How to rotate wtmpx in solaris
|
“Diagnosing problems on unfamiliar operating
systems
is like traveling is a foreign country:
they do things differently there.” |
Once wtmpx hits 2 GB in size Solaris slows down. You can
setup a logadm to rotate the log once every two weeks:~#
logadm /var/adm/wtmpx -C 2 -c -p 6m
- -C number of copies to keep
- -p time between each log cycle (6 month)
- -c copy and them truncate (doesn’t need to restart a
service then)
- -w writes an entry into /etc/logadm.conf for this
log file
The like to add to /etc/logadm.conf
/var/adm/wtmpx -C 2 -c -p 6m
Otherwise, you can go through a series of commands to
backup the file manually and overwrite it with a clean one.
This was likely the sequence used pre Solaris 9 days when
logadm came into the picture.
~# cd /var/adm/
~# /usr/lib/acct/fwtmp < wtmpx > wtmpx.a
~# cp wtmpx.a wtmpx.a.bak
~# cat /dev/null > wtmpx.a
~# /usr/lib/acct/fwtmp -ic < wtmpx.a > wtmpx
I have Solaros 9 SPARC and lately I found that /var/adm/wtmpx is above 3G.
This file is usually rotated by operatimg system.
Where should I look for settings to rotate /var/adm/wtmpx
The /etc/logadm.conf does not contain any line about wtmpx.
You are looking in the right spot.
Add a line for any other files you want rotated.
Also make sure /usr/sbin/logadm is being run from your root crontab.
-Raymond
Solaris
Tip] Trim wtmpx fileby
andy under
Filesystem,
Tips,
UNIX
Our root (/) partition is nearing 100% utilization and upon further investigation
the wtmpx file is the main culprit. We need to trim or flush this file but we
need to have a backup of this file for audit purposes.
Well from the wtmpx(1) man pages:
The utmpx and wtmpx files are extended database files that have superseded
the obsolete utmp and wtmp database files.
The utmpx database contains user access and accounting information for commands
such as who(1), write(1), and login(1). The wtmpx database contains the history
of user access and accounting information for the utmpx database.
If you really need this for your accounting, here are the steps to safely
convert it to human readable and truncate it.
root@solaris# /usr/lib/acct/fwtmp < /var/adm/wtmpx > /tmp/wtmpx.orig
root@solaris# cat /dev/null > /var/adm/wtmpx
root@solaris# gzip /tmp/wtmpx.orig
root@solaris# cp /tmp/wtmpx.orig.gz /var/adm/
There you have it a truncated wtmpx file with a full and zipped backup of
the old wtmpx. I strongly recommend that you use wtmpx.<date> rather than wtmpx.orig
if in case you need to truncate again in the future.
Update:
Below is the modified procedure making your backup wtmpx having a date on its
filename:
root@solaris# /usr/lib/acct/fwtmp < /var/adm/wtmpx > /tmp/wtmpx.`date +%Y%m%d`
root@solaris# cat /dev/null > /var/adm/wtmpx
root@solaris# gzip /tmp/wtmpx.`date +%Y%m%d`
root@solaris# mv /tmp/wtmpx.`date +%Y%m%d`.gz /var/adm/
Related posts
[How To] Mirror Root Disk with Solaris Volume Manager (SVM)
May 2010: UNIX Note flashback
[How To] Restore Solaris with ufsrestore
[How To] Backup Solaris with ufsdump
Generic NBU exclude_list
sentner
Member Since: 01/08/2008
Expert Comment
sentner2008-01-11
at 10:33:21ID: 20638813
You can safely just move it out like any other log file (though it's binary).
Easiest to use the logadm program that comes with Solaris 10.
Moving it out will cause your "last" command to not show data from prior to
when it was rotated out. And anyone currently logged in will still show as logged
in, but with no login time shown.
blu2008-01-11
at 10:42:56ID: 20638892
it doesn't work to simply move the file. The file is kept open by the utmpd
daemon and moving the
file will not cause the utmpd daemon to open the new one, it will simply keep
writing to the old
one. Likewise if you rm the file, this will simply make an invisible file that
still gets bigger.
The only way to get rid of it is to overwrite it. In a bourne shell, you can
simply execute "> /var/adm/wtmpx", in csh you will need to do
"echo >/var/adm/wtmpx"
If you want to really rotate it, and maintain the data, you will need to make
a copy before overwriting.
sentner
Indeed, you have to truncate rather than simply move... But that is easist handled
by logadm.
