Upgrade syslog-ng to AxoSyslog

If you’re already using syslog-ng, you can upgrade your existing syslog-ng deployments to AxoSyslog in a matter of minutes, by simply installing AxoSyslog on the host.

We assume that you’ve installed syslog-ng from the repositories of your distribution. To upgrade to AxoSyslog, complete the following steps.

1. Check that the syslog-ng service is running:

   sudo systemctl syslog-ng status
   

   The output will look something like:

   syslog-ng.service - System Logger Daemon
    Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/syslog-ng.service; enabled; preset>
    Active: active (running) since Thu 2025-02-27 17:04:28 CET; 11s ago
      Docs: man:syslog-ng(8)
   Main PID: 254 (syslog-ng)
     Tasks: 2 (limit: 9594)
    Memory: 19.6M (peak: 20.8M)
       CPU: 215ms
    CGroup: /system.slice/syslog-ng.service
            └─254 "[rosetta]" /usr/sbin/syslog-ng /usr/sbin/syslog-ng -F
   

2. Check the version of syslog-ng you have by running:

   syslog-ng --version
   

   The output will start with something like:

   syslog-ng 4 (4.8.1)
   Config version: 4.2
   Installer-Version: 4.8.1
   

3. Add the AxoSyslog repository for your distribution and install AxoSyslog. For details, see the installation sections:

   • Install AxoSyslog on Debian/Ubuntu
   • Install AxoSyslog on RHEL/Fedora/AlmaLinux

   The installation replaces the syslog-ng packages with AxoSyslog packages, but provides the same binaries (for example, /usr/sbin/syslog-ng). It will keep using the existing configuration files (/etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf), certificates, and so on.

4. Check that the syslog-ng service is still running:

   sudo systemctl syslog-ng status
   

   The output should be identical to the earlier result:

   syslog-ng.service - System Logger Daemon
    Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/syslog-ng.service; enabled; preset>
    Active: active (running) since Thu 2025-02-27 17:07:41 CET; 42s ago
      Docs: man:syslog-ng(8)
   Main PID: 1936 (syslog-ng)
     Tasks: 2 (limit: 9594)
    Memory: 79.9M (peak: 83.1M)
       CPU: 462ms
    CGroup: /system.slice/syslog-ng.service
            └─1936 "[rosetta]" /usr/sbin/syslog-ng /usr/sbin/syslog-ng -F
   

5. Check the version of syslog-ng you have by running:

   syslog-ng --version
   

   You’ll see that now you’re running AxoSyslog:

   axosyslog 4 (4.10.1)
   Config version: 4.2
   Installer-Version: 4.10.1
   

In case you run into any issues, contact us.