20040506: Where to place mcserv log messages...

>From: Gilbert Sebenste <address@hidden>
>Organization: NIU
>Keywords: 200405061821.i46ILctK028159 McIDAS

Hi Gilbert,

>Another quick Q for you...
>
>In my /var/log/secure file, all the "mcserv" accesses are going in there. 

I believe that this is the default.

>I don't want that to happen; I either don't want them logged or put into 
>another file. How can I do that?

I just looked at the xinetd.conf(5) man page and think that the answer
is that you need to add another configuration line to the McIDAS
entries in /etc/xinetd.d:

mcidas
mcserv
mccompress

Here is the man page snippit:

       log_type         determines where the service log output is sent. There
                        are two formats:

                        SYSLOG  syslog_facility [syslog_level]
                               The  log output is sent to syslog at the speci-
                               fied facility. Possible facility names include:
                               daemon,  auth, authpriv, user, mail, lpr, news,
                               uucp,  ftp  local0-7.   Possible  level   names
                               include:  emerg,  alert,  crit,  err,  warning,
                               notice,  info,  debug.   If  a  level  is   not
                               present,  the  messages will be recorded at the
                               info level.

                        FILE  file [soft_limit [hard_limit]]
                               The log output is appended to file  which  will
                               be  created if it does not exist. Two limits on
                               the size of the  log  file  can  be  optionally
                               specified.   The  first  limit  is  a soft one;
                               xinetd will log a message the first  time  this
                               limit  is  exceeded  (if xinetd logs to syslog,
                               the message will be sent at the alert  priority
                               level).   The  second  limit  is  a hard limit;
                               xinetd will stop logging for the affected  ser-
                               vice  (if  the  log  file is a common log file,
                               then more than one service may be affected) and
                               will  log  a message about this (if xinetd logs
                               to syslog, the message  will  be  sent  at  the
                               alert  priority level).  If a hard limit is not
                               specified,  it  defaults  to  the  soft   limit
                               increased  by  1%  but  the  extra size must be
                               within   the   parameters   LOG_EXTRA_MIN   and
                               LOG_EXTRA_MAX  which  default  to  5K  and  20K
                               respectively (these constants  are  defined  in
                               xconfig.h).

So, I take this to mean that you can change, for example:

/etc/xinetd.d/mccompress:
service mccompress
{
        flags           = REUSE
        socket_type     = stream
        protocol        = tcp
        wait            = no
        user            = mcadde
        port            = 503
        server          = /home/mcidas/bin/mcservsh
        server_args     = -H /home/mcidas
        log_on_success  += USERID HOST
        log_on_failure  += USERID HOST
}

to:

service mccompress
{
        flags           = REUSE
        socket_type     = stream
        protocol        = tcp
        wait            = no
        user            = mcadde
        port            = 503
        server          = /home/mcidas/bin/mcservsh
        server_args     = -H /home/mcidas
        log_type        = FILE /usr/local/ldm/logs/mccompress.log
        log_on_success  += USERID HOST
        log_on_failure  += USERID HOST
}

to log the 'compress' compressed transfers to ~ldm/logs/mccompress.log.

After making a change to the files mcidas, mcserv, and mccompress,
don't forget to send a HUP signal to xinetd to tell it to reread
its configuration files.

I just tried this on a machine running Fedora Core 1 here and it
works like I assumed.

Please remember that each time you uninstall and then reinstall
the ADDE remote server stuff, you will have to edit these files again.

Also, the ADDE remote server setup in the 'mcidas' account can be
configured to log ADDE transactions.  This is done through an
entry in ~mcidas/.mcenv:

# Turn on ADDE logging
ADDE_LOGGING=YES

By default, this will create a file named SERVER.LOG in the first
writable directory in the MCPATH for the process that was fired off.
The configuration in ~mcidas/.mcenv specifies what this will be:

# McIDAS environment variables
MCDATA=$MCHOME/workdata
MCPATH=${MCDATA}:$MCHOME/data:$MCHOME/help

So, by default SERVER.LOG will be written in the ~mcidas/workdata
directory of the user 'mcidas' _if_ my setup instructions are
followed.  I would recommend, however, that you take one additional
step and REDIRECT the file to the ~ldm/logs directory.  You do this by
adding a file REDIRECT as the user 'mcidas':

<login as 'mcidas'>
cd workdata
redirect.k ADD SERVER\* \"/usr/local/ldm/logs

I am just remembering that ~ldm may be /home/ldm on your machine.  If
yes, use it instead of /usr/local/ldm in all of the examples above.

Finally, I recommend rotating these files every week or month depending
on how many ADDE transactions you are seeing.  I do this from the
'ldm' account on Unidata machines like adde.ucar.edu as follows:

#
# Rotate ADDE access log files just past 12 midnight on Saturdays
#
1 0 * * 6 bin/newlog logs/SERVER.LOG 3; chmod 666 logs/SERVER.LOG

This rotates the log file once per week just after midnight on
Sunday.

After you have an ADDE transaction log file, you can monitor your
ADDE server use with the McIDAS application addeinfo.k:

<as 'mcidas'>
cd workdata
addeinfo.k

This simple form of ADDEINFO gives a high level overview of the
transactions that have occurred.  You can get more information by
specifying keywords.  Check the online help for ADDEINFO for
more information:

help.k ADDEINFO

Cheers,

Tom
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>From address@hidden  Mon May 10 14:38:05 2004

Hi Tom,

The log files are working and going where I want them to. Thanks again for 
the info!

*******************************************************************************
Gilbert Sebenste                                                     ********
(My opinions only!)                                                  ******
Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University                      ****
E-mail: address@hidden                                               ***
web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu                                      **
Work phone: 815-753-5492                                                *
*******************************************************************************