CPanel Apache error log issues

[Gwaihir]

I'm having issues with the error log I can access via cPanel (standard JagPC shared hosting account, ticket #13469062). I'm wondering if anyone else has (had) these too, as I can't imagine these have to do with my account specifically, though it could be a setup issue for just "my" server.

To my knowledge - do correct me if I'm wrong - the error log view in cPanel is the only place I can view apache error details. (The raw access log only shows the 500 status code but no details.) So, I need these for troubleshooting problems and general monitoring of my sites for issues. But I have two problems with it:

Not all errors show up
I noticed an error the other day, but had a hard time troubleshooting it, as it didn't show up in the log.

[Wed Jan 04 15:40:17 2012] [error] [client x.x.x.x] Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use 'LimitInternalRecursion' to increase the limit if necessary. Use 'LogLevel debug' to get a backtrace.

Support found this for me using their root level access after which I quickly figured out what I'd done wrong. Why wasn't this error reported to me? What other issues are my clients perhaps running into that are never communicated to me?

Errors are quickly removed again
The view states it holds on to the last 300 errors but it doesn't. On my site it is usually empty and whenever there are errors, they are gone again quickly. It's hard to be exact, but I have the impression it gets cleared out at least daily. While my site appeared to be running just fine, I wasn't checking it more than bimonthly though. So I learned now that seeing an empty view is hardly any indicator at all .

Are these issues familiar to anyone? Were they fixed for you (or, if you're not on shared, did you perhaps fix them yourself)?

[Ron]

Yes, I have all these same issues.

[JPC-Sajjad]

Currently cpanel logs all Apache error logs to a centralized error_log file in /usr/local/Apache/logs which is only accessible by root level. Error_logs are not separated on per user basis. Case is already submitted requesting this functionality to Cpanel developers team , but there is no ETA for this. When the fix is released, it will be published to cpanel change logs on cpanel official site.

Thanks.

[Gwaihir]

Why is this a feature request?

I do have a view for that in my cPanel and *some* errors do show there for a little while.

Error Log
This function will display the last 300 errors for your site. This can be very useful for finding broken links or problems with missing files. Checking this log frequently can help keep your site running smoothly.

Last 300 Error Log messages in reverse order:

It is also in cPanel's current documentation and I found a video explaning and showing it as a fully operational feature.

Rather confusing. This should not be in the cPanel skin yet / anymore? It seems like a bug to me. Do you have an SLA with cPanel hat states how long fixing a regression bug can take?


There are also workarounds posted on the cPanel site, as well as indications from other hosts that these logs rotate on a frequency you can set - and can probably be rotated nicely into the per account logs folder, alongside the access logs.

So..

Error_logs are not separated on per user basis

seems to be quite a stretch from the full thruth. Also, I do not care when cPanel publishes it, I want to know when it has reached my server.


Asking this question in ticket sadly put my site in danger. So I'd like Masood or a server admin to respond here, please.

[Ron]

Personally, I would like the error logs to be separated out just like access logs.

The last 300 bit is not sufficient, and they seem to get wiped out at every CPanel bandwidth update when the regular logs are broken out, maybe at other times too.