Log Files

Log Files

There are many log files produced by SME Server. Some are standard, some are generated by contributions. This page aims to bring together enough knowledge to understand what generates each log file, what they are for, and how to interpret them.

Access

Access to log files is available with the /server-manager http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:Documentation:Administration_Manual:Chapter10#View_log_files http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:Documentation:Administration_Manual:Chapter10#Mail_log_file_analysis

You can also use shell access, eg, to perform more complex searches or manipulations.

Date Conversions

Most of the SME log files are created using D.J. Bernstein's multilog.

• Multilog logs to a file named 'current' in a subdirectory named for the service
• Multilog records time as an "@" followed by "a precise timestamp".
• Multilog timestamps are converted to human-readable form automatically by 'View log files' referenced above.
• At a shell prompt you can pipe multilog output through tai64nlocal to generate a human-readable time:

tail -f /var/log/qpsmtpd/current | tai64nlocal

Some SME Server log files are still created using syslog or another process (not multilog). An example of this is the squid/access.log file. The following command will convert the times in a squid logfile to human-readable form:

tail -f /var/log/squid/access.log | perl -pe 's/^\d+\.\d+/localtime $&/e;'

Bugzilla:3432 is raised to have this incorporated in the server-manager view log files option.

Logfile Names

E-mail logfiles

qmail            - details mail distribution (to mailboxes and to other hosts via SMTP).
imap             - connections to the local imap folders
imaps            
pop3             - requests from users to collect mail from local server 
pop3s            
smtp-auth-proxy
maillog
qpsmtpd          - incoming SMTP connections
sqpsmtpd
clamav           - antivirus
clamd
freshclam        
spamd            - spam

HTTP logfiles

httpd
httpd-admin
squid
squid.run
qpdmtpd

System logfiles

messages
dnscache
iptables
iptraf
mysqld
nmbd
ntpd
oidentd
ppp
yum
tinydns
wan
vbox
cron
sshd
flexbackup
dhcpd
dhcpcd
dmesg
pppoe
pptpd
spooler
radius
radiusd
proftpd
raidmonitor
rpmpkgs
sa
samba
secure
rkhunter.log
boot.log
audit
anaconda.log
anaconda.syslog
lastlog

Error Messages

• Log message regarding permissions on /var/spool/qpsmtpd/

You may see messages similar to this in your log file:

@400000004326e9472eccc42c 3243 trying to get config for spool_dir @400000004326e9472ed518fc 3243 Permissions on spool_dir /var/spool/qpsmtpd/ are not 0700

They can be safely ignored. Clamav runs under a different user and needs read access to the spool area to avoid copying the file. [[1]]

• I get messages that look like: (pam_unix)[31705]: session opened for user root by (uid=0)

Most likely these messages coming from a package called SYSSTAT. The package was included in the previous versions of SMESERVER but were removed from the final version of V7. If you see the messages, most likely you had a previous version and upgraded. SYSSTAT isn't needed unless you have a contrib package called SME7ADMIN.

You can safely remove the package by:

yum remove sysstat

Please note that these messages may be caused by other cron jobs (tasks that run automatically) or packages authenticating as root.

• I get a message saying that: the RSA server certificate CommonName (CN)`servername.domainname.tld' does NOT match server name!

If you change the servername, you will be prompted to reboot. When you do, the SMESERVER will generate a certificate for the new servername-domainname combination and httpd.conf will now reference that new name. References to other virtual domains and hosts will generate warnings in the log.

• I get: server squid[3145]: WARNING: Disk space over limit: 148412 KB 102400 KB.

This message is just log noise. The message is informational and squid takes care of the issue itself.

• I get in the radius log: Info: Using deprecated naslist file. Support for this will go away soon.

This is just the radius daemon (a computer program that runs in the background, rather than under the direct control of a user) complaining about a file that exists in the directory. We don't use it.

• I get in the clamd log: Error: cli_untar: only standard TAR files are currently supported

Clam (the antivirus portion of SMESERVER) has found a file type which it can't deal with, and so is telling you that it can't scan that file.

Nothing to be concerned about. The fix, if any arrives, will come from the Clam team if they Determine this file format is worthy of their attention.

• I get in the smeserver-clamscan.log: LibClamAV Warning: Multipart/alternative MIME message contains no boundary header.

This is just log noise. Clamav is scanning badly formatted MIME mail.

• In the /var/log/messages, I get: 10fix_privilege_tables: ERROR

You can safely ignore these errors. The errors just mean that your tables are already up to date.

• In the /var/log/messages, I get: rec_read bad magic....

You may also see it with

cat /var/log/samba/* |grep printing |grep 'rec_read bad magic'

You can delete /var/cache/samba/printing/<printer>.tdb files & restart samba.

rm /var/cache/samba/printing/<printer>.tdb
/etc/init.d/smbd restart

• cannot remove /var/run/dovecot/login: is a directory

You may see this on system startup. It is just noise and doesn't affect anything.