Red Hat Knowledgebase

Here are the steps for logging the output to a remote syslog server:

1. Edit the log4j.xml file in the conf directory of the server instance. For the default server instance edit the $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/conf/log4j.xml file.
2. Uncomment the following xml:

   <!-- Syslog events
   <appender name="SYSLOG" class="org.apache.log4j.net.SyslogAppender">
   <errorHandler class="org.jboss.logging.util.OnlyOnceErrorHandler"/>
   <param name="Facility" value="LOCAL7"/>
   <param name="FacilityPrinting" value="true"/>
   <param name="SyslogHost" value="localhost"/>
   <layout class="org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout">
   <param name="ConversionPattern" value="[%d{ABSOLUTE},%c{1}] %m%n"/>
   </layout>
   </appender>
   -->
   

   NOTE: Change localhost to any remote enabled syslog server.
   NOTE: The "LOCAL7" facility is arbitrary and can be modified to anything as long as the changes happen in both log4j.xml and /etc/syslog.conf files.
3. Modify the following xml:

   <!-- ======================= -->
   <!-- Setup the Root category -->
   <!-- ======================= -->
   
   <root>
   <appender-ref ref="CONSOLE"/>
   <appender-ref ref="FILE"/>
   </root>
   

   Add the SYSLOG appender reference:

   <!-- ======================= -->
   <!-- Setup the Root category -->
   <!-- ======================= -->
   
   <root>
   <appender-ref ref="CONSOLE"/>
   <appender-ref ref="FILE"/>
   <appender-ref ref="SYSLOG" />
   </root>
   

4. Modify /etc/syslog.conf to include the new LOCAL7 facility and where to create the log file:

   LOCAL7.* /var/log/jboss.log
   

5. Restart syslog and jboss as:

   service syslog restart
   service jbossas restart