The syslog-ng control tool manual page

Name

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

Synopsis

syslog-ng-ctl [command] [options]

Description

Note

The syslog-ng-ctl application is distributed with the AxoSyslog system logging application, and is usually part of the AxoSyslog package.

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

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

Enabling troubleshooting messages

syslog-ng-ctl log-level <level>

Available in AxoSyslog 4.0 and later.

Use the syslog-ng-ctl log-level <level> command to display verbose, trace, or debug messages. If you are trying to solve configuration problems, the verbose (and occasionally debug) messages are usually sufficient. Trace messages are needed mostly for finding software errors. After solving the problem, do not forget to return the log level to the default using the syslog-ng-ctl log-level default command.

Use syslog-ng-ctl log-level without any parameters to display the current log level.

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

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

Higher log-levels automatically include messages from lower log-levels:

default: Just normal log messages.
verbose: Normal and verbose log messages.
debug: Include debug messages of AxoSyslog.
trace: Include trace messages of how messages are processed.

Example

syslog-ng-ctl log-level verbose

syslog-ng-ctl query

The AxoSyslog 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 AxoSyslog 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 AxoSyslog 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, except for the queued and the memory_usage counters. (The queued counters show the number of messages in the message queue of the destination driver, waiting to be sent to the destination. The memory_usage counters show the amount of memory used by the messages in the different queue types (in bytes). This includes every queue used by the object, including memory buffers (log-fifo) and disk-based buffers (both reliable and non-reliable))

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 AxoSyslog instance.
--reset
Use --reset to set the selected counters to 0 after executing the query, except for the queued and the memory_usage counters. (The queued counters show the number of messages in the message queue of the destination driver, waiting to be sent to the destination. The memory_usage counters show the amount of memory used by the messages in the different queue types (in bytes). This includes every queue used by the object, including memory buffers (log-fifo) and disk-based buffers (both reliable and non-reliable))

The stats command

stats [options]

Use the stats command to display statistics about the processed messages. For details about the displayed statistics, see The AxoSyslog documentation. The stats command has the following options:

--control=<socket> or -c
Specify the socket to use to access AxoSyslog. Only needed when using a non-standard socket.
--reset=<socket> or -r
Reset all statistics to zero, except for the queued and the memory_usage counters. (The queued counters show the number of messages in the message queue of the destination driver, waiting to be sent to the destination. The memory_usage counters show the amount of memory used by the messages in the different queue types (in bytes). This includes every queue used by the object, including memory buffers (log-fifo) and disk-based buffers (both reliable and non-reliable))
--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

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 AxoSyslog 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 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 AxoSyslog 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 AxoSyslog cannot use it. The sources and destinations that use these keys will not work until you provide the passwords. Other parts of the AxoSyslog configuration will be unaffected. You must provide the passphrase of the password-protected keys every time AxoSyslog 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 AxoSyslog. 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. AxoSyslog 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 AxoSyslog. 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 AxoSyslog 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 AxoSyslog is currently running. By default, only the content of the main configuration file is displayed, included files are not resolved. To resolve included files and display the entire configuration, use the syslog-ng-ctl config --preprocessed command.

Starting with AxoSyslog version 4.2, you can display the configuration identifier (if set) and the SHA256 has of the output of the syslog-ng-ctl config --preprocessed command by running syslog-ng-ctl config --id. For details, see Configuration identifier.

Reloading the configuration

syslog-ng-ctl reload [options]

Use the syslog-ng-ctl reload command to reload the configuration file of AxoSyslog without having to restart the AxoSyslog 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.

The healthcheck command

Available in AxoSyslog 4.2 and later.

You can use the syslog-ng-ctl healthcheck command to query the healthcheck status of AxoSyslog. The following health values are reported:

mainloop_io_worker_roundtrip_latency_nanoseconds: mainloop->io-worker-job->mainloop roundtrip - a basic latency measure for AxoSyslog.
io_worker_latency_nanoseconds: io-worker-job start latency.
syslogng_internal_events_queue_usage_ratio: If you are using the internal() source in your configuration, then this value shows the saturation of the internal source’s queue, ranging from 0 to 1. Non-zero values indicate some kind of disruption in the pipelines.

You can run syslog-ng-ctl healthcheck --timeout <seconds> to use as a boolean healthy/unhealthy check.

Health checks are also published as periodically updated metrics. You can configure the frequency of these checks with the stats(healthcheck-freq()) option. The default is 5 minutes.

Files

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

Getting help

The up-to-date documentation of AxoSyslog is available on the AxoSyslog documentation site.
For news and notifications about AxoSyslog, visit the Axoflow blog.
If you want to contact the developers directly to help with problems or report issues, contact us on Discord or GitHub.

This manual page is maintained by Axoflow

Last modified November 22, 2023: Manpage see also links always point to the main site (e8e4211)

The syslog-ng control tool manual page

Name

Synopsis

Description

Note

Enabling troubleshooting messages

Example

syslog-ng-ctl query

The list command

Displaying metrics and statistics

The stats command

Note

Example

Handling password-protected private keys

Displaying the status of private keys

Opening password-protected private keys

Displaying the configuration

Reloading the configuration

The healthcheck command

Files

See also

Getting help