[syslog-ng] issues with starting syslog-ng from systemd

Fri Nov 20 16:15:38 UTC 2020

Just for comparison this is the service file I use for syslog-ng

[Unit]
Description=System Logger Daemon
Documentation=man:syslog-ng(8)
After=network.target network-online.target consul.service

[Service]
Type=forking
Environment=SYSLOGNG_PID_FILE="/var/run/syslog-ng.pid"
Environment=SYSLOGNG_CONF_FILE="/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng.conf"
Environment=SYSLOGNG_PERSIST_FILE="/opt/syslog-ng/disk-buffers/syslog-ng.persist"
Environment=SYSLOGNG_CONTROL_FILE="/opt/syslog-ng/var/syslog-ng.ctl"
Environment=SYSLOGNG_OPTIONS="--no-caps"
Environment=LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/jvm/jre/lib/amd64/server:/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
ExecStart=/opt/syslog-ng/sbin/syslog-ng $SYSLOGNG_OPTIONS --cfgfile $SYSLOGNG_CONF_FILE --control $SYSLOGNG_CONTROL_FILE --persist-file $SYSLOGNG_PERSIST_FILE --pidfile $SYSLOGNG_PID_FILE
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Al

If you make Type=Forking that should help since it signals to system that the process will fork then exit.

Ronald Fenner
Network Architect
Game Circus LLC.

rfenner at gamecircus.com

> On Nov 19, 2020, at 2:47 PM, Laszlo Szemere (lszemere) <Laszlo.Szemere at oneidentity.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello Russel,
> 
>  by default, Syslog-ng spawns a supervising process and exists, which is detected by Systemd as a starting failure. Try adding the -F option to your ExecStart command.
> 
>  If it not helps: as you stated correctly, most of the Systemd problems are permission or environment problems. Try adding -devt to the ExecStart command to get a more verbose output from Syslog-ng.
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> Laci
> From: syslog-ng <syslog-ng-bounces at lists.balabit.hu <mailto:syslog-ng-bounces at lists.balabit.hu>> on behalf of Russell Fulton <r.fulton at auckland.ac.nz <mailto:r.fulton at auckland.ac.nz>>
> Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2020 21:19
> To: syslog-ng at lists.balabit.hu <mailto:syslog-ng at lists.balabit.hu> <syslog-ng at lists.balabit.hu <mailto:syslog-ng at lists.balabit.hu>>
> Subject: [syslog-ng] issues with starting syslog-ng from systemd
>  
> CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not follow guidance, click links, or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
> 
> 
> version 3.26.1  — ubuntu 14.04
> 
> I can start syslog-ng from the command line without issues (apart form a warning to stderr) but when I try and start it from systemd it starts up (it prints the warning message to the logs) and then exits silently.
> 
> This version was compiled locally i.e. it was not installed from a package. The .service file was adapted from a sample in the contrib directory. I also had the same behaviour from and other .service file that I put together myself.
> 
> It is presumably some to do with the environment.
> 
> I did try starting it with -i (interactive) in the hope that it would spit something out on the console but instead it hung and I had to ^C it
> 
> Any thoughts on how to figure out what is going on?
> 
> =====================================
> 
> here are two different attempts (first commented)
> 
> rful011 at secmgrprd02:~$ cat /etc/systemd/system/syslog-ng.service
> #[Unit]
> #Description=syslog next generation
> #After=network.target auditd.service
> 
> #[Service]
> #EnvironmentFile=/etc/default/syslog-ng
> #ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/syslog-ng -f /usr/local/etc/syslog-ng.conf
> #ExecReload=/usr/local/sbin/syslog-ng-ctl reload
> #Restart=on-failure
> #RestartPreventExitStatus=255
> #Type=notify
> 
> #[Install]
> #WantedBy=multi-user.target
> #Alias=syslog-ng.service
> 
> 
> [Unit]
> Description=System Logger Daemon
> Documentation=man:syslog-ng(8)
> Conflicts=emergency.service emergency.target
> Wants=network.target network-online.target
> After=network.target network-online.target
> 
> [Service]
> Type=notify
> EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/syslog-ng
> EnvironmentFile=-/etc/sysconfig/syslog-ng
> ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/syslog-ng -f /usr/local/etc/syslog-ng.conf
> ExecReload=/usr/local/sbin/syslog-ng-ctl reload
> StandardOutput=journal
> StandardError=journal
> Restart=on-failure
> 
> [Install]
> WantedBy=multi-user.target
> 
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