Logging Tools

Installing Syslog-ng

The easiest way to install syslog-ng is to use the latest SYS Syslog Remote Logging Client RightScript on your server template.  If you need to add it to a server template, select it from the Premium/Public list of RightScripts and add it as a boot script.  Be sure to add it as the first boot script since you'll want logging to start immediately.

You must set the SYSLOG_SERVER action input to "syslog.rightscale.com" to use RightScale's internal log aggregation and browsing. 

If you are running a custom Syslog-ng server, you may set the SYSLOG_SERVER input to the hostname of that server.

Adding User Defined Log Entries

In your scripts you can also add lines to these log files in order to track the progress and status of your scripts.  The example below uses "RightScale" as the tag, but you can use any tag that you want. 

NOTE: Please do not use 'RightScale' as the tag for your custom logger messages, as it is reserved for RightScale use only.

Example

logger -t RightScale "I am Done"

Provides the syslog daemon with the line:

 May  7 15:10:14 ip-10-251-127-111 RightScale: I am done

The logger message above will show up in /var/log/messages and be reported to the RightScale Dashbord in the instance's Log files tab. 

These user-defined logger messages are useful for debugging issues and tracking the progress of your own scripts.

NOTE: Notice that our example is a one-line comment. It's best to keep it short and to the point.  Try to avoid using special characters.