The syslog-ng OSE control tool manual page

syslog-ng-ctl --- Display message statistics and enable verbose, debug and trace modes in syslog-ng OSE

Synopsis

syslog-ng-ctl [command] [options]

Description

NOTE: The syslog-ng-ctl application is distributed with the syslog-ng OSE system logging application, and is usually part of the syslog-ng OSE package. The latest version of the syslog-ng OSE application is available at the syslog-ng OSE page.

This manual page is only an abstract.

The syslog-ng-ctl application is a utility that can be used to:

enable/disable various syslog-ng OSE messages for troubleshooting
display statistics about the processed messages
handling password-protected private keys
display the currently running configuration of syslog-ng OSE
reload the configuration of syslog-ng OSE.

Enabling troubleshooting messages

command [options]

Use the syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=on command to display verbose, trace, or debug messages. If you are trying to solve configuration problems, the verbose (and occasionally trace) messages are usually sufficient. Debug messages are needed mostly for finding software errors. After solving the problem, do not forget to turn these messages off using the syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=off Note that enabling debug messages does not enable verbose and trace messages.

Use syslog-ng-ctl <command> without any parameters to display whether the particular type of messages are enabled or not.

If you need to use a non-standard control socket to access syslog-ng OSE, use the syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=on --control=<socket> command to specify the socket to use.

verbose

Print verbose messages. If syslog-ng OSE was started with the --stderr or -e option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng OSE will log such messages to its internal source.
trace

Print trace messages of how messages are processed. If syslog-ng OSE was started with the --stderr or -e option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng OSE will log such messages to its internal source.
debug

Print debug messages. If syslog-ng OSE was started with the --stderr or -e option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng OSE will log such messages to its internal source.

Example

syslog-ng-ctl verbose --set=on

syslog-ng-ctl query

The syslog-ng OSE application stores various data, metrics, and statistics in a hash table. Every property has a name and a value. For example:

[syslog-ng]
|              
|_[destinations]-[network]-[tcp]->[stats]->{received=12;dropped=2}
|
|_[sources]-[sql]-[stats]->{received=501;dropped=0}

You can query the nodes of this tree, and also use filters to select the information you need. A query is actually a path in the tree. You can also use the ? and * wildcards. For example:

Select every property: *
Select all dropped value from every stats node: *.stats.dropped

The nodes and properties available in the tree depend on your syslog-ng OSE configuration (that is, the sources, destinations, and other objects you have configured), and also on your stats-level() settings.

The list command

syslog-ng-ctl query list

Use the syslog-ng-ctl query list command to display the list of metrics that syslog-ng OSE collects about the processed messages.

An example output:

center.received.stats.processed center.queued.stats.processed destination.java.d_elastic#0.java_dst(ElasticSearch,elasticsearch-syslog-ng-test,t7cde889529c034aea9ec_micek).stats.>dropped destination.java.d_elastic#0.java_dst(ElasticSearch,elasticsearch-syslog-ng-test,t7cde889529c034aea9ec_micek).stats.>processed destination.java.d_elastic#0.java_dst(ElasticSearch,elasticsearch-syslog-ng-test,t7cde889529c034aea9ec_micek).stats.>queued destination.d_elastic.stats.processed source.s_tcp.stats.processed source.severity.7.stats.processed source.severity.0.stats.processed source.severity.1.stats.processed source.severity.2.stats.processed source.severity.3.stats.processed source.severity.4.stats.processed source.severity.5.stats.processed source.severity.6.stats.processed source.facility.7.stats.processed source.facility.16.stats.processed source.facility.8.stats.processed source.facility.17.stats.processed source.facility.9.stats.processed source.facility.18.stats.processed source.facility.19.stats.processed source.facility.20.stats.processed source.facility.0.stats.processed source.facility.21.stats.processed source.facility.1.stats.processed source.facility.10.stats.processed source.facility.22.stats.processed source.facility.2.stats.processed source.facility.11.stats.processed source.facility.23.stats.processed source.facility.3.stats.processed source.facility.12.stats.processed source.facility.4.stats.processed source.facility.13.stats.processed source.facility.5.stats.processed source.facility.14.stats.processed source.facility.6.stats.processed source.facility.15.stats.processed source.facility.other.stats.processed global.payload_reallocs.stats.processed global.msg_clones.stats.processed global.sdata_updates.stats.processed tag..source.s_tcp.stats.processed

The syslog-ng-ctl query list command has the following options:

--reset

Use --reset to set the selected counters to 0 after executing the query.

Displaying metrics and statistics

syslog-ng-ctl query get [options]

The syslog-ng-ctl query get <query> command lists the nodes that match the query, and their values.

For example, the destination query lists the configured destinations, and the metrics related to each destination. An example output:

destination.java.d_elastic#0.java_dst(ElasticSearch,elasticsearch-syslog-ng-test,t7cde889529c034aea9ec_micek).stats.dropped=0 destination.java.d_elastic#0.java_dst(ElasticSearch,elasticsearch-syslog-ng-test,t7cde889529c034aea9ec_micek).stats.processed=0 destination.java.d_elastic#0.java_dst(ElasticSearch,elasticsearch-syslog-ng-test,t7cde889529c034aea9ec_micek).stats.queued=0 destination.d_elastic.stats.processed=0

The syslog-ng-ctl query get command has the following options:

--sum

Add up the result of each matching node and return only a single number.

