You can download system logs to monitor system activity and to troubleshoot problems.

The System Logs Download page displays up to 10 archived log files plus the current day log file. By default, the system rotates each file every 24 hours or if the file size reaches one gigabyte uncompressed. You can change this to rotate every week or month. Additionally, you can rotate the files based on file size.

The automatic rotation of system logs deletes your oldest log file, labeled as Archived log #10, pushes the current log to Archived log # 1, and starts a new current-day log file.

The path to download system logs varies slightly by product. Specific instructions are documented in the Management Console User Guide for your appliance.

You can review the system logs to ensure that features use FIPS mode. Features that run in FIPS mode have entries in the system log that include FIPS_mode_set(1).

The following sections show several examples.

For more information about system logs, see Viewing system logs.

File transfers, such as configuration fetch, run in FIPS mode and are FIPS compliant.  To verify, look for file transfer entries in the syslog when initiating a file download. Ensure these entries have FIPS_mode_set(1).

For example:

To verify that NTP is running in FIPS mode, examine the system log when NTPD starts (which occurs whenever the NTP configuration is modified) and ensure that the NTPD entry sets FIPS mode:

The secure vault contains sensitive information from your SteelHead appliance configuration, including SSL private keys and the data store encryption key. These configuration settings are encrypted on the disk using AES 256-bit encryption.

The secure vault always runs in FIPS mode. To verify, look for the following in the system log at startup:

To verify that SNMP is running in FIPS mode, look for entries similar to the following in the system log when SNMP starts (which occurs whenever the SNMP configuration changes) and ensure that FIPS mode is set:

The Apache web server for the SteelHead appliance always runs in FIPS mode. 

To verify that the web server is in FIPS mode, look for entries similar to the following in the system log: