[syslog-ng] 3.0.5 & Cisco TCP problems

[d lists]

On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 6:59 PM, Patrick H. <syslogng at feystorm.net> wrote:
> Try adding the 'no-parse' flag to the source. Syslog-ng tries to parse out
> the headers of the message (like date/time, host, facility, etc), and if it
> cant figure out the format of the headers, it drops the message. The
> no-parse causes the entire message (headers and all if they exist) to get
> shoved into the message contents, and it generates new default headers.
>
> So
> source t_net { tcp(ip(X.X.X.5) port(2002) keep-alive(yes) ); };
> will become
> source t_net { tcp(ip(X.X.X.5) port(2002) keep-alive(yes)
> flags('no-parse')); };

Tried that, no change.  I've discovered what I think the problem is
though:  The cisco isn't including a LF at the end of each syslog
message.  If I force the router to send enough messages, a buffer must
fill up & I get all the messages at once in a very unreadable format:

Mar 25 20:28:20 10.240.0.254 <189>461: *Mar 26 02:45:22.244:
%SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by console<190>462: *Mar 26
02:45:28.244: %SYS-6-LOGGINGHOST_STARTSTOP: Logging to host 10.240.0.5
port 2002 started - reconnection<189>463: *Mar 26 02:45:35.336:
%SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by console<189>464: *Mar 26
02:45:35.352: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by
console<189>465: *Mar 26 02:45:35.372: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured
from console by console<189>...(repeat another 50 times at least)

I found a thread for another piece of syslog software that encountered
the same issue:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/rsyslog/users/1204

I take it from the lack of people noticing this that there aren't too
many people using TCP to gather syslog from Cisco routers.  If anyone
has some suggestions on possible solutions (outside of opening a TAC
case with cisco - which I plan on doing), I am all ears.

Thanks for the quick response!  Time to read some more documentation.

> If the message does actually have headers, just syslog-ng cant understand
> them, you can use rewrite rules and 'set' statements to parse out the
> headers and set them manually.
>
>
> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 5:31:15 PM
> From: d lists <dlists95 at gmail.com>
> To: syslog-ng at lists.balabit.hu
> Subject: [syslog-ng] 3.0.5 & Cisco TCP problems
>
> Hello,
>
> After spending the afternoon trying to get this working, I've decided
> to reach out for some help (tried google - no luck!).
>
<snip>