XigmaNAS in a VM on ProxMox

I use XigmaNAS to

expose mass storage via SMB/NFS
offer syslog destination for log collection

Create a VM

Basics:

CPU: 2 cores, type - host
12GB RAM, NO memory ballooning as PCI pass-through is used.
Boot drive 16GB
Machine: q35

Passthrough:

SATA controller with some SATA SSDs attached.
NIC

Install XigmaNAS

As usual:

create local user
enable ssh
enable SMARTd
ACPId - not in VM
enable SMB, NFS as required
NIC - first DHCP, then static to ensure router can always send syslog

Install Productivity Packages

Install the editor, htop:

sudo pkg install emacs-nox
sudo pkg install htop
sudo pkg install zsh

Change root shell

Edit /etc/passwd.

Install and Configure Guest QEMU Agent

Install the guest agent:

sudo pkg install qemu-guest-agent

In GUI System / Advanced / loader.conf add:

Variable	Value	Description
`virtio_console_load`	`YES`	for qemu-ga to work
`qemu_guest_agent_enable`	`YES`
`qemu_guest_agent_flags`	`-d -v -l /var/log/qemu-ga.log`

Restart xigmanas, verify that the agent works:

xigmanas: ~# service -v qemu-guest-agent status
qemu-guest-agent is located in /usr/local/etc/rc.d
qemu_guest_agent is running as pid 3104.

Email Setup

Configure XigmaNAS email to work with Gmail.

SysLog Collector

If you want to collect logs from your router and/or DHCP server, ensure the collector has a static IP address.

Relevant:

Out-of-the-box Functionality

XigmaNAS comes with syslogd, which can be configured in the XigmaNAS GUI to:

accept messages from the remote servers: check Diagnostics / Log / Settings / Accept remote syslog messages.
store logs persistently: in System / Advanced / rc.conf add:

Variable	Value	Description
clog_logdir	`/mnt/_pool_/logs`	Log files location

Then sudo /etc/rc.d/syslogd restart.

Unfortunately syslogd is not flexible enough to store remote logs in separate files by source.

Use rsyslog for remote logging

DISABLE accept messages from the remote servers
DO USE persistent location /mnt/_pool_/logs for logs

Install rsyslog:

pkg install rsyslog

Verify the install:

rsyslogd -v

Update /usr/local/etc/rsyslog.conf file:

global(net.ipprotocol="ipv4-only")
#
# Modules
#
#module(load="immark")   # provides --MARK-- message capability
#module(load="imuxsock") # provides support for local system logging
#module(load="imklog")   # kernel logging
$ModLoad imtcp
$ModLoad imudp
#
# Templates
#
# log every host in its own directory
$template RemoteHost,"/mnt/_pool_/logs/%HOSTNAME%//%PROGRAMNAME%.log"
# "/disk2/syslog/%$YEAR%%$MONTH%%$DAY%/%FROMHOST-IP%.log"
#
### Rulesets
#
# Local Logging
#
$RuleSet local
kern.*          /mnt/_pool_/logs/messages
*.info;mail.none;authpriv.none;cron.none  /mnt/_pool_/logs/messages
authpriv.*      /mnt/_pool_/logs/secure
mail.*          -/mnt/_pool_/logs/maillog
cron.*          /mnt/_pool_/logs/cron
#*.emerg *
uucp,news.crit  /mnt/_pool_/logs/spooler
local7.*        /mnt/_pool_/logs/boot.log
# uncomment this to log all writes to /dev/console to /var/log/console.log
# touch /var/log/console.log and chmod it to mode 600 before it will work
#console.info                   /var/log/console.log
#
# uncomment this to enable logging of all log messages to /var/log/all.log
# touch /var/log/all.log and chmod it to mode 600 before it will work
#*.*                            /var/log/all.log
#
# uncomment this to enable logging to a remote loghost named loghost
#*.*                            @loghost
#
# use the local RuleSet as default if not specified otherwise
$DefaultRuleset local
#
# Remote Logging
#
$RuleSet remote
# reference to a RemoteHost template
*.* ?RemoteHost
# Send messages we receive to Gremlin
#*.* @@W.X.Y.Z:514
#
### Listeners
#
# bind ruleset to tcp listener and activate it
$InputTCPServerBindRuleset remote
$InputTCPServerRun 514
# bind ruleset to UDP listener and activate it
$InputUDPServerBindRuleset remote
$UDPServerRun 514

include(file="/usr/local/etc/rsyslog.d/*.conf" mode="optional")

Enable rsyslog start at system boot:

sysrc rsyslogd_enable=”YES”

sudo service rsyslogd start

Check:

sudo service rsyslogd status

To display listening sockets:

sockstat -l

Relevant:

To test logging functionality, use logger:

logger -p local0.notice -t from_cmd_line "Test Message"

Update DHCP Server

Option 7, UDP log server, RFC 2132, carries the IP address of the syslog server that receives the client’s log messages.

Forward systemd journal to remote syslog server

Two options:

configure journald to forward to syslog, the latter to forward to remote server. Should be fast.
use rsyslog imjournal to ingest, then forward.

Use Logrotate

Logrotate man page, guide.

Install it with:

pkg install logrotate

In /usr/local/etc/logrotate.d/rsyslog

"/mnt/ssd/logs/*.log" {
    daily
    rotate 3
    size 20K
    compress
    delaycompress
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        /usr/sbin/service syslogd restart  > /dev/null 2>/dev/null || true
    endscript
}

"/mnt/ssd/logs/pfsense.lan/*.log"
"/mnt/ssd/logs/U6-Lite/*.log"
"/mnt/ssd/logs/duo/*.log"
{
    daily
    rotate 3
    size 20K
    compress
    delaycompress
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        kill -HUP $(cat /var/run/rsyslogd.pid) > /dev/null 2>/dev/null || true
    endscript
}

To test:

logrotate -v -s /mnt/_pool_/logs/logrotate.status /usr/local/etc/logrotate.d/rsyslog

To test and to force rotation:

logrotate -v -f /usr/local/etc/logrotate.d/rsyslog

To create a daily cron job, create executable /usr/local/sbin/rsyslogd-rotate.sh:

#!/bin/sh

/usr/local/sbin/logrotate -s /mnt/_pool_/logs/logrotate.status /usr/local/etc/logrotate.conf
EXITVALUE=$?
if [ $EXITVALUE != 0 ]; then
    /usr/bin/logger -t logrotate "ALERT exited abnormally with [$EXITVALUE]"
fi
exit 0

Then in GUI System / Advanced / Cron add:

Command: /usr/local/sbin/rsyslogd-rotate.sh Who: root Description: Rotate persistent logs Schedule Time: Minutes - 15, Hours - 01

Notes to Self

Alex Sokolsky's Notes on Computers and Programming