
Flatstore Module

Jan Janak

   FhG FOKUS

Edited by

Jan Janak

   Copyright © 2004, 2005 FhG FOKUS
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   Table of Contents
   1. User's Guide

        1.1. Overview

              1.1.1. Rotating Log Files

        1.2. Dependencies

              1.2.1. OpenSER Modules
              1.2.2. External Libraries or Applications

        1.3. Exported Parameters

              1.3.1. flush (integer)

        1.4. Exported Functions
        1.5. Exported MI Functions

              1.5.1. flat_rotate

   2. Developer's Guide
   3. Frequently Asked Questions

   List of Examples
   1-1. Set "flush" parameter
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Chapter 1. User's Guide

1.1. Overview

   Flatstore is one of so-called OpenSER database modules. It
   does not export any functions executable from the
   configuration scripts, but it exports a subset of functions
   from the database API and thus other module can use it instead
   of, for example, mysql module.

   The module does not export all functions of the database API,
   it supports only one function, insert. The module is limited
   but very fast. It is especially suitable for storing
   accounting information on sites with extremely high traffic.
   If MySQL is too slow or if you get a huge amount of accounting
   data then you can consider using this module. Note that the
   acc module is the only module that was tested with flastore.

   The format of the files produced by this module is plain text.
   Each line consists of several fields, fields are separated by
   | character. New information is always appended at the end of
   the file, searching, deleting and updating of existing data is
   not supported by the module.

   The acc module can be configured to use flatstore module as
   database backend using the db_url_parameter:
modparam("acc", "db_url", "flatstore:/var/log/acc")

   This configuration options tells acc module that it should use
   the flatstore module and the flatstore module should create
   all files in /var/log/acc directory. The directory must exist
   and OpenSER processes must have permissions to create files in
   that directory.

   Name of files in that directory will follow the following
   pattern:
<table_name>_<process_name>.log

   For example, entries writen by OpenSER process 8 into acc
   table would be written in file acc_8.log. For each table there
   will be several files, one file for every OpenSER process that
   wrote some data into that table. The main reason why there are
   several files for each table is that it is much faster to have
   one file per process, because it does not require any locking
   and thus OpenSER processes will not block each other. To get
   the complete data for a table you can simply concatenate the
   contents of files with the same table name but different
   process id.
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1.1.1. Rotating Log Files

   There is a new OpenSER MI (management interface) command
   called flat_rotate. When OpenSER receives the command then it
   will close and reopen all files used by flatstore module. The
   rotation itself has to be done by another application (such as
   logrotate). Follow these steps to rotate files generated by
   flatstore module:

     * Rename the files that you want to rotate:
cd /var/log/acc
mv acc_1.log acc_1.log.20050605
mv acc_2.log acc_2.log.20050605
mv acc_4.log acc_3.log.20050605
...
                               Note that at this point OpenSER
       will still be writing all data into the renamed files.
     * Send OpenSER the MI command to close and reopen the
       renamed files. For example, using FIFO:
openserctl fifo flat_rotate
                               This will force OpenSER to close
       the renamed files and open new ones with original names,
       such as acc_1.log. New files will be open at the point
       when OpenSER has some data to write. It is normal that the
       files will be not created immediately if there is no
       traffic on the proxy server.
     * Move the renamed files somewhere else and process them.
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1.2. Dependencies

1.2.1. OpenSER Modules

   The following modules must be loaded before this module:

     * No dependencies on other OpenSER modules.
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1.2.2. External Libraries or Applications

   The following libraries or applications must be installed
   before running OpenSER with this module loaded:

     * None.
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1.3. Exported Parameters

1.3.1. flush (integer)

   Enable or disable flushing after each write.

   Default value is 1. 

   Example 1-1. Set "flush" parameter
...
modparam("flatstore", "flush", 0)
...
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1.4. Exported Functions

   There are no function exported to routing script.
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1.5. Exported MI Functions

1.5.1. flat_rotate

   It changes the name of the files where it is written.

   Name: flat_rotate

   Parameters: none

   MI FIFO Command Format:
                :flat_rotate:_reply_fifo_file_
                _empty_line_
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Chapter 2. Developer's Guide

   The module implements the DB API.
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Chapter 3. Frequently Asked Questions

   3.1. Where can I find more about OpenSER?
   3.2. Where can I post a question about this module?
   3.3. How can I report a bug?

   3.1. Where can I find more about OpenSER?

   Take a look at http://openser.org/.

   3.2. Where can I post a question about this module?

   First at all check if your question was already answered on
   one of our mailing lists:

     * User Mailing List -
       http://openser.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/users
     * Developer Mailing List -
       http://openser.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/devel

   E-mails regarding any stable OpenSER release should be sent to
   <users@openser.org> and e-mails regarding development versions
   should be sent to <devel@openser.org>.

   If you want to keep the mail private, send it to
   <team@openser.org>.

   3.3. How can I report a bug?

   Please follow the guidelines provided at:
   http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=139143.
