Cannot start system-log on Solaris 10

UNIX Solaris
1

Hi everyone,
I hope you are doing well..

I am having the following issue that need your advice.
I am configuring syslog on Solaris 10. I have edited the /etc/syslog.conf by adding the following entry:

*.err;kern.debug;daemon.notice;mail.crit;auth.debug;user.debug;local6.info @<IP Address of Syslog server>

which the facility and address of syslog server is dividing by tab, not spaces.

However, when restarting system-log, this service is not started again and entering the maintenance mode.
The following command has been used:

svcadm restart system-log

After that, I checked the state of this service using the following command:

svcs -a | grep system-log

The output indicates that this service is in Maintenance mode.

Then, I do the following commands:

svcadm clear svc:/system/system-log:default

svcadm enable svc:/system/system-log:default

However, after enable, the system-log is in offline* state. By 10', it enters the maintenance mode again.

I found the following error in /var/svc/log/svc.startd.log:

May 16 08:39:56/4: svc:/system/system-log:default: Method or service exit timed out. Killing contract 793539.
May 16 08:39:56/390 ERROR: svc:/system/system-log:default: Method "/lib/svc/method/system-log" failed due to signal KILL.
May 16 08:49:57/4: svc:/system/system-log:default: Method or service exit timed out. Killing contract 793551.
May 16 08:49:57/390 ERROR: svc:/system/system-log:default: Method "/lib/svc/method/system-log" failed due to signal KILL.
May 16 08:59:58/4: svc:/system/system-log:default: Method or service exit timed out. Killing contract 793563.
May 16 08:59:58/390 ERROR: svc:/system/system-log:default: Method "/lib/svc/method/system-log" failed due to signal KILL.
May 16 08:59:58/390: system/system-log:default failed: transitioned to maintenance (see 'svcs -xv' for details)
Jun 19 09:15:53/4: svc:/system/system-log:default: Method or service exit timed out. Killing contract 842840.
Jun 19 09:15:53/397: system/system-log:default failed: transitioned to maintenance (see 'svcs -xv' for details)
Jun 19 09:29:50/4: svc:/system/system-log:default: Method or service exit timed out. Killing contract 842856.
Jun 19 09:29:50/400: system/system-log:default failed: transitioned to maintenance (see 'svcs -xv' for details)
Jun 19 09:40:24/4: svc:/system/system-log:default: Method or service exit timed out. Killing contract 842869.
Jun 19 09:40:24/402: system/system-log:default failed: transitioned to maintenance (see 'svcs -xv' for details)
Jun 19 12:29:53/4: svc:/system/system-log:default: Method or service exit timed out. Killing contract 843041.
Jun 19 12:29:53/405: system/system-log:default failed: transitioned to maintenance (see 'svcs -xv' for details)

I believe this issue starting from 16/05/2018, when we modified the syslog.conf by adding the mentioned entry.
However, the same entry has been added to another similar Solaris 10 server and it was working fine.

Is there anyone can give me some advice in this situation? Rebooting server is not possible because this is a critical server.

Regards,
Michael

2

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1 Like
3

I would be looking long and hard for possible formating errors in syslog.conf.

Also did you remember to:

# svcadm refresh system/system-log
4

thanks hicksd8 for your reply.
i am also concerning about syslog.conf format. However, we have reverted the changes by replacing the backup file. Then the system-log still in maintenance mode.
I have done the svcadm refresh system-log but issue still persists.
Is there any different between svcadm refresh system-log and svcadm refresh system/system-log?

Regards
Michael

5

I would say the issue is in space char.
syslog uses tabs as separators, be sure to check for those.

*.err;kern.debug;daemon.notice;mail.crit;auth.debug;user.debug;local6.info<tab>@<IP Address of Syslog server>

Personaly, i use disable/enable with svcadm, when restarting stuff.

During startup, also syslog should log a line or two why it failed in /var/log/ suggesting some course of action.

Hope that helps
Regards
Peasant.

6

Dear Peasant,
Thank you for your response.

I have double checked the syslog.conf but it is ok.
Is there any debugging command like checking the configuration or tracing start-up command? I want to identify which step is getting stuck and leading to timeout execution.

Regards,
Michael

7

How did you check your syslog.conf?

As noted earlier: syslog.conf uses tabs as separators, not spaces.

8

before changing the syslog.conf file, we have done backup. Therefore, we have reverted the backup file on the problematic system. however, the issue still persists.
After that, i have tried to copy the syslog.conf from the problematic system to another system and try to restart system-log service but it works fine :frowning:

regards,
Michael