Solaris NFS Logging

If enabled, the operations of a NFS server can be logged in a special log file. In Solaris this function is implemented by the NFS Logging Daemon (/usr/lib/nfs/nfslogd) controlled by a configuration file (/etc/default/nfslogd).

The  location of the NFS server logs and the nfslogd working files are specified by the NFS server logging configuration file (/etc/nfs/nfslog.conf).

NFS Logging Daemon

The NFS Logging Daemon monitors and analyzes Remote Procedure Call (RPC) operations processed by the NFS server. For file systems exported (shared) with logging enabled, each RPC operation is stored in the NFS log file as a record.

Each record consists of the following:

• Time stamp
• IP address or hostname of client
• File or directory affected by operation
• Type of operation: input, output, make directory, remove directory, or remove file

The NFS server logging consists of two phases. The first phase is performed by the kernel; it records RPC requests in a work buffer. The second phase is performed by the daemon; it reads the work buffer and constructs the log records. The amount of time the daemon waits before reading the work buffer along with other configurable parameters are specified in the /etc/default/nfslogd file.

Because NFS uses file handles instead of pathnames, a database that maps these file handles to pathnames is maintained as part of the logging operation.

The /etc/default/nfslogd File

The following configuration parameters, as defined in the /etc/default/nfslogd file, affect the behavior of the NFS logging daemon. The initial nfslogd provided with the Solaris contains only comments.

• CYCLE_FREQUENCY— Amount of time (in hours) of the log cycle (close current log and open new one). This is to prevent the logs from getting too large.

• IDLE_TIME— Amount of time (in seconds) that the logging daemon will sleep while waiting for data to be placed in the work buffer.

• MAPPING_UPDATE_INTERVAL— The amount of time (in seconds) between updates of the file handle to pathname mapping database.

• MAX_LOGS_PRESERVE— The maximum number of log files to save.

• MIN_PROCESSING_SIZE— Minimum size (in bytes) of the work buffer before the logging daemon will process its contents.

• PRUNE_TIMEOUT— The amount of time (in hours) the access time of a file associated with a record in the pathname mapping database can remain unchanged before it is removed.

• UMASK— umask used for the work buffer and file handle to pathname mapping database.

The /etc/nfs/nfslog.conf File

The /etc/nfs/nfslog.conf file is used to specify the location of log files, file handle to pathname mapping database, and work buffer, along with a few other parameters. Because a set of parameters are grouped together and are associated with a tag or name, multiple instances of configurations can be specified in the configuration file. The default configuration, which has the tag global can be modified or additional configurations can be specified. The /etc/nfs/nsflog.conf file can be used to set the following NFS logging parameters:

• buffer— Specifies location of working buffer.

• defaultdir— Specifies the default directory of files. If specified, this path is added to the beginning of other parameters that are used to specify the location of files.

• fhtable— Specifies location of the file handle to pathname mapping database.

• log— Specifies location of log files.

• logformat— Specifies either basic (default) or extended logging.

The following listing shows the default contents of the /etc/nfs/nfslog.conf file:

#ident  "@(#)nfslog.conf        1.5     99/02/21 SMI"
#
# Copyright (c) 1999 by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
# All rights reserved.
#
# NFS server log configuration file.
#
# <tag> [ defaultdir=<dir_path> ] \
# [ log=<logfile_path> ] [ fhtable=<table_path> ] \
# [ buffer=<bufferfile_path> ] [ logformat=basic|extended ]
#

global  defaultdir=/var/nfs \
  log=nfslog fhtable=fhtable buffer=nfslog_workbuffer
$

Enabling NFS Server Logging

If neither the NFS server nor NFS Logging Daemon is running, you can start NFS using the /etc/init.d/nfs.server start command.

Logging is enabled on a per-share (file system/directory) basis, by adding the -o log option to the share(1M) command associated with the share. If the share is currently shared, you must unshare it first. Then modify the share command associated with the share in the /etc/dfs/dfstab file (and execute shareall) or enter it at the command line.

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