remote logging system (rls)

M.Gessner - System Engineer HepIX’99

Remote Logging System (rls)Remote Logging System (rls)

Marc [email protected]

Centre de Calcul de l ’IN2P3


RLS - PresentationRLS - Presentation

Why did we develop a message router ?• The IN2P3-Computing Center.

• What we had & what we needed. What is RLS ?

• Main Principles.

• The messages.

• The client Products :– RLS Console : GUI, customization of display and

filters.– WebRLS : Queries and results.

What do you need to remember ?


IN2P3 Computing CenterIN2P3 Computing Center

More than 250 Unix Stations. 5 Different UNIX Flavours. Remains available 24h/24 & 7d/7. Thousands (Millions) of log messages

generated everyday. Various « home-made » applications.


Former administration systems

Former administration systems

Mail messages :• Much too slow.

• Systems administrators mailboxes pollution (Often thousands of mails a day).

Syslogs :• Too many messages to read them everyday.

• No standard message format for different operating systems.

• No filtering.


The need of renewalThe need of renewal

We needed something to replace e-mail :• The logs had to be centralized.

• It had to be filtered– Easier to read.– Smaller impact on network bandwidth.

• It should have generated audio alarms for high severity messages.

• It had to be quick and reliable.

• It had to work on heterogeneous platforms and networks.


Commercial ProductsCommercial Products

Each of the products had at least one of the drawbacks listed here below.

• Filtering difficult and uneasy to adapt.

• Difficult to parameterize or to interface with «home-made» applications.

• Heavy load for the platforms (CPU Time / Network bandwidth / Disk space).

• NIS / DNS dependant.


What is RLS ?What is RLS ?

The message router was developed at the end of 1997 for and by the System Administration group.

Used since Feb 1998 for error and alert messages transmission.

An information centralization productAn information centralization product


PrinciplesPrinciples

Developed in C. Uses UDP-TCP/IP, sockets and IPCs.

Agents available for AIX, Digital Unix, HP-UX, Linux

and Solaris.

Provides both :

• an API to send messages from «home-made» applications

in C and C++.

• a command line interface to send messages from shell

scripts.


RLS : How it works.RLS : How it works.

rlsdrlsdAny program

+RLS agent

Any program+

RLS agent

MonitoredMonitoredServerServer

UDP/IPUDP/IP

RLS serverRLS server Clients Clients

TCP/IPTCP/IP

Text FilesText Files

Webrls

rlscons

Webrls

rlscons


The messageThe message

A Message is made of :

• A «tag» : Sending application name or default class.

• A severity level.

• A text.

• A unique message identifier (uuid).

• Identification of the sender :

– UID / GID / Host of the sender.

• Emission and reception timestamps.


Client ProductsClient Products

RlsCons- X graphical console.

- « Real time » displaying.- C program with GTK graphical interface.

WebRLS- Available from any web browser.- History display.- CGI - BIN program.


RlsCons.RlsCons.


RLSCons CustomizationRLSCons Customization

All the displayed information can be customized.



To each severity can be associated :

• A sound : Increases your popularity among your

colleagues.

• Color codes.



Set up of filters :

• Beta platforms which shall not be monitored.

• Problems you don ’t want to hear about, ...


RLSCons MessagesRLSCons Messages

Available informations about each message.


WebRLS QUERIESWebRLS QUERIES


WebRLS ResultsWebRLS Results


More Info ...More Info ...

Performances :

• 1 Second to display a message in RLSConsole.

• Able to handle at least 100 Messages per second.

Interested ? mailto: [email protected]

About GTK : www.gtk.org

remote logging system (rls)

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