Enhanced Logging With rsyslog On Debian Etch And phpLogcon For Viewing
Well everybody knows the issues of
reading and searching in log files. If you have more than one machine
it even gets worse. This tutorial describes how to install and
configure rsyslog on Debian Etch, but it can be adapted to other
distributions.
Exerpt from rsyslog site:
"Rsyslog,
the enhanced syslogd for Linux and Unix.
Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd supporting, among
others, MySQL,
syslog/tcp, RFC 3195, permitted sender lists, filtering on any
message part, and fine grain output format control. It is quite
compatible to stock sysklogd and can be used as a drop-in
replacement. Its advanced
features make it suitable for enterprise-class, encryption
protected syslog relay chains while at the same time being very
easy to setup for the novice user. An optional web interface -
phpLogCon - can be used to
visualize all data online."
In this tutorial we will be building
rsyslog from source and write the necessary config files.
Step 1: See That The Necessary Tools
Are Installed
Next we start the mysql command shell and create the rsyslog user:
mysql -u root -p GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON rsyslog.* TO 'rsyslog_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'rsyslog_user_password';
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON mail.* TO 'rsyslog_user'@'localhost.localdomain' IDENTIFIED BY 'rsyslog_user_password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; quit
As you might have noticed we do not import any tables into the db. phpLogCon will do that for us.
Step 2: Get The rsyslog Source And Build rsyslog
Get the source:
cd /tmp wget http://www.rsyslog.com/Downloads-req-getit-lid-58.phtml
Now let's build and install rsyslog:
tar xvzf rsyslog-1.9.6.tar.gz cd rsyslog-1.9.6 ./configure make make install
Since rsyslog has no configuration examples (and files) I'll provide the examples here. All of these are just default configurations, use the documentation provided by rsyslog to customize the configuration to your specific needs.
First the rsyslog configuration file /etc/rsyslog.conf.
with the username and password you specified above.
# /etc/rsyslog.conf Configuration file for rsyslogd.
#
# For more information see
# /usr/share/doc/rsyslog/html/rsyslog_conf.html
#
# First some standard logfiles. Log by facility.
#
$ModLoad MySQL
*.* >127.0.0.1,rsyslog,rsyslog_user,rsyslog_user_password
auth,authpriv.* /var/log/auth.log
*.*;auth,authpriv.none -/var/log/syslog
#cron.* /var/log/cron.log
daemon.* -/var/log/daemon.log
kern.* -/var/log/kern.log
lpr.* -/var/log/lpr.log
mail.* -/var/log/mail.log
user.* -/var/log/user.log
#
# Logging for the mail system. Split it up so that
# it is easy to write scripts to parse these files.
#
mail.info -/var/log/mail.info
mail.warn -/var/log/mail.warn
mail.err /var/log/mail.err
#
# Logging for INN news system
#
news.crit /var/log/news/news.crit
news.err /var/log/news/news.err
news.notice -/var/log/news/news.notice
#
# Some `catch-all' logfiles.
#
*.=debug;\
auth,authpriv.none;\
news.none;mail.none -/var/log/debug
*.=info;*.=notice;*.=warn;\
auth,authpriv.none;\
cron,daemon.none;\
mail,news.none -/var/log/messages
#
# Emergencies are sent to everybody logged in.
#
*.emerg *
#
# I like to have messages displayed on the console, but only on a virtual
# console I usually leave idle.
#
#daemon,mail.*;\
# news.=crit;news.=err;news.=notice;\
# *.=debug;*.=info;\
# *.=notice;*.=warn /dev/tty8
# The named pipe /dev/xconsole is for the `xconsole' utility. To use it,
# you must invoke `xconsole' with the `-file' option:
#
# $ xconsole -file /dev/xconsole [...]
#
# NOTE: adjust the list below, or you'll go crazy if you have a reasonably
# busy site..
#
daemon.*;mail.*;\
news.err;\
*.=debug;*.=info;\
*.=notice;*.=warn |/dev/xconsole
#
# Include all config files in /etc/rsyslog.d/
#
$IncludeConfig /etc/rsyslog.d/
Next is the startup script /etc/init.d/rsyslog:
vi /etc/init.d/rsyslog
Just copy and paste the contents below:
#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: syslog
# Required-Start: $local_fs $time
# Required-Stop: $local_fs $time
# Should-Start: $network
# Should-Stop: $network
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
# Description: Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
# It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
# used as a drop-in replacement.
### END INIT INFO
# Author: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>
#
# Do NOT "set -e"
# PATH should only include /usr/* if it runs after the mountnfs.sh script
PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
DESC="enhanced syslogd"
NAME=rsyslog
RSYSLOGD=rsyslogd
RSYSLOGD_BIN=/usr/local/sbin/rsyslogd
RSYSLOGD_OPTIONS="-m 0"
RSYSLOGD_PIDFILE=/var/run/rsyslogd.pid
RKLOGD=rklogd
RKLOGD_BIN=/usr/local/sbin/rklogd
RKLOGD_OPTIONS="-2"
RKLOGD_PIDFILE=/var/run/rklogd.pid
SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/$NAME
# Exit if the package is not installed
[ -x "$RSYSLOGD_BIN" ] || exit 0
[ -x "$RKLOGD_BIN" ] || exit 0
# Read configuration variable file if it is present
[ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
# Define LSB log_* functions.
# Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.0-6) to ensure that this file is present.
