Syslog NG 1.3 issues

I have high hopes for every release of NG and while it's improving there is a long way to go to replace KSS 9.8 in the 7 months before it goes EOL.

My latest install has the following issues:

  • Rules did not import successfully, again. On the test server it's not an issue with 6 rules, prod servers have close to 100.
  • Schedules cannot write to dated folders or file names.  The file names are less of an issue since they now use a timestamp by default.  Dated folder names are used extensively in our environment since there are thousands of servers and files are kept for 13 months.  This can be managed with a schedule and a script but it is a regression in functionality from the 9.8 version and requires the entire file management process to be changed.
  • The new filename format requires changes to schedules and scripts.  This should have been documented.
  • I'm very happy with support for Powershell scripting but losing all support for the VBscript engine with no migration path complicates the migration significantly.
  • Along the same lines, the changes to the scripting variables, while understood, also complicate the migration between versions and scripting languages.
  • Scripting functions are missing.  Most are no longer needed because Powershell provides similar functionality natively but 'GetDailyStatistics' is used for a number of reporting functions via scripts. This needs to have some matching feature in NG
  • Keepalives are no longer an available input.
  • The license renewal bar appears at the top of the window every time we log in even though the license doesn't expire for 300+ days.
  • Is DNS caching still being done or is each log queried for hostnames? This has performance implications for highly utiilized systems
  • All of the 'Modifiers' screen in KSS 9.8 is no longer available.  In particular, what is the default max message size in KSS NG?
  • Alarms are missing in KSS NG.  Min, max, disk space options.  Does NG have a message queue?

I've been a KSS user for decades across multiple companies and hope that KSS NG will progress to the point it is a viable replacement for KSS 9.8.  We are currently testing alternatives due to the slow development and minimal communications.