autotest/autotest — Issue #66: Capture guest syslogs in test results
Author: cevich
Created: 2011-11-09 14:48:34+00:00
State: open

As part of virtualization testing, it would be really handy to have an easy way to capture the guest logs. Previously something similar was done here:
http://patchwork.test.kernel.org/patch/3504/
http://patchwork.test.kernel.org/patch/3505/
http://patchwork.test.kernel.org/patch/3506/

However, this could be handled much easier (IMHO) by using remote syslog protocol which is widely supported across distributions. For example, during a fedora kickstart-based install, you can specify the kickstart options:

logging --host x.y.z --port 12345 --level DEBUG

Ideally there would be a per-guest listener setup on unique ports of test server, to capture and/or monitor the incoming logs just for that guest. The protocol is UDP, so if the listener dies or doesn't exist, it won't affect operations of the guest. It also would provide a convenient channel for logging system-level test info. (i.e. via the logger command, talking to syslogd, or rsyslog on guest).

Ref: syslog protocol - http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5424
example listener in python - http://rxlogd.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/rxlogd/rxlogd/rxlogd?revision=1.8&view=markup