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Changing the Alternative Facility Name for Remote Messages

Some facilities assigned to messages logged on the local routing platform have the JUNOS software-specific names (see Table 19). In the recommended configuration, a remote machine designated at the [edit system syslog host hostname] hierarchy level is not a Juniper Networks routing platform, so its syslogd utility cannot interpret the JUNOS software-specific names. To enable the standard syslogd utility to handle messages from these facilities when messages are directed to a remote machine, a standard localX facility name is used instead of the JUNOS software-specific facility name.

Table 21 lists the default alternative facility name next to the JUNOS software-specific facility name it is used for. For facilities that are not listed, the default alternative name is the same as the local facility names.

Table 21: Default Facilities for Messages Directed to a Remote Destination

JUNOS Software-Specific Local Facility	Default Facility When Directed to Remote Destination
change-log	local6
conflict-log	local5
dfc	local1
firewall	local3
interactive-commands	local7
pfe	local4

The syslogd utility on a remote machine handles all messages that belong to a facility in the same way, regardless of the source of the message (the Juniper Networks routing platform or the remote machine itself). For example, the following statements in the configuration of the routing platform called local-router direct messages from the authorization facility to the remote machine monitor.mycompany.com:



[edit system syslog]
host monitor.mycompany.com {
authorization info;
}

The default alternative facility for the local authorization facility is also authorization. If the syslogd utility on monitor is configured to write messages belonging to the authorization facility to the file /var/log/auth-attempts, the file contains both the messages generated when users log in to local-router and the messages generated when users log in to monitor. Although the name of the source machine appears in each system log message, the mixing of messages from multiple machines can make it more difficult to analyze the contents of the auth-attempts file.

To make it easier to separate the messages from each source, you can assign an alternative facility to all messages generated on local-router when they are directed to monitor. You can then configure the syslogd utility on monitor to write messages with the alternative facility to a different file from messages generated on monitor itself.

To change the facility used for all messages directed to a remote machine, include the facility-override statement at the [edit system syslog host hostname] hierarchy level:



[edit system syslog host hostname]

facility severity;

facility-override facility;

In general, it makes sense to specify an alternative facility that is not already in use on the remote machine, such as one of the localX facilities. On the remote machine, you must also configure the syslogd utility to handle the messages in the desired manner.

Table 22 lists the facilities that you can specify in the facility-override statement.

Table 22: Facilities for the facility-override Statement

Facility	Description
authorization	Authentication and authorization attempts
daemon	Actions performed or errors encountered by system processes
ftp	Actions performed or errors encountered by the FTP process
kernel	Actions performed or errors encountered by the JUNOS kernel
local0	Local facility number 0
local1	Local facility number 1
local2	Local facility number 2
local3	Local facility number 3
local4	Local facility number 4
local5	Local facility number 5
local6	Local facility number 6
local7	Local facility number 7
user	Actions performed or errors encountered by user-space processes

We do not recommend including the facility-override statement at the [edit system syslog host other-routing-engine] hierarchy level. It is not necessary to use alternative facility names when directing messages to the other Routing Engine, because its JUNOS system logging utility can interpret the JUNOS software-specific names.

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