. /lib/lsb/init-functions
#
# Function that starts the daemon/service
#
do_start()
{
DAEMON=$1
DAEMON_ARGS=$2
PIDFILE=$3
# Return
# 0 if daemon has been started
# 1 if daemon was already running
# 2 if daemon could not be started
start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
|| return 1
start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
$DAEMON_ARGS \
|| return 2
}
#
# Function that stops the daemon/service
#
do_stop()
{
NAME=$1
PIDFILE=$2
# Return
# 0 if daemon has been stopped
# 1 if daemon was already stopped
# 2 if daemon could not be stopped
# other if a failure occurred
start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
RETVAL="$?"
#rm -f $PIDFILE
return "$RETVAL"
}
#
# Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
#
do_reload() {
NAME=$1
PIDFILE=$2
start-stop-daemon --stop --signal HUP --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
return 0
}
create_xconsole() {
if [ ! -e /dev/xconsole ]
then
mknod -m 640 /dev/xconsole p
fi
}
case "$1" in
start)
log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$RSYSLOGD"
create_xconsole
do_start "$RSYSLOGD_BIN" "$RSYSLOGD_OPTIONS" "$RSYSLOGD_PIDFILE"
case "$?" in
# 0|1) log_end_msg 0 ;;
2) log_end_msg 1 ;;
esac
log_progress_msg "$RKLOGD"
do_start "$RKLOGD_BIN" "$RKLOGD_OPTIONS" "$RKLOGD_PIDFILE"
case "$?" in
0|1) log_end_msg 0 ;;
2) log_end_msg 1 ;;
esac
;;
stop)
log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$RKLOGD"
do_stop "$RKLOGD" "$RKLOGD_PIDFILE"
case "$?" in
# 0|1) log_end_msg 0 ;;
2) log_end_msg 1 ;;
esac
log_progress_msg "$RSYSLOGD"
do_stop "$RSYSLOGD" "$RSYSLOGD_PIDFILE"
case "$?" in
0|1) log_end_msg 0 ;;
2) log_end_msg 1 ;;
esac
;;
reload|force-reload)
log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$RSYSLOGD"
do_reload "$RSYSLOGD" "$RSYSLOGD_PIDFILE"
log_end_msg $?
;;
restart)
$0 stop
$0 start
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload}" >&2
exit 3
;;
esac
:
Next we create a default configuration in /etc/default/rsyslogd:
vi /etc/default/rsyslog
Just copy and paste the contents below:
# Options to rsyslogd
# -m 0 disables 'MARK' messages.
# -r enables logging from remote machines
# -x disables DNS lookups on messages recieved with -r
# See rsyslogd(8) for more details
RSYSLOGD_OPTIONS="-m 0"
# Options to rklogd
# -2 prints all kernel oops messages twice; once for klogd to decode, and
# once for processing with 'ksymoops'
# -x disables all klogd processing of oops messages entirely
# See rklogd(8) for more details
RKLOGD_OPTIONS="-x"
Next we create the directory /etc/rsyslog.d - this is needed for additional configuration options (not covered in the tutorial).
mkdir /etc/rsyslog.d
Now we have all of the configuration files, but we need now to make sure rsyslog is started at boot time in the right moment. Please note that rsyslog is not compatible with klogd and sysklogd which are installed by default. These need to be disabled or de-installed. In this tutorial I will disable them.
Issue the following commands to start rsyslogd at the right time during system boot and to disable klogd and sysklogd.
Continue installing libc-client without Maildir support?<-- Yes
Step 4: Get phpLogCon And Install phpLogCon
cd /tmp wget http://www.phplogcon.org/Downloads-req-getit-lid-6.phtml
Next we will create a directory for phpLogCon and enable it in Apache2:
tar xvzf phplogcon-1.2.3.tar.gz mkdir /var/www/phplogcon cp -R phplogcon-1.2.3/* /var/www/phplogcon
Configure apache2 for phpLogcon:
vi /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/your_site_conf
Add the following alias to enable phplogcon:
Alias /phplogcon "/var/www/phplogcon"
Insert the line above before </virtualhost> or if you have already aliases defined, insert the line there.
Note: if /var/www is your server root then you don't need to create an alias.
Restart apache2 to enable the changes.
/etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload
Step 5: Configure phpLogCon And Install The Tables In The rsyslog DB
Point your browser to http://yourdomain.tld/phplogcon and follow the steps on the screen. After the installation wizard has finished, the database is populated with all of the required tables and an administrative user is created.
Delete the install directory to enable phpLogCon:
rm -R /var/www/phplogcon/install
Step 6: Start rsyslog
Issue the following commands to start rsyslog and to stop klogd and sysklogd:
Point your browser to http://yourdomain.tld/phplogcon and log in with the username and password you specified in the installation wizard. You should now see something like this:
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