Log rotation

When setting up a server to run ZXTM unattended remember to think about log rotation. ZXTM can generate a number of logs (access logs to the admin server, error logs, audit/request/response logs etc. If left unchecked, these logs can eventually grow very large and potentially fill whole partitions.

Fortunately it is easy to rotate ZXTM logs. Just use the standard OS tools to move/rotate files, ZXTM is clever enough to recognize that you have rotated its logs and will automatically create new log files as needed – no tricky signalling required.

If you are running Redhat Enterprise, Debian, or any Linux distribution supporting the standard /etc/logrotate.d service, this is a no-brainer. Simply create a file /etc/logrotate.d/zxtm containing:

/usr/local/zeus/admin/log/errors /usr/local/zeus/zxtm/log/errors {
        rotate 5
        weekly
        compress
        delaycompress
}

And you'll get instant log rotation. In this case, we went for keeping the last 5 weeks of logs, but logrotate can use other policies, such as file-sized based rotation rather than duration (see ‘man logrotate’). The only piece of magic to remember is the directive ‘delaycompress’, this allows the automatic synchronization between logrotate and ZXTM; it gives ZXTM time to recognize that logrotate has rotated its file and create a new one before the file is unavailable for final additions.

Log rotation on ZXTM Appliances

The path to the logs is different on ZXTM appliances - use the following script instead. It should be installed as /etc/logrotate.d/zxtm as before:

/opt/zeus/admin/log/errors /opt/zeus/zxtm/log/errors {
        rotate 5
        weekly
        compress
        delaycompress
}

Damian Reeves [Zeus CTO] 22 December 2005   1 comment