Making varnish log time_firstbyte and handling - varnish

Question

I am trying to log time_firstbyte and handling in a file via varnishncsa.
My /etc/init.d/varnishncsa looks like below:-
. /lib/lsb/init-functions
NAME=varnishncsa
DESC="HTTP accelerator log deamon"
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DAEMON=/usr/bin/$NAME
PIDFILE=/run/$NAME/$NAME.pid
LOGFILE=/var/log/varnish/varnishncsa.log
USER=root
LOG_FORMAT="%t %r %s %b %{Varnish:time_firstbyte}x %{Varnish:handling}x"
#VARNISHNCSA_ENABLED=1
DAEMON_OPTS="-a -w ${LOGFILE} -D -P ${PIDFILE} -F '${LOG_FORMAT}'"
# Include defaults if available
if [ -f /etc/default/$NAME ] ; then
. /etc/default/$NAME
fi
# If unset, or set to "0" or "no", exit
if [ -z "${VARNISHNCSA_ENABLED}" ] || \
[ "${VARNISHNCSA_ENABLED}" = "0" ] || \
[ "${VARNISHNCSA_ENABLED}" = "no" ]; then
exit 0;
fi
test -x $DAEMON || exit 0
start_varnishncsa() {
output=$(/bin/tempfile -s.varnish)
log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
create_pid_directory
if start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile ${PIDFILE} \
--chuid $USER --exec ${DAEMON} -- ${DAEMON_OPTS} \
> ${output} 2>&1; then
log_end_msg 0
else
log_end_msg 1
cat $output
exit 1
fi
rm $output
}
stop_varnishncsa(){
log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
if start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE \
--retry 10 --exec $DAEMON; then
log_end_msg 0
else
log_end_msg 1
fi
}
reload_varnishncsa(){
log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
if kill -HUP $(cat $PIDFILE) >/dev/null 2>&1; then
log_end_msg 0
else
log_end_msg 1
exit 1
fi
}
status_varnishncsa(){
status_of_proc -p "${PIDFILE}" "${DAEMON}" "${NAME}"
exit $?
}
create_pid_directory() {
install -o $USER -g $USER -d $(dirname $PIDFILE)
}
case "$1" in
start)
start_varnishncsa
;;
stop)
stop_varnishncsa
;;
reload)
reload_varnishncsa
;;
status)
status_varnishncsa
;;
restart|force-reload)
$0 stop
$0 start
;;
*)
log_success_msg "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|force-reload|reload}"
exit 1
;;
esac
My /etc/default/varnishncsa looks like below:-
VARNISHNCSA_ENABLED=1
But while trying to do restart varnishncsa it is failing.
I am on ubuntu 12.04 with varnish 4.1.

Answer 1

As per this link updating my /etc/init.d/varnishncsa as below solved the issue:-
LOG_FORMAT="%h|%u|%{%Y-%m-%d}t|%{%H:%M:%S}t|%{%z}t|%m|%{Host}i|%U|%q|%s|%b|%{Referer}i|%{User-agent}i|%{Varnish:time_firstbyte}x|%T|%D|%{Varnish:handling}x|%{X-FE-Varnish-Obj-TTL}o|%{X-FE-Varnish-Backend}o|%{X-FE-Varnish-Obj-Stat}o"
DAEMON_OPTS="-a -w ${LOGFILE} -D -P ${PIDFILE} -F '${LOG_FORMAT}'"

Answer 2

The %T format specifier can be tricky if you are also using ntp. Because the response time can be very small - you may end up with negative values in your log file if the clock skew changes in the middle of the request. If you are post-processing your varnishncsa logs you may end up with results you were not expecting.