The primary service that runs on the Syncplicity compute node VM is known as the syncp-storage service. It is responsible for authenticating with the Syncplicity SaaS service (upstream) as well as to serve as the default storage endpoint directing traffic to on-premises storage (downstream). Therefore the behavior and activity of the compute node ensures optimal end user experience and the activity captured in the logs provides vital diagnostic and performance information.
For optimal security, the logging activity from the syncp-storage service is stored and protected in a directory with root privileges and in many cases these logs are not easily retrieved remotely using a file transfer app like WinSCP since root-based SCP communication is often restricted in DMZ environments.
To retrieve these logs safely, the instructions below allow for moving the logs to a location on the compute node where they can be retrieved by a non-root user. Then, the logs can be removed remotely via SCP for record keeping and/or sent to Syncplicity Support for investigation.
Depending on your particular deployment and services that are running on the compute node, you may need to retrieve more than one log file. These instructions have options for the commonly requested logs.
Before you begin:
For this task the best practice is to use the commonly available console access and file transfer tools putty and WinSCP.
Getting started:
These instructions cover the 2 step file retrieval process from a client desktop that has access to a compute node.
Step 1: Locating and copying syncp-storage logs
1. Putty to the compute node vm (repeat these steps for each compute node vm if you’ve deployed more than one) login in as user “syncp” (Default password is onprem)
2. Switch to the root user to access the syncp-storage service logs,
> sudo su
or, depending on your deployment environment you may need sudo su -
3. As root, now navigate to the syncp-storage log directory
> cd /var/log/syncp-storage
4. Find the appropriate / newest logs. Each log is date stamped and rolls into a .gz zip format after 24 hours
> ls -al
to sort by date. Logs will appear in this format:
syncp-storage-YYYY-MM-DD.log
5. Copy the appropriate logs to a location on the node which can safely be remotely accessed such as the home directory for the ‘onprem’ user
> cp syncp-storage-YYYY-MM-DD.log /home/syncp
Step 2 Remotely retrieving syncp-storage logs
After the logs have been copied locally in the VM, now you can connect to the node using winscp and username syncp to retrieve them.
1. Open WinSCP and connect to the compute node using SCP
2. Browse to the /home/syncp directory and copy the files locally to your desktop/laptop. If you’re planning on sending many files and are engaged with Syncplicity Support, consider having a sync’d folder on your desktop/laptop that is shared with Syncplicity Support. This way, any files stored into that sync’d folder will automatically be sent back to Syncplicity - even if your onprem storage is offline.
Optional Steps and Logs to retrieve SSL activity from the stunnel service. If you’re already off-loading SSL traffic at a load balancer ignore this section
To retrieve the stunnel logs:
1. putty to the vm
su to root
> 'locate stunnel.log'
2. cd to that directory, then copy the file to the /home directory so you can then use SCP to copy it locally.
> cp filename to /home/syncp
3. Winscp to the /home/syncp directory to retrieve the files and send to Syncplicity Support.