Bug#399930: logrotation race condition with exim writing to logs

[CaT]

On Fri, Nov 24, 2006 at 10:23:38AM +0100, Marc Haber wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 24, 2006 at 05:11:25PM +1100, CaT wrote:
> > So there is absolutely no need for the create option in logrotate
> 
> Not having the logs created might break monitoring mechanisms.

Well it is kind of a choice between maybe breaking poorly written
monitoring schemes (the lack of a log should merely be a hint to
check deeper rather then be the be-all and end-all of ones decision
making) and definately breaking the very system that they are meant
to monitor.

My personal vote is for keeping the system running. Breaken monitoring
is a minor annoyance that causes no harm and should only happen when
the monitoring is really broken anyway. A broken mail server can well
lead to massive tear-shedding when it goes down suddenly and abruptly.

For me this meant manual babysitting of the reinjection of mail back
from the backup MXes into the virus filter (which wound up getting
seriously stressed) and then into the mail storage server (which just
plain broke as it needs replacement). This was further aggrivated as it
took me away from the task of building the gruntier, better, faster
replacement for the mail storage server. My Wednesday sucked. Our
customers Wednesday suck. Our support staffs Wednesday sucked. It
just plain all sucked. In comparison to that an inapporpriate
page/email/sms/whatever from a monitoring system that doesn't check
things well enough to indcate a server is down when it isn't is
just a minor joykill at worst.

Sorry if I seem a bit heavy about this but, well, it just all plain 
sucked. :/

-- 
    "To the extent that we overreact, we proffer the terrorists the
    greatest tribute."
    	- High Court Judge Michael Kirby