rsyslog 2.0.2, a stable branch version, has been released today. It is a purely bug-fixing release, providing even better stability. It is a recommended update for all stable branch users.
It is a great pleasure for me to do a fully buzzword-compliant announcement for rsyslog 3.11.0, which is available immediately. This release is a very important milestone: it is the first time ever that the full, completely new queuing engine is in place.
Now rsyslog is the world's first-ever purely open-sourced syslogd supporting disk based buffering individually for each log destination[*] (called "action" in rsyslog speak). Besides, each action can now be executed on its own thread. Together with the multi-threaded main worker pool, rsyslog is more than ready for tomorrow's massively multi-core machines. I think another "world's first" is the ability to automatically discard low priority syslog messages under congestion conditions.
The new engine provides, among others:
reliable storage of messages while a destination is down
persistence of message even when rsyslogd is shut down
automatic retry of failed actions until they succeed, of course without any message loss
unparalleled ability to handle message burst
fully automatic worker thread pools
slow actions (e.g. database writes) are de-coupled from quick local actions (e.g. file writes)
rate-limited action processing
flow control slows senders down when queues get full
ability to discard less important messages in favor of higher important ones when the queue runs out of space
All of this while using minimal system resources.
The system can be set up with few configuration commands, but provides very in-depth commands to manipulate aspects like worker thread startup and shutdown parameters, queue sizes, disk quotas, watermark algorithm settings and many more (sometimes exotic) tweaking knobs.
Rsyslog 3.11.0 is fresh off the "development press". While it is well tested in lab, I expect that there are bugs in it, especially given the magnitude of changes and the massively multithreaded processing flow. As such, I do not yet advise to use it on important production machines.
I would, however, be very interested in feedback from the field, including bug reports. My focus in the next weeks will be on making the new engine rock-solid while at the same time introducing many new features which are quite easy to build on top of the new engine (like more advanced rate limiting algorithms, action execution-time windows and more advanced ways to flow-control inputs). My hope is that within two month or so we will have a very stable version suitable for production use in the most demanding environments.
I hope that this announcement will motivate some people to try rsyslog out and provide feedback to the project. Just be warned that I will not be at my desk next week: I am taking my now hopefully deserved break after a long time of hard coding. I thought to delay the announcement, but have decided it is probably better to get some head start. So please do not be disappointed if I do not reply immediately on comments posted. For comments and questions, I recommend using either the mailing list or the web forum at
we are very pleased to announce the immediate availability of rsyslog 3.10.3, a development branch release. This release is a major milestone: it offers "disk-assisted" mode to the in-memory main message queue, which essentially means that queued messages are automatically persisted to disk if there is need to do so. This, for example, is the case when the in-memory queue is full or rsyslogd needs to shut down without the ability to complete processing of queued messages.
There are many use cases for this new mode. An actual sample - high-volume database inserts - is briefly documented here:
The new engine now also comes with a full-featured, dynamic worker thread pool. A maximum number of workers can be defined for the queue. They are started and shut down automatically on an as-needed basis. This is an important feature for multi-core machines, which can now be fully utilized.
Even though powerful, rsyslog 3.10.3 is still an interim release: We will immediately start with finally implementing store-and-forward mode for each action (output destination).
As of the great magnitude of the changes, we do not yet recommend using 3.10.3 on production machines. However, we would deeply appreciate if it is tried out and bugs be reported.
Rsyslog 2.0.1, a new stable branch version, has been released today. It is a purely bug-fixing release. Most importantly, it fixes some situations where rsyslogd could hang if there were problems writing to output files or forwarding messages. Version 2.0.1 is a recommended update for all stable branch users.
Please note that rsyslog 2.0.1 provides a stable environment without any additional new features. Many new features are available in the v3 development branch.
Michael Biebl told me about a bug which prevented 3.10.2 from compiling in release mode. This was caused by one line and has been fixed today. This is not worth a new release, the fixed version can be found at the usual download sites.
Rainer
Posted by
friedl
on
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
966
Rsyslog 3.10.2 has been released today. It offers the ability to preserve the on-disk queue between runs of rsyslogd. When rsyslogd is shut down, the queue is kept on disk. Upon the next restart, rsyslogd continues to process messages from where it stopped. This is useful for busy systems, especially with slow outputs (like databases). Some configuration parameters have been added to fine-tune timeouts during shutdown and message enqueueing. This release is a recommended update for all users of the v3 series. The v3 branch is not yet recommended for use on production machines.
Rsyslog 3.10.1 is a bug fixing and minor feature enhancement release. It fixes a race condition, some memory leaks and some doc bugs of 3.10.0. Performance has also been somewhat improved. Feature-wise, it offers a new disk queue mode, which in its current form is of limited usefulness. Future releases will build on that mode and expand it. In its current form, the disk queue is of advantage for users who expect large queues, which can now be kept on disk. This release is a recommended update for all users of the v3 series.
Rsyslog 3.10.0 has been released today. It is the initial release of the v3 development branch. It offers many new features, among others loadable input modules and a much enhanced threading model. Rklogd is now tightly integrated as an input plugin. UDP listeners can now be bound to specific local interfaces/ports and multiple of them can be run concurrently. There are many other enhancements. This release has a number of known backward compatibility issues, be sure to review the compatibility information in the documentation set. Rsyslog v3 is not yet recommended on production machines.
The primary reason for this release is that we would like to gain some experience from the field. However, given the magnitude of change, the code looks quite solid.
Please note that even though the first v3 version has been released, I will continue to add features and capabilities rapidly. Expect new releases soon. As always, feedback is highly appreciated. It would be
most valuable to make the v3 branch a practical alternative on production systems.
I have just released stable branch version 2.0.0. It brings all features of 1.21.2 to the stable branch of rsyslog. As such, it offers a myriad of new features to users of the previous stable version (1.0.5). Examples are loadable output plugins and PostgreSQL support. Stable 2.0.0 is a recommended update for all stable branch users. Version 1.0.5 will no longer be supported.
Please note that there is no code difference between 1.21.2 and 2.0.0. So if you already run 1.21.2, there is no point in updating to that release.
Rsyslog development will continue with version v3. I expect to provide a first "official" v3 version soon. Keep in mind, though, that the config file syntax will not be fully backwards-compatible.
