS encryption, and finally, client authentication if needed.

  • If you use the same driver and options in the destination of your syslog-ng OSE client and the source of your syslog-ng OSE server, everything should work as expected. Unfortunately, there are some other combinations, that may seem to work, but result in losing parts of the messages. For details on the working combinations, see Things to consider when forwarding messages between syslog-ng OSE hosts.

  • In case you experience a problem that is not covered in this guide, send it to our mailing list.

    To report bugs found in syslog-ng OSE, visit our GitHub issues page.

    Precompiled binary packages are available for free from various third-parties. See the list of precompiled syslog-ng OSE binary packages.

Possible causes of losing log messages

During the course of a message from the sending application to the final destination of the message, there are a number of locations where a message may be lost, even though syslog-ng does its best to avoid message loss. Usually losing messages can be avoided with careful planning and proper configuration of syslog-ng and the hosts running syslog-ng. The following list shows the possible locations where messages may be lost, and provides methods to minimize the risk of losing messages:

  • Between the application and the syslog-ng client: Make sure to use an appropriate source to receive the logs from the application (for example, from /dev/log). For example, use unix-stream instead of unix-dgram whenever possible.

  • When syslog-ng is sending messages: If syslog-ng cannot send messages to the destination and the output buffer gets full, syslog-ng will drop messages.

    Use flags (flow-control) to avoid this (for details, see Configuring flow-control). For more information about the error caused by the missing flow-control, see Destination queue full.

    The number of dropped messages is displayed per destination in the log message statistics of syslog-ng (for details, see Statistics of syslog-ng).

  • On the network: When transferring messages using the UDP protocol, messages may be lost without any notice or feedback — such is the nature of the UDP protocol. Always use the TCP protocol to transfer messages over the network whenever possible.

  • In the socket receive buffer: When transferring messages using the UDP protocol, the UDP datagram (that is, the message) that reaches the receiving host placed in a memory area called the socket receive buffer. If the host receives more messages than it can process, this area overflows, and the kernel drops messages without letting syslog-ng know about it. Using TCP instead of UDP prevents this issue. If you must use the UDP protocol, increase the size of the receive buffer using the so-rcvbuf() option.

  • When syslog-ng is receiving messages:

    • The receiving syslog-ng (for example, the syslog-ng server or relay) may drop messages if the fifo of the destination file gets full. The number of dropped messages is displayed per destination in the log message statistics of syslog-ng (for details, see Statistics of syslog-ng).

  • When the destination cannot handle large load: When syslog-ng is sending messages at a high rate into an SQL database, a file, or another destination, it is possible that the destination cannot handle the load, and processes the messages slowly. As a result, the buffers of syslog-ng fill up, syslog-ng cannot process the incoming messages, and starts to loose messages. For details, see the previous entry. Use the throttle parameter to avoid this problem.

  • As a result of an unclean shutdown of the syslog-ng server: If the host running the syslog-ng server experiences an unclean shutdown, it takes time until the clients realize that the connection to the syslog-ng server is down. Messages that are put into the output TCP buffer of the clients during this period are not sent to the server.

  • When syslog-ng OSE is writing messages into files: If syslog-ng OSE receives a signal (SIG) while writing log messages to file, the log message that is processed by the write call can be lost if the flush_lines parameter is higher than 1.

Creating syslog-ng core files

Purpose:

When syslog-ng crashes for some reason, it can create a core file that contains important troubleshooting information. To enable core files, complete the following procedure:

Steps:

  1. Core files are produced only if the maximum core file size ulimit is set to a high value in the init script of syslog-ng.Add the following line to the init script of syslog-ng:

    ulimit -c unlimited

  2. Verify that syslog-ng has permissions to write the directory it is started from, for example, /opt/syslog-ng/sbin/.

  3. If syslog-ng crashes, it will create a core file in the directory syslog-ng was started from.

  4. To test that syslog-ng can create a core file, you can create a crash manually. For this, determine the PID of syslog-ng (for example, using the ps -All|grep syslog-ng command), then issue the following command: kill -ABRT <syslog-ng pid>

    This should create a core file in the current working directory.

Collecting debugging information with strace, truss, or tusc

To properly troubleshoot certain situations, it can be useful to trace which system calls syslog-ng OSE performs. How this is performed depends on the platform running syslog-ng OSE. In general, note the following points:

  • When syslog-ng OSE is started, a supervisor process might stay in the foreground, while the actual syslog-ng daemon goes to the background. Always trace the background process.

  • Apart from the system calls, the time between two system calls can be important as well. Make sure that your tracing tool records the time information as well. For details on how to do that, refer to the manual page of your specific tool (for example, strace on Linux, or truss on Solaris and BSD).

  • Run your tracing tool in verbose mode, and if possible, set it to print long output strings, so the messages are not truncated.

  • When using strace, also record the output of lsof to see which files are accessed.

The following are examples for tracing system calls of syslog-ng on some platforms. The output is saved into the /tmp/syslog-ng-trace.txt file, sufficed with the PID of the related syslog-ng process.The path of the syslog-ng binary may be different for your installation, as distribution-specific packages may use different paths.

  • Linux: strace -o /tmp/trace.txt -s256 -ff -ttT /opt/syslog-ng/sbin/syslog-ng -f /opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng.conf -Fdv

  • HP-UX: tusc -f -o /tmp/syslog-ng-trace.txt -T /opt/syslog-ng/sbin/syslog-ng

  • IBM AIX and Solaris: truss -f -o /tmp/syslog-ng-trace.txt -r all -w all -u libc:: /opt/syslog-ng/sbin/syslog-ng -d -d -d

TIP: To execute these commands on an already running syslog-ng OSE process, use the -p <pid_of_syslog-ng> parameter.

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