The following entry in /etc/logadm.conf will work, and save 2 copies:
/var/adm/wtmpx -c -C 2
sentner
Incidentally, to view the previous files, you use the "-f" option to last, ie:
last -f /var/adm/wtmpx.0
omarfarid
If you need the file for future reference, then copy the file to some other
location or with different name,
TodayDate=`date +%d%m%y`
cp /var/adm/wtmpx /var/adm/wtmpx.$TodayDate
cp /dev/null /var/adm/wtmpx
Society
Groupthink :
Two Party System
as Polyarchy :
Corruption of Regulators :
Bureaucracies :
Understanding Micromanagers
and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :
Harvard Mafia :
Diplomatic Communication
: Surviving a Bad Performance
Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as
Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience :
Who Rules America :
Neoliberalism
: The Iron
Law of Oligarchy :
Libertarian Philosophy
Quotes
War and Peace
: Skeptical
Finance : John
Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand :
Oscar Wilde :
Otto Von Bismarck :
Keynes :
George Carlin :
Skeptics :
Propaganda : SE
quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes :
Random IT-related quotes :
Somerset Maugham :
Marcus Aurelius :
Kurt Vonnegut :
Eric Hoffer :
Winston Churchill :
Napoleon Bonaparte :
Ambrose Bierce :
Bernard Shaw :
Mark Twain Quotes
Bulletin:
Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient
markets hypothesis :
Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 :
Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :
Vol 23, No.10
(October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments :
Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 :
Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 :
Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan
(Win32/Crilock.A) :
Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers
as intelligence collection hubs :
Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 :
Inequality Bulletin, 2009 :
Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 :
Copyleft Problems
Bulletin, 2004 :
Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 :
Energy Bulletin, 2010 :
Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26,
No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult :
Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 :
Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification
of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05
(May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method :
Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law
History:
Fifty glorious years (1950-2000):
the triumph of the US computer engineering :
Donald Knuth : TAoCP
and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman
: Linus Torvalds :
Larry Wall :
John K. Ousterhout :
CTSS : Multix OS Unix
History : Unix shell history :
VI editor :
History of pipes concept :
Solaris : MS DOS
: Programming Languages History :
PL/1 : Simula 67 :
C :
History of GCC development :
Scripting Languages :
Perl history :
OS History : Mail :
DNS : SSH
: CPU Instruction Sets :
SPARC systems 1987-2006 :
Norton Commander :
Norton Utilities :
Norton Ghost :
Frontpage history :
Malware Defense History :
GNU Screen :
OSS early history
Classic books:
The Peter
Principle : Parkinson
Law : 1984 :
The Mythical Man-Month :
How to Solve It by George Polya :
The Art of Computer Programming :
The Elements of Programming Style :
The Unix Hater’s Handbook :
The Jargon file :
The True Believer :
Programming Pearls :
The Good Soldier Svejk :
The Power Elite
Most popular humor pages:
Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society :
Ten Commandments
of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection
: BSD Logo Story :
The Cuckoo's Egg :
IT Slang : C++ Humor
: ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? :
The Perl Purity Test :
Object oriented programmers of all nations
: Financial Humor :
Financial Humor Bulletin,
2008 : Financial
Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related
Humor : Programming Language Humor :
Goldman Sachs related humor :
Greenspan humor : C Humor :
Scripting Humor :
Real Programmers Humor :
Web Humor : GPL-related Humor
: OFM Humor :
Politically Incorrect Humor :
IDS Humor :
"Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian
Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer
Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church
: Richard Stallman Related Humor :
Admin Humor : Perl-related
Humor : Linus Torvalds Related
humor : PseudoScience Related Humor :
Networking Humor :
Shell Humor :
Financial Humor Bulletin,
2011 : Financial
Humor Bulletin, 2012 :
Financial Humor Bulletin,
2013 : Java Humor : Software
Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor :
Education Humor : IBM
Humor : Assembler-related Humor :
VIM Humor : Computer
Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled
to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer
Humor
The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by
two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt.
Ph.D
Copyright © 1996-2021 by Softpanorama Society. www.softpanorama.org
was initially created as a service to the (now defunct) UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP)
without any remuneration. This document is an industrial compilation designed and created exclusively
for educational use and is distributed under the Softpanorama Content License.
Original materials copyright belong
to respective owners. Quotes are made for educational purposes only
in compliance with the fair use doctrine.
FAIR USE NOTICE This site contains
copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically
authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available
to advance understanding of computer science, IT technology, economic, scientific, and social
issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such
copyrighted material as provided by section 107 of the US Copyright Law according to which
such material can be distributed without profit exclusively for research and educational purposes.
This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free)
site written by people for whom English is not a native language. Grammar and spelling errors should
be expected. The site contain some broken links as it develops like a living tree...
Disclaimer:
The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author (or
referenced source) and are
not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the Softpanorama society. We do not warrant the correctness
of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose. The site uses AdSense so you need to be aware of Google privacy policy. You you do not want to be
tracked by Google please disable Javascript for this site. This site is perfectly usable without
Javascript.
Last modified:
March 29, 2020
