Flatstore Module

Jan Janak

FhG FOKUS

Edited by

Jan Janak


Table of Contents
1. User's Guide
1.1. Overview
1.1.1. Rotating Log Files
1.2. Dependencies
1.2.1. OpenSER Modules
1.2.2. External Libraries or Applications
1.3. Exported Parameters
1.3.1. flush (integer)
1.4. Exported Functions
2. Developer's Guide
3. Frequently Asked Questions
List of Examples
1-1. Set "flush" parameter

Chapter 1. User's Guide

1.1. Overview

Flatstore is one of so-called OpenSER database modules. It does not export any functions executable from the configuration scripts, but it exports a subset of functions from the database API and thus other module can use it instead of, for example, mysql module.

The module does not export all functions of the database API, it supports only one function, insert. The module is limited but very fast. It is especially suitable for storing accounting information on sites with extremely high traffic. If MySQL is too slow or if you get a huge amount of accounting data then you can consider using this module. Note that the acc module is the only module that was tested with flastore.

The format of the files produced by this module is plain text. Each line consists of several fields, fields are separated by | character. New information is always appended at the end of the file, searching, deleting and updating of existing data is not supported by the module.

The acc module can be configured to use flatstore module as database backend using the db_url_parameter:

modparam("acc", "db_url", "flatstore:/var/log/acc")

This configuration options tells acc module that it should use the flatstore module and the flatstore module should create all files in /var/log/acc directory. The directory must exist and OpenSER processes must have permissions to create files in that directory.

Name of files in that directory will follow the following pattern:

<table_name>_<process_name>.log

For example, entries writen by OpenSER process 8 into acc table would be written in file acc_8.log. For each table there will be several files, one file for every OpenSER process that wrote some data into that table. The main reason why there are several files for each table is that it is much faster to have one file per process, because it does not require any locking and thus OpenSER processes will not block each other. To get the complete data for a table you can simply concatenate the contents of files with the same table name but different process id.


1.1.1. Rotating Log Files

There is a new OpenSER FIFO interface command called flat_rotate. When OpenSER receives the command then it will close and reopen all files used by flatstore module. The rotation itself has to be done by another application (such as logrotate). Follow these steps to rotate files generated by flatstore module:

  • Rename the files that you want to rotate:

    cd /var/log/acc
    mv acc_1.log acc_1.log.20050605
    mv acc_2.log acc_2.log.20050605
    mv acc_4.log acc_3.log.20050605
    ...
    			
    Note that at this point OpenSER will still be writing all data into the renamed files.

  • Send OpenSER the fifo command to close and reopen the renamed files:

    openserctl fifo flat_rotate
    			
    This will force OpenSER to close the renamed files and open new ones with original names, such as acc_1.log. New files will be open at the point when OpenSER has some data to write. It is normal that the files will be not created immediately if there is no traffic on the proxy server.

  • Move the renamed files somewhere else and process them.


1.2. Dependencies

1.2.1. OpenSER Modules

The following modules must be loaded before this module:

  • No dependencies on other OpenSER modules.


1.2.2. External Libraries or Applications

The following libraries or applications must be installed before running OpenSER with this module loaded:

  • None.


1.3. Exported Parameters

1.3.1. flush (integer)

Enable or disable flushing after each write.

Default value is 1.

Example 1-1. Set "flush" parameter

...
modparam("flatstore", "flush", 0)
...

1.4. Exported Functions

There are no function exported to routing script.


Chapter 2. Developer's Guide

The module implements the DB API.


Chapter 3. Frequently Asked Questions

3.1. Where can I find more about OpenSER?
3.2. Where can I post a question about this module?
3.3. How can I report a bug?

3.1. Where can I find more about OpenSER?

Take a look at http://openser.org/.

3.2. Where can I post a question about this module?

First at all check if your question was already answered on one of our mailing lists:

E-mails regarding any stable OpenSER release should be sent to and e-mails regarding development versions should be sent to .

If you want to keep the mail private, send it to .

3.3. How can I report a bug?

Please follow the guidelines provided at: http://openser.org/bugs.