Purpose

Managing system log files for Bamboo. This can include cases where:

• Log files are duplicated
• Log files are too large (or verbose)
• Log files contain unnecessary information

If, for example, we have a Bamboo instance configured to write logs to /var/log/bamboo.log, but the same log lines are being seen in /var/log/messages, we may want to disable the logging to /var/log/messages.

This can be related to:

• Local or remote agent application-side logging changes, including bundled log4j settings
• Local or remote agent system-side logging changes

By default, many systems are configured to log to /var/log/system or /var/log/messages depending on the source of the logs. 

Solutions

Here are three possible options available to you.

A. log4j/log4j2

For Bamboo versions prior 9

Ensure that BAMBOO_INSTALL/atlassian-bamboo/WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties is sending logs to the desired locations. In the log4j.properties example below, INFO level logs are being sent to BAMBOO_HOME/logs/atlassian-bamboo.log.

log4j.rootLogger=INFO, console, filelog
log4j.appender.console=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.console.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.console.layout.ConversionPattern=%d %p [%t] [%c{1}] %m%n

#using 'bamboo home aware' appender. If the File is relative a relative Path the file goes into {bamboo.home}/logs
log4j.appender.filelog=com.atlassian.bamboo.log.BambooRollingFileAppender
log4j.appender.filelog.File=atlassian-bamboo.log
log4j.appender.filelog.MaxFileSize=20480KB
log4j.appender.filelog.MaxBackupIndex=5
log4j.appender.filelog.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.filelog.layout.ConversionPattern=%d %p [%t] [%c{1}] %m%n

For Bamboo version 9 and above

Ensure that BAMBOO_INSTALL/atlassian-bamboo/WEB-INF/classes/log4j2.properties is sending logs to the desired locations. In the log4j2.properties example below, INFO level logs are being sent to BAMBOO_HOME/logs/atlassian-bamboo.log.

packages = com.atlassian.bamboo.log
status = warn
rootLogger = INFO, console, filelog

appender.console.type = Console
appender.console.name = console
appender.console.layout.type = PatternLayout
appender.console.layout.pattern = %d{DEFAULT} %p [%t] [%C{1}] %m%n
appender.console.filter.threshold.type = ThresholdFilter
appender.console.filter.threshold.level = OFF

#using 'bamboo home aware' appender. If the File is relative a relative Path the file goes into {bamboo.home}/logs
appender.filelog.type = BambooRollingFile
appender.filelog.name = filelog
appender.filelog.fileName = atlassian-bamboo.log
appender.filelog.filePattern = atlassian-bamboo.log.%i
appender.filelog.layout.type = PatternLayout
appender.filelog.layout.pattern = %d{DEFAULT} %p [%t] [%C{1}] %m%n
appender.filelog.policies.type = Policies
appender.filelog.policies.size.type = SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.filelog.policies.size.size = 100MB
appender.filelog.strategy.type = DefaultRolloverStrategy
appender.filelog.strategy.max = 5
appender.filelog.strategy.fileIndex = min

More information on logging with log4j in Bamboo, please refer to the guide on Logging in Bamboo.

B. syslog/d

syslog is a system log server included in many Unix distributions (including Mac OS X). syslogd is syslog run as a daemon or background process. 

Using configuration files, syslog will route logs to different locations based on:

• Type
• Source
• Level

For example, if Bamboo logs are coming from internal source local0, and we don't want any Bamboo logs in /var/log/messages, add the following lines to syslogd.conf:

# format: source.level<TAB>target
local0.none	/var/log/messages

Documentation for syslog can be found online at http://linux.die.net/man/5/syslog.conf, or by running man syslog in your Terminal or Command Line.

C. rsyslog/d

rsyslog is similar to syslog, but with more functionality and configurable options. As with syslogd, rsyslogd is rsyslog run as a daemon or background process.

For example, once rsyslogd is running, Bamboo logs can be redirected to /var/log/bamboo.log, and not log to system logs. To achieve this, first find the programname attribute and update rsyslog.conf as outlined below.

1. To find the programname attribute, look in the system log, for example /var/log/messages or /var/log/syslog, for the Bamboo entries. The lines are formatted as follows:

   Aug  9 23:39:31 my.server.hostname myprogram[pid]: log entry

2. Using the programname from the log, add the following lines to your rsyslog.conf:

   rsyslog.conf

   if $programname startswith 'myprogram' then /var/log/bamboo.log
   & stop

   The second line excludes everything else that matches the same if condition.

Documentation for rsyslog can be found online at http://www.rsyslog.com/doc/v8-stable/ or by running man rsyslog on your Terminal or Command Line after rsyslog is installed.

Notes

• Your operating system may already have one of these utilities installed
• In addition to syslog, Mac OS X also has the Apple System Log (asl)