Changing Kannel Log Level & Log Rotation

If Kannel is configured so that the bearerbox, wapbox, and/or smsbox log to file, each of these log files will continue to grow unless administered in some way. One way of reducing logs is by changing the log level. Kannel allows you to have 5 log levels (0 - debug, 1 - info, 2 - warning, 3 - error, 4 - panic). You can change the log level by editing the log-level component in the configuration file or by using an admin HTTP command without restarting bearerbox.

http://localhost:13000/log-level?password=bar&level=2

Another way of administering log files is to 'rotate' the logs on a regular basis using a tool such as logrotate. A sample logrotate script is shown below.

Setup Logrotate

Step 1: If logrotate is not already on your system, install it now.

sudo apt-get install logrotate

Step 2: Add the following script to the file /etc/logrotate.d/kannel:

/var/log/kannel/*.log {
    daily
    missingok
    rotate 365
    compress
    delaycompress
    notifempty
    create 640 kannel adm
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        killall -HUP bearerbox smsbox wapbox || true > /dev/null 2> /dev/null
    endscript
}

In this example, the Kannel log files found in /var/log/kannel are rotated and compressed daily over 365 days. To verify if a particular log is rotating or not and to check the last date and time of its rotation, check the /var/lib/logrotate/status file.

cat /var/lib/logrotate/status