How do I configure log rotation on my instances?

Example RightScript

The RightScale frontend templates are designed to move the Apache and HAProxy logs to the ephemeral storage in /mnt/log via a symlink so that a very large archive of logs can be stored. These typically reside in either /var/log/httpd or /var/log/apache2 depending on the Linux distribution.

In the below script, inputs are used to control the frequency of the rotation and the number of rotated log files to keep.
With a daily rotation, rotating 31 files effectively keeps a one month spool of daily logs.

#!/bin/bash -e

# RightScript: Modify httpd+haproxy logrotate configuration

#
# Inputs:
# LOGROTATE_HTTPD_ROTATE_FREQ        e.g. daily
# LOGROTATE_HTTPD_ROTATE_KEEP        e.g. 31
#

if [ "$RS_DISTRO" = 'centos' ]; then
cat <<EOF> /etc/logrotate.d/httpd
/var/log/httpd/*log {
    $LOGROTATE_HTTPD_ROTATE_FREQ
    rotate $LOGROTATE_HTTPD_ROTATE_KEEP
    missingok
    notifempty
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        /sbin/service httpd reload > /dev/null 2>/dev/null || true
    endscript
}
EOF
fi

if [ "$RS_DISTRO" = 'ubuntu' ]; then
cat <<EOF> /etc/logrotate.d/apache2
/var/log/apache2/*.log {
        $LOGROTATE_HTTPD_ROTATE_FREQ
        missingok
        rotate $LOGROTATE_HTTPD_ROTATE_KEEP
        compress
        delaycompress
        notifempty
        create 640 root adm
        sharedscripts
        postrotate
                if [ -f "`. /etc/apache2/envvars ; echo ${APACHE_PID_FILE:-/var/run/apache2.pid}`" ]; then
                        /etc/init.d/apache2 reload > /dev/null
                fi
        endscript
}
EOF
fi

echo 'Done.'

Running logrotate manually

In situations such as being alerted to a filling filesystem, you can call logrotate manually to action a rotation early, ahead of cron. This can be done for the entire logrote configuration or a specific include. You can also use the force option which is handy for force-rotating the log file that has been growing and filling up the partition. The verbose (-v) option is used to see the results of the rotation.

Rotating all

# logrotate -v /etc/logrotate.conf

Rotating maillog only w/ force

# logrotate -v --force /etc/logrotate.d/maillog

This then allows you to move the rotated log(s) to a different volume or off the instance (or optionally delete).