---
title: "Managing and checking the syslog-ng service on Linux"
url: "https://axoflow.com/docs/axosyslog-core/4.28/quickstart/managing-and-checking-linux/"
description: "Start, stop, reload, and check the status of the AxoSyslog service on Linux."
last_modified: "2026-09-23T14:21:26+02:00"
---

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://axoflow.com/docs/axosyslog-core/4.28/llms.txt).

# Managing and checking the syslog-ng service on Linux

Start, stop, reload, and check the status of the AxoSyslog service on Linux.

New to AxoSyslog? AxoSyslog is a binary compatible `syslog-ng` replacement, from the original creator, developed by the same team.

Same architecture, same config files, same paths. Cloud-native images, fast releases, modern observability (OTel, K8s), and powerful data processing: read more about the [differences between AxoSyslog and `syslog-ng`](https://axoflow.com/axosyslog-vs-syslog-ng?utm_source=docs&utm_medium=banner).

Also, it’s super easy to [install](https://axoflow.com/docs/axosyslog-core/4.28/install/index.md), and you can [upgrade from `syslog-ng` in minutes](https://axoflow.com/docs/axosyslog-core/4.28/install/upgrade-syslog-ng/index.md).

This section describes how to start, stop and check the status of AxoSyslog service on Linux.

## Starting AxoSyslog

To start AxoSyslog, execute the following command as root. For example:

`systemctl start syslog-ng`

If the service starts successfully, no output will be displayed.

The following message indicates that AxoSyslog can not start (see [Checking AxoSyslog status](https://axoflow.com/docs/axosyslog-core/4.28/quickstart/managing-and-checking-linux/index.md#check-syslog-ng-status)):

```shell
Job for syslog-ng.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See `systemctl status syslog-ng.service` and `journalctl -xe` for details.
```

## Stop AxoSyslog

To stop AxoSyslog

1. Execute the following command as root.

   `systemctl stop syslog-ng`
2. Check the status of AxoSyslog service (see [Checking AxoSyslog status](https://axoflow.com/docs/axosyslog-core/4.28/quickstart/managing-and-checking-linux/index.md#check-syslog-ng-status)).

## Restart AxoSyslog

To restart AxoSyslog, execute the following command as root.

`systemctl restart syslog-ng`

## Reload configuration file without restarting AxoSyslog

To reload the configuration file without restarting AxoSyslog, execute the following command as root.

`systemctl reload syslog-ng`

## Check AxoSyslog status

To check the following status-related components, observe the suggestions below.

### Check the status of AxoSyslog service

To check the status of AxoSyslog service

1. Execute the following command as root.

   `systemctl --no-pager status syslog-ng`
2. Check the `Active:` field, which shows the status of AxoSyslog service. The following statuses are possible:

   - `active (running)` - `syslog-ng` service is up and running

     ```shell
         syslog-ng.service - System Logger Daemon
         Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/syslog-ng.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
         Active: active (running) since Tue 2019-06-25 08:58:09 CEST; 5s ago
         Main PID: 6575 (syslog-ng)
         Tasks: 3
         Memory: 13.3M
         CPU: 268ms
         CGroup: /system.slice/syslog-ng.service
         6575 /opt/syslog-ng/libexec/syslog-ng -F --no-caps --enable-core
     ```
   - `inactive (dead)` - `syslog-ng` service is stopped

     ```shell
         syslog-ng.service - System Logger Daemon
         Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/syslog-ng.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
         Active: inactive (dead) since Tue 2019-06-25 09:14:16 CEST; 2min 18s ago
         Process: 6575 ExecStart=/opt/syslog-ng/sbin/syslog-ng -F --no-caps --enable-core $SYSLOGNG_OPTIONS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
         Main PID: 6575 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
         Status: "Shutting down... Tue Jun 25 09:14:16 2019"
         Jun 25 09:14:31 as-syslog-srv systemd: Stopped System Logger Daemon.
     ```

### Check the process of AxoSyslog

To check the process of AxoSyslog, execute one of the following commands.

- `ps u <pid of syslog-ng>`

  Expected output example:

  ```shell
  USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
  syslogng 6709 0.0 0.6 308680 13432 ? Ss 09:17 0:00 /opt/syslog-ng/libexec/syslog-ng -F --no-caps --enable-core
  ```
- `ps axu | grep syslog-ng | grep -v grep`

  Expected output example:

  ```shell
  syslogng 6709 0.0 0.6 308680 13432 ? Ss 09:17 0:00 /opt/syslog-ng/libexec/syslog-ng -F --no-caps --enable-core
  ```

### Check the internal logs of AxoSyslog

The internal logs of AxoSyslog contains informal, warning and error messages.

By default, AxoSyslog log messages (generated on the `internal()` source) are written to `/var/log/messages`.

Check the internal logs of AxoSyslog for any issue.

> **Note:**
>
> If you find error messages in the internal logs, messages aren’t processed by AxoSyslog, or you encounter any issue, you have the following options:
>
> - [Open a GitHub issue](https://github.com/axoflow/axosyslog/issues) including the results.
> - [contact us](https://axoflow.com/contact/)

### Monitor AxoSyslog

To monitor the performance and status of AxoSyslog for observability and monitoring, see [Statistics and metrics of AxoSyslog](https://axoflow.com/docs/axosyslog-core/4.28/chapter-log-statistics/index.md).

Last modified September 23, 2026: [Adds frontmatter descriptions to top-level sections (a27cc77e)](https://github.com/axoflow/axosyslog-core-docs/commit/a27cc77e261c9a82032e3bd5eb4bb12b6cd51118)