Ubuntu – Rsyslog not creating log files

I'm hardening an Ubuntu 14.04 VM to CIS standards and am having a problems getting rsyslog to create the necessary files.

Note: I'm getting better with Linux but I'm no master yet, please excuse any ignorance.

I inserted a file /etc/rsyslog.d/CIS.conf with the following contents:

*.emerg :omusrmsg:*
mail.* -/var/log/mail
mail.info -/var/log/mail.info
mail.warning -/var/log/mail.warn
mail.err /var/log/mail.err
news.crit -/var/log/news/news.crit
news.err -/var/log/news/news.err
news.notice -/var/log/news/news.notice
*.=warning;*.=err -/var/log/warn
*.crit /var/log/warn
*.*;mail.none;news.none -/var/log/messages
local0,local1.* -/var/log/localmessages
local2,local3.* -/var/log/localmessages
local4,local5.* -/var/log/localmessages
local6,local7.* -/var/log/localmessages

I also modified /etc/rysyslog.conf. The contents are thus:

$ModLoad imuxsock # provides support for local system logging
$ModLoad imklog   # provides kernel logging support

$KLogPermitNonKernelFacility on

$ActionFileDefaultTemplate RSYSLOG_TraditionalFileFormat

$RepeatedMsgReduction on

$FileOwner syslog
$FileGroup adm
$FileCreateMode 0640
$DirCreateMode 0755
$Umask 0022
$PrivDropToUser syslog
$PrivDropToGroup syslog

$WorkDirectory /var/spool/rsyslog

$IncludeConfig /etc/rsyslog.d/*.conf

the repeating contents of /var/log/syslog is:

Apr  6 10:03:10 ubuntu rsyslogd-2039: Could no open output pipe '/dev/xconsole': No such file or directory [try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2039 ]
Apr  6 10:15:17 ubuntu rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="7.4.4" x-pid="3074" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] exiting on signal 15.
Apr  6 10:15:17 ubuntu rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="7.4.4" x-pid="3152" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] start
Apr  6 10:15:17 ubuntu rsyslogd: rsyslogd's groupid changed to 104
Apr  6 10:15:17 ubuntu rsyslogd: rsyslogd's userid changed to 101

I tried commenting out the xconsole line in /etc/rsyslog.d/50-default.conf and then restarting rsyslog. After doing that, I now don't see any xconsole errors appearing.

What else can I do to try to pinpoint why rsyslog isn't creating these files?

Thanks!