How to configure AIX syslogd (/etc/syslog.conf)

The following steps will guide you trough configuring syslog on an AIX
system.
This info is valid for AIX 4.3.3, AIX 5.1, AIX 5.2 and AIX 5.3.

By default, an AIX system will not do syslog'ging. For a strange reason, the
default install on an AIX install will not place entry's in /etc/syslog.conf,
leaving a totl userless syslogd.

Even more, comparing the syslogd on AIX to another Unix, (ex: Linux), you
will notice that .* doesn't work. So make sure that your
priority level is never *.

Comming from a Linux world, you most probably want the following config:

mail.debug /var/log/mail
user.debug /var/log/user
kern.debug
/var/log/kern
syslog.debug /var/log/syslog
daemon.debug
/var/log/daemon
auth.debug /var/log/secure
local2.debug /var/log/sudo

As AIX standard has no logrotate daemon running, you want to adapt syslogd
todo the rotating on his own, an example would be:

mail.debug /var/log/mail
rotate size 100k files 4 # 4 files, 100kB each
user.debug /var/log/user
rotate files 12 time 1m # 12 files, monthly rotate
kern.debug /var/log/kern
rotate files 12 time 1m compress # 12 files, monthly rotate, compress
...

When adaptions are made to /etc/syslog.conf, make sure to restart
syslogd.

[root@sys /] refresh -s syslogd
0513-095 The request for
subsystem refresh was completed successfully.
[root@sys /]