Turning off access_logs for Load Balancer TCP port checks

Server NGINX
1

Hello,

We have load balancers that are doing port checks on our NGINX servers.
Each of these checks creates an entry in our log file like this:

10.0.0.58 - - [22/Feb/2010:18:50:21 +0900] “-” 400 0 “-” “-” 0.000 “-”
“-” “-” [-] - - - [-] [-]

Does anyone have an idea of how I can stop logging these requests?
I have tried

location / {
if ($remote_addr ~* 10.0.0..i.+) {
access_log off;
}
}

But this does not work. I have also tried putting the if and access_log
check in the http directive. But access_log commands are not allowed
there. So we might want to update the context docs here.
http://wiki.nginx.org/NginxHttpLogModule
Also, I am using Nginx 0.7.65

Thanks,
Zev

2

Here is a bit more info:

On 02/22/2010 06:55 PM, Zev B. wrote:

Also, I am using Nginx 0.7.65
The error log gets messages like this:

2010/02/22 19:37:35 [info] 30830#0: *4 recv() failed (104: Connection
reset by peer) while reading client request line, client: 10.0.0.59,
server: example.com

Thanks,
Zev

3

Hello!

On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 06:55:17PM +0900, Zev B. wrote:

We have load balancers that are doing port checks on our NGINX servers.
Each of these checks creates an entry in our log file like this:

10.0.0.58 - - [22/Feb/2010:18:50:21 +0900] “-” 400 0 “-” “-” 0.000
“-” “-” “-” [-] - - - [-] [-]

Does anyone have an idea of how I can stop logging these requests?

The only option you have is to turn off logging for the default
server on the port in question (and turn it on again for
individual locations if desired). Try something like this:

server {
    listen 80 default;
    access_log off;

    location / {
        access_log /path/to/log;
        ...
    }
}

Such “requests” doesn’t pass normal request processing pipeline as
they aren’t really requests and even connection to client is
already closed. They are logged in configuration context which
happens to be here - default server’s one.

not allowed there. So we might want to update the context docs
here.
Module ngx_http_log_module

It’s “if” which isn’t allowed at http level, not access_log.

Maxim D.

4

Hello,

On 02/22/2010 08:44 PM, Maxim D. wrote:

Does anyone have an idea of how I can stop logging these requests?
access_log /path/to/log;
…
}
}

Such “requests” doesn’t pass normal request processing pipeline as
they aren’t really requests and even connection to client is
already closed. They are logged in configuration context which
happens to be here - default server’s one.

Thanks for the suggestion. That works.
I might try making a new server default with the access_log off just for
it. If that does not work, I will have a lot of access_log directives.

not allowed there. So we might want to update the context docs
here.
Module ngx_http_log_module

It’s “if” which isn’t allowed at http level, not access_log.

Ah yes, you are right. Sorry for the confusion.

Thanks for the options!
Zev

5

Hello,

On 02/22/2010 08:59 PM, Zev B. wrote:

      location / {

Thanks for the suggestion. That works.
I might try making a new server default with the access_log off just for
it. If that does not work, I will have a lot of access_log directives.

I have tried both ways.
So far I think the best solution is make new default servers that have
access_log off;

I.e.

Dummy entry to stop empty tcp opens in the logs

server {
listen 80 default;
access_log off;
}

server {
listen 80
server_name example.com
access_log /path/to/log;
}

This way I don’t have to put access_log directives in all of my location
directives.

Is this suitable or am I missing something important?

Thanks,
Zev