Using syslog-ng under HP-UX

[Francis Noël]

Greetings !

We are introducing HP-UX 11.31 to our environment and I noticed that syslog-ng is now bundled with the OS. Since 11.31 is new to us we are at the point of selecting components and defining standard procedures and processes for the platform.

The (HP) documentation I've seen seems to position syslog-ng as a tool to use for log centralization (paired with Distributed System Administration Utilities), with the classic syslogd remaining in control of local logging.

Is this really the case or can syslog-ng be used for local logging as well, i.e. replacing syslogd entirely ?

Your thoughts, comments, links to documentation or HP statements are most appreciated, as I am curently confused by too much choice :).

[Hasan Atasoy]

hi francis;

http://docs.hp.com/en/T2786-90137/ch03s02.html


Hasan.

[Francis Noël]

Tanks Hasan but that document still says the same things.
Quotes from linked page :

"The Distributed Systems Administration Utilities (DSAU) use syslog-ng, or syslog â Next Generation,â to address the weaknesses of the traditional syslogd "

and

"syslog-ng is an open source syslogd replacement. It performs all the functions of the standard syslogd[...]"



Lookin at the /sbin/init.d/syslog-ng startup script one sees :
#!/sbin/sh -p
#
# (C) Copyright 2005, 2006 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
#
#
# Name:
# syslog-ng
#
# Description:
# System startup script for the Distributed System Administration
# Utilities consolidation logging tool (clog). This tool is based on
# syslog-ng (syslog "next generation").


My impression is still that the DSAU USE syslog-ng for remote logging facilities, but that the local stuff is till taken care of by the original syslogd.

[Olivier Masse]

Some of my fellow sysadmins replace the stock syslogd with the open source syslog-ng, I think it was a security requirement, and it seems to work well. I don't do this as I don't need its features (yet).

My guess is that if you take the one bundled with DSAU to handle your local logging, you will not be officially supported by HP (i.e. you can't log a software call if you have a problem). Most shops won't care about this but some do, so if this is an issue to you, then it is best to wait for an official release.