Bugs/questions

[yosmc]

I've noticed a couple of things that I would like to ask about:

- Access log rotation. When I last used cPanel 5 years ago this was a pain, as the log files would just keep growing until they weren't just unusable for humans, but Webalizer would also refuse to process them. Is there still no convenient approach for a simple daily rotation after all those years?

- When you access phpMyAdmin via cPanel, it will automatically reset the user's mysql password to the account password and dismiss any password that may have been set in phpMyAdmin previously. The obvious result is connection loss and database (=site) downtime.

Thanks!

[yosmc]

I'd still be interested in this, especially the part with the log file rotation.

[cPanelDavidG]

I've noticed a couple of things that I would like to ask about:

- Access log rotation. When I last used cPanel 5 years ago this was a pain, as the log files would just keep growing until they weren't just unusable for humans, but Webalizer would also refuse to process them. Is there still no convenient approach for a simple daily rotation after all those years?

logrotated should be handling log rotations for you. If your logs are not rotating on the latest builds of cPanel/WHM, you should let our technical analysts take a look at your server.

- When you access phpMyAdmin via cPanel, it will automatically reset the user's mysql password to the account password and dismiss any password that may have been set in phpMyAdmin previously. The obvious result is connection loss and database (=site) downtime.

Thanks!

I have never experienced this behavior myself. Are you by chance using the system (cPanel) user to access the databases rather than a MySQL virtual user?

[yosmc]

logrotated should be handling log rotations for you. If your logs are not rotating on the latest builds of cPanel/WHM, you should let our technical analysts take a look at your server.

Logs are rotating, once a month. As far as I am aware, there's only the choice between rendering the log files unusable by destroying the data after daily stats processing, and rendering the log files unusable by letting them grow so big that it takes half an hour to download and no text editor wants to deal with them. Or am I mistaken?

I have never experienced this behavior myself. Are you by chance using the system (cPanel) user to access the databases rather than a MySQL virtual user?

Yes to that. In the meantime I have set up a batch of new users to address this problem, so it's a non-issue for me. Nonetheless it was a pain to get it done, and I don't think that artificially inflating the number of mysql accounts really enhances database security. Nor do I think that it's smart that cPanel forces system users to use the exact same password for everything. And even if that's a feature and not a bug, then the reset shouldn't happen when people crank up phpMyAdmin (that's like going to hospital and coming back with a nastier desease than why you went there in the first place). My 2 cents anyway.

[cPanelDavidG]

Logs are rotating, once a month. As far as I am aware, there's only the choice between rendering the log files unusable by destroying the data after daily stats processing, and rendering the log files unusable by letting them grow so big that it takes half an hour to download and no text editor wants to deal with them. Or am I mistaken?

Correct, log rotation occurs on a monthly rather than daily process when it is working.

Yes to that. In the meantime I have set up a batch of new users to address this problem, so it's a non-issue for me. Nonetheless it was a pain to get it done, and I don't think that artificially inflating the number of mysql accounts really enhances database security. Nor do I think that it's smart that cPanel forces system users to use the exact same password for everything. And even if that's a feature and not a bug, then the reset shouldn't happen when people crank up phpMyAdmin (that's like going to hospital and coming back with a nastier desease than why you went there in the first place). My 2 cents anyway.

It is a cPanel feature to ensure that the cPanel user's password is synchronized among all services so when a user changes their password, that change automatically propagates. As a result, changing a cPanel user's password will mean that any scripts authenticating into MySQL as that user will need to have their password updated as well.

A technique I have used for years to avoid storing my cPanel user password in plain text is to create a MySQL virtual user via the cPanel interface and use those credentials to login to the database. A secondary affect of this technique is database logins will continue to operate without modification regardless of how often I change my cPanel user password.

[yosmc]

Correct, log rotation occurs on a monthly rather than daily process when it is working.

So to repeat:

- Access log rotation. When I last used cPanel 5 years ago this was a pain, as the log files would just keep growing until they weren't just unusable for humans, but Webalizer would also refuse to process them. Is there still no convenient approach for a simple daily rotation after all those years?

[cPanelDavidG]

So to repeat:

If you are still experiencing this issue today, you may want to let our technical analysts take a look at your server.

Your original post to this thread seemed to imply that log rotation was not occurring on the server at all. Hence, my response.

[yosmc]

Your original post to this thread seemed to imply that log rotation was not occurring on the server at all. Hence, my response.

So now that it's clear what I wanted to know and if I ask really, really nicely, would you consider honoring me with a reply to my initial question, namely if there is still no convenient approach for a simple daily rotation? Thanks again!

[cPanelDavidG]

So now that it's clear what I wanted to know and if I ask really, really nicely, would you consider honoring me with a reply to my initial question, namely if there is still no convenient approach for a simple daily rotation? Thanks again!

At this time, daily log rotation is not supported.

However, this is typically not an issue on contemporary servers unless your websites are receiving several millions of hits per day.

[yosmc]

However, this is typically not an issue on contemporary servers unless your websites are receiving several millions of hits per day.

By whose judgement if I may ask? On my larger sites, the log files are over one gigabyte, and the month isn't quite over yet. On the smaller sites, the log file is only "150" megabytes.

With all respect, but how detached are you guys from your customers that you can seriously state that this is not an issue? Consider whichever aspect you want of this - the wasted bandwidth, the wasted time, the fact that files this size crash the average text editor. Oh, and we're actually talking about downloading a log file and looking into it. Typically or not, there are people who do that.

Anyway, I'm getting carried away, sorry about that. Thank you for your time.