[syslog-ng] syslog-ng Insider - December 2011

[Peter Czanik]

Dear syslog-ng users,


This is the 9th issue of the syslog-ng Insider, a monthly newsletter 
that brings you syslog-ng related news.

Your feedback and news tips about the next issue is welcome at 
documentation at balabit.com <mailto:documentation at balabit.com>


FEATURED NEWS


syslog-ng 3.3.3 is released!

----------------------------

A new version of syslog-ng is released! There are no new features to 
announce, but most problems reported since 3.3.1 should be fixed by now! 
Thank you for all of those, who helped us to hunt bugs with detailed 
reports and many testing!

The release of 3.3.3 brought many new users to the latest syslog-ng 
version, which helped to uncover some more bugs in advanced 
configurations. Until a new release arrives, please check the git tree ( 
git://git.balabit.hu/bazsi/syslog-ng-3.3 ) and the mailing list 
archives, if your problem is addressed by a patch.


Sources are available at 
http://www.balabit.com/downloads/files?path=/syslog-ng/sources/3.3.3

Binary packages are available are available for several Linux 
distributions. Please check availability at 
http://www.balabit.com/network-security/syslog-ng/opensource-logging-system/downloads/3rd_party


syslog-ng and patterns

----------------------

Patterndb is one of the most important features of syslog-ng, still not 
many people are using it. So we are very happy to see, that patterndb 
was the focus point in many recent syslog-ng mailing list threads.

First of all, thanks for Evan Rempel for providing many useful ideas and 
feedback about patterndb on the syslog-ng mailing list.

ELSA (Enterprise Log and Search Archive), which uses patterndb heavily, 
had some major updates recently, which make it a lot more easy to 
install on a couple of different systems. It is available at 
http://code.google.com/p/enterprise-log-search-and-archive/

We plan to use CEE (http://cee.mitre.org <http://cee.mitre.org/>) for 
our patterns in the long term. But even until this standard is 
available, please share your patterns in any form to lower the entry 
barrier for your fellow syslog-ng users. If you send them to the list or 
directly to me, I'll make them available at 
http://git.balabit.hu/?p=czanik/syslog-ng-patterndb.git;a=summary


syslog-ng and the journal

-------------------------

There’s an ongoing project to create a new logging subsystem for Linux, 
called the journal, by Lennart Poettering of PulseAudio & systemd fame. 
It is implemented as a core component of systemd, thus has a good chance 
to be integrated to all distributions that carry systemd. Since 
syslog-ng is also in the logging sphere, the logical question arises: 
how does this new project affect syslog-ng in the long run?

For the answer, read Bazsi's blog at 
http://bazsi.blogs.balabit.com/2011/12/syslog-ng-and-the-journal/


OTHER SHORT NEWS


  *

    An interesting article about extracting useful information from log
    messages was published in Free BSD Magazine (not only for BSD users
    :-) ):
    http://www.balabit.com/support/documentation/BSD_12_2011%20-%20BalaBit_single_article.pdf
    where you also can read about several up-to-date topics, like
    "Rolling Your Own FreeBSD Kernel", "Hardening BSD with Security
    Levels" and so on. The whole Free BSD Magazine can be downloaded at
    http://bsdmag.org <http://bsdmag.org/>


NEW RELEASES

  *

    syslog-ng OSE 3.3.3:
    http://www.balabit.com/downloads/files?path=/syslog-ng/sources/3.3.3


ARCHIVE


http://insider.blogs.balabit.com/

-- 
Peter Czanik (CzP)<czanik at balabit.hu>
BalaBit IT Security / syslog-ng upstream
http://czanik.blogs.balabit.com/