By default, the journal doesn't store log files on disk, only in memory or the /run/log/journal
directory. This is sufficient for the recent log history (with the journal) but not for long-term log retention should you decide to go with journal only and not with any other syslog
solution.
Configuring journald
to keep more logs than memory allows is fairly simple, as follows:
/etc/systemd/journald.conf
with your favorite text editor with root permissions by executing the following command:~]# vim /etc/systemd/journald.conf
Storage
is either remarked or set to auto
or persistent
and save it, as follows:Storage=auto
auto
, the journal directory needs to be manually created. The following command would be useful for this:~]# mkdir -p /var/log/journal
~]# systemctl restart systemd-journald
There are many other options that can be set for the journal daemon.
By default, all the data stored by journald
is compressed, but you could disable this using Compress=no
.
It is recommended to limit the size of the journal files by either specifying a maximum retention age (MaxRetentionSec
), a global maximum size usage (SystemMaxUse
), or a maximum size usage per file (SystemMaxFileSize
).
For more information about using the journal with RHEL 7, go to https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/s1-Using_the_Journal.html.
Take a look at the man page for journald (5) for more information on what can be configured.