For example, the syslog-ng-ctl query get --sum "destination*.dropped" command displays the number of messages dropped by the syslog-ng OSE instance.
--reset

Use --reset to set the selected counters to 0 after executing the query.

The stats command

stats [options]

Use the stats command to display statistics about the processed messages. For details about the displayed statistics, see The syslog-ng OSE Administration Guide. The stats command has the following options:

--control=<socket> or -c

Specify the socket to use to access syslog-ng PE. Only needed when using a non-standard socket.
--reset=<socket> or -r

Reset all statistics to zero, except for the queued counters. (The queued counters show the number of messages in the message queue of the destination driver, waiting to be sent to the destination.)
--remove-orphans

Safely removes all counters that are not referenced by any syslog-ng stat producer objects.

The flag can be used to prune dynamic and static counters manually. This is useful, for example, when a templated file destination produces a lot of stats:

dst.file;#anon-destination0#0;/tmp/2021-08-16.log;o;processed;253592 dst.file;#anon-destination0#0;/tmp/2021-08-17.log;o;processed;156 dst.file;#anon-destination0#0;/tmp/2021-08-18.log;a;processed;961

NOTE: The stats-lifetime() can be used to do the same automatically and periodically, but currently stats-lifetime() removes only dynamic counters that have a timestamp field set.

Example - stats

syslog-ng-ctl stats

An example output:

src.internal;s_all#0;;a;processed;6445 src.internal;s_all#0;;a;stamp;1268989330 destination;df_auth;;a;processed;404 destination;df_news_dot_notice;;a;processed;0 destination;df_news_dot_err;;a;processed;0 destination;d_ssb;;a;processed;7128 destination;df_uucp;;a;processed;0 source;s_all;;a;processed;7128 destination;df_mail;;a;processed;0 destination;df_user;;a;processed;1 destination;df_daemon;;a;processed;1 destination;df_debug;;a;processed;15 destination;df_messages;;a;processed;54 destination;dp_xconsole;;a;processed;671 dst.tcp;d_network#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;dropped;5080 dst.tcp;d_network#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;processed;7128 dst.tcp;d_network#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;queued;2048 destination;df_syslog;;a;processed;6724 destination;df_facility_dot_warn;;a;processed;0 destination;df_news_dot_crit;;a;processed;0 destination;df_lpr;;a;processed;0 destination;du_all;;a;processed;0 destination;df_facility_dot_info;;a;processed;0 center;;received;a;processed;0 destination;df_kern;;a;processed;70 center;;queued;a;processed;0 destination;df_facility_dot_err;;a;processed;0

Handling password-protected private keys

syslog-ng-ctl credentials [options]

The syslog-ng-ctl credentials status command allows you to query the status of the private keys that syslog-ng OSE uses in the network() and syslog() drivers. You can also provide the passphrase for password-protected private keys using the syslog-ng-ctl credentials add command. For details on using password-protected keys, see The syslog-ng OSE Administrator Guide.

Displaying the status of private keys

syslog-ng-ctl credentials status [options]

The syslog-ng-ctl credentials status command allows you to query the status of the private keys that syslog-ng OSE uses in the network() and syslog() drivers. The command returns the list of private keys used, and their status. For example:

syslog-ng-ctl credentials status

Secret store status: /home/user/ssl_test/client-1/client-encrypted.key SUCCESS

If the status of a key is PENDING, you must provide the passphrase for the key, otherwise syslog-ng OSE cannot use it. The sources and destinations that use these keys will not work until you provide the passwords. Other parts of the syslog-ng OSE configuration will be unaffected. You must provide the passphrase of the password-protected keys every time syslog-ng OSE is restarted.

The following log message also notifies you of PENDING passphrases:

Waiting for password; keyfile=’private.key’

--control=<socket> or -c

Specify the socket to use to access syslog-ng OSE. Only needed when using a non-standard socket.

Opening password-protected private keys

syslog-ng-ctl credentials add [options]

You can add the passphrase to a password-protected private key file using the following command. syslog-ng OSE will display a prompt for you to enter the passphrase. We recommend that you use this method.

syslog-ng-ctl credentials add --id=<path-to-the-key>

Alternatively, you can include the passphrase in the --secret parameter:

syslog-ng-ctl credentials add --id=<path-to-the-key> --secret=<passphrase-of-the-key>

Or you can pipe the passphrase to the syslog-ng-ctl command, for example:

echo "<passphrase-of-the-key>" | syslog-ng-ctl credentials add --id=<path-to-the-key>

--control=<socket> or -c

Specify the socket to use to access syslog-ng PE. Only needed when using a non-standard socket.
--id=<path-to-the-key> or -i

The path to the password-protected private key file. This is the same path that you use in the key-file() option of the syslog-ng OSE configuration file.
--secret=<passphrase-of-the-key> or -s

The password or passphrase of the private key.

Displaying the configuration

syslog-ng-ctl config [options]

Use the syslog-ng-ctl config command to display the configuration that syslog-ng OSE is currently running. Note by default, only the content of the main configuration file are displayed, included files are not resolved. To resolve included files and display the entire configuration, use the syslog-ng-ctl config --preprocessed command.

Reloading the configuration

syslog-ng-ctl reload [options]

Use the syslog-ng-ctl reload command to reload the configuration file of syslog-ng OSE without having to restart the syslog-ng OSE application. The syslog-ng-ctl reload works like a SIGHUP.

The syslog-ng-ctl reload command returns 0 if the operation was successful, 1 otherwise.

Files

/opt/syslog-ng/sbin/syslog-ng-ctl