Mysql – Rotate MySQL log files

logMySQL

I want to daily rotate MySQL log files on Windows. I want to keep the files, I don't want to use tables instead.

There are 3 log files: general.log slow-queries.log and error.log

I can do it easily with a scheduled task. I saw that it recommended stopping the logs before I copy them to the backup directory.

One problem is that 'error.log' cannot be stopped.
Another problem is that stopping the logs may cause some loss of events, and I want to avoid it.

Is there a safer way (or built-in way) for logs rotation? (on a daily base or according to the file size)?

Best Answer

FLUSH LOGS gracefully does most of what you want. It stops writing to a log, renames the file and starts a new one. After that, you can deal with copying/moving/archiving/etc the files.

FLUSH LOGS can be run at any time without damaging anything or losing any log entries.

Caveat: There are many different log files; FLUSH may not work the same way on each, especially in older versions of MySQL.

For those three logs, in most systems, the general log is the biggest, followed by slow, then error. FLUSH also rotates the "binlog", but, again, that is "harmless".

Related Solutions

Mysql – Looking for an efficient way to fix “Could not parse relay log event entry…” error

There is more stable approach you can try

Here is something to remember

Whenever you run CHANGE MASTER TO, it will erase every relay log you have. You do not want to keep relay logs of commands you have not executed any SQL on as of yet

The following is an excerpt taken from a post I made back on Feb 03, 2012 : How to resolve the master server shut down/unavailability in mysql with master - slave replication :

Please notice that there are two sets of replication coordinates from the Master

(Master_Log_File,Read_Master_Log_Pos)

(Relay_Master_Log_File,Exec_Master_Log_Pos)

There is a major difference between them

(Master_Log_File,Read_Master_Log_Pos) tells you the last binlog statement from the Master's log file and log position that the Slave read from the Master and placed in its Relay Logs.

(Relay_Master_Log_File,Exec_Master_Log_Pos) tells you the last binlog statement from the Master's log file and log position that the Slave read from the Master and placed in its Relay Logs THAT IS NEXT TO BE EXECUTED ON THE SLAVE.

What you want are two things:

Erase Every Binary Log You Have
Start Collecting Binary Log Entries From the Last SQL You Successfully Executed.

In your case, you must use the second set of Replication Coordinates

Relay_Master_Log_File
Exec_Master_Log_Pos

It is easy to distrust a corrupt relay log as shown in the error message. The one that hurts the most is a corrupt Master Log. You will have to jump through hoops if that is the case. On the other hand, if one of the other situations was the reason for the corrupt relay log, the simplest and most concise approach is what I stated.

To make sure, whatever is reported for Relay_Master_Log_File, if that particular binary log still exists on the Master, perform a mysqlbinlog on it. If it dumps in its entirety without corrupt characters, go ahead and use the second set of replication coordinates.

From my same earlier post

mysql> show slave status\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
             Slave_IO_State: Waiting for master to send event
                Master_Host: 10.48.20.253
                Master_User: replicant
                Master_Port: 3306
              Connect_Retry: 60
            Master_Log_File: mysql-bin.000254
        Read_Master_Log_Pos: 858190247
             Relay_Log_File: relay-bin.066069
              Relay_Log_Pos: 873918
      Relay_Master_Log_File: mysql-bin.000254
           Slave_IO_Running: Yes
          Slave_SQL_Running: Yes
            Replicate_Do_DB:
        Replicate_Ignore_DB:
         Replicate_Do_Table:
     Replicate_Ignore_Table:
    Replicate_Wild_Do_Table:
Replicate_Wild_Ignore_Table:
                 Last_Errno: 0
                 Last_Error:
               Skip_Counter: 0
        Exec_Master_Log_Pos: 858190247
            Relay_Log_Space: 873772
            Until_Condition: None
             Until_Log_File:
              Until_Log_Pos: 0
         Master_SSL_Allowed: No
         Master_SSL_CA_File:
         Master_SSL_CA_Path:
            Master_SSL_Cert:
          Master_SSL_Cipher:
             Master_SSL_Key:
      Seconds_Behind_Master: 0
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

notice that the Replication Coordinates from SHOW SLAVE STATUS\G for what was last executed are (mysql-bin.000254,858190247). The CHANGE MASTER TO command in this case would be:

CHANGE MASTER TO master_log_file='mysql-bin.000254',master_log_pos=858190247;

Give it a Try !!!

UPDATE 2012-09-14 16:38 EDT

If you worried about the stockpiling relay logs, just throttle the relay logs. In SHOW SLAVE STATUS\G, there is a field called Relay_Log_Space. That gives you the sum of all relay sizes in bytes. Did you know you could put a cap on that number ?

The option is called relay_log_space_limit.

For example, if you want to cap the total number of bytes to 10G, do the following

STEP 01) Add this to /etc/my.cnf on the Slave

[mysqld]
relay_log_space_limit = 10G

STEP 02) Run service mysql restart on the Slave

and that's it !!!

When the oldest relay has all its entries processed, it is deleted and a new relay log is created. That gets filled until all relay logs add up to 10G. That's the only way to control runaway relay log space issues.

UPDATE 2012-09-14 18:10 EDT

SUGGESTION : If you make mysqldump backups of the data on the Slave every midnight, you could set up the following to restrict having 1TB of binary logs:

STEP 01) Add this to /etc/my.cnf on the Master

[mysqld]
expire_logs_days = 14

STEP 02) Run this query on the Master

mysql> PURGE BINARY LOGS BEFORE DATE(NOW()) - INTERVAL 14 DAY;

STEP 03) service mysql restart on the Master

STEP 04) Add a mysqldump backup script to a crontab on the Slave

This will make the Slave more useful and would control having excess binary logs to worry about

MySQL InnoDB logfiles resized – review thesql-err.log for potential problems

It is sort of yes and no. Why would I say both?

There are still some transactional data embedded in the old ib_logfiles in conjunction with the ibdata1 file. (See pictorial representation)

What you should have done is this:

mysql -u... -p... -ANe"SET GLOBAL innodb_fast_shutdown = 0"
/etc/init.d/mysql.server stop
mv ib_logfile0 ib_logfile0.OLD
mv ib_logfile0 ib_logfile0.OLD
/etc/init.d/mysql.server start

If you did not know of disabling innodb_fast_shutdown, ther you steps should have been

/etc/init.d/mysql.server stop
/etc/init.d/mysql.server start
/etc/init.d/mysql.server stop
mv ib_logfile0 ib_logfile0.OLD
mv ib_logfile0 ib_logfile0.OLD
/etc/init.d/mysql.server start

Doing either of these coordinate the purging of all uncommitted writes to tables and indexes. Just looking at the error log, I think you dodged a bullet in this instance. In future, please follow this protocol.

If you are not sure either way, you could put back the old log files, set the old size of innodb_log_file_size, restart mysql. Then, start the process over again as I prescribed above.