On our Debian Etch machines, we run Linux-VServer to contain each major service. This allows somewhat better management than keeping it all in the host. By default, Etch installs sysklogd and klogd to for logging purposes. This directly affect all virtual environments of VServer.

When I upgrade one of the guest to Lenny, apt-get hangs at klogd because it is not being able to start. It seems like klogd needs some special access on the system, which VServer doesn’t allow by default unless it is explicitly granted. A quick way around it is, 1) stop the process, 2) exit and stop the guest, 3) add CAP_SYS_ADMIN to the guest, 4) boot and apt-get -f install, 5) then update-rc.d klogd remove, since VServer guest doesn’t require klogd at all. It’s alot of work to do on something that’s unnecessary.

Granted, Debian has a #437213 bug report, but I highly doubt it’ll be fixed, since rsyslogd will replace sysklogd and klogd in upcoming Lenny! Also, rsyslog is known to be better in many ways, e.g. database logging, email alert, backup log destinations, etc.

Unfortunately, rsyslog is not available in the Etch repository, but it’s available in backports! On VServer, it’s easy to upgrade/install a package across all guests in the host. Just vapt-get --all -- install -t etch-backports rsyslog!

Now I will need to keep my eyes out to harness rsyslog’s awesome-ness!

Thanks to daniel_hozac #vserver@irc.oftc.net for suggesting rsyslog!