Prevent Apache2 from writing startup information in error log

Question

Apache2 is always writing startup information into the error log. See the following output:

[Fri Aug 26 12:57:54.298895 2016] [ssl:warn] [pid 4287] AH01873: Init: Session Cache is not configured [hint: SSLSessionCache]
[Fri Aug 26 12:57:54.326885 2016] [mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 4287] AH00163: Apache/2.4.10 (Linux/SUSE) OpenSSL/1.0.1k-fips PHP/5.6.1 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Fri Aug 26 12:57:54.326943 2016] [core:notice] [pid 4287] AH00094: Command line: '/usr/sbin/httpd2-prefork -f /etc/apache2/httpd.conf -D CACTI -D SYSTEMD -D FOREGROUND'

How can I configure apache2 to stop that as it is confusing webmin which thinks that although it started successfully, it did not..

I do not have a setting in any configuration file that says

LogLevel debug|trace

Answer 1

You can stop these being logged by setting the appropriate log level globally or on a per module basis. https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/core.html#loglevel

So if the general or core log level is lower than "notice" you will not get the third log line. If the general or mpm_prefork log level is lower than notice then you wont get the second line. If the general or ssl log level is lower than warn you wont get the first line.

Alternatively you could use a piped log and filter them out: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/logs.html#piped

However it's webmin that really needs fixing as these are perfectly normal log entries. I would log a defect with the webmin people.

Answer 2

The default LogLevel in Apache 2.4 is warn (and I would suggest keeping this). Your Apache configuration must has this changed somewