You are attempting to troubleshoot an event that should have made an entry into the messages log. This event
happened about two weeks ago. Which file should you look at first?
A.
/var/adm/messages
B.
/var/adm/messages.0
C.
/var /adm/messagas.1
D.
/var/adm/messages.2
E.
/var/adm/messages.3
Explanation:
The /var/adm/messages is the file to which all the messages printed on the console are logged to by the
Operating System. This helps to track back check the console messages to troubleshoot any issues on the
system.
Syslog daemon also writes to this /var/adm/messages file.
The /var/adm/messages file monitored and managed by newsyslog and its configuration file is /usr/lib/
newsyslog.
This script runs as the roots cron job everyday, checks the /var/adm/messages file and copies/moves it to /var/
adm/messages.0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. In other words, it does the Log Rotation for the /var/adm/messages.
In an event the /var file system is running out of space, these files needs to checked and can be removed (not
the actual /var/adm/messages itself) to free up space on the file system.
However, care has to be taken, if you decide to empty the /var/adm/messages itself for any reason. This
process is called Truncation.
SOLARIS SYSTEM ADMIN TIPS, /var/adm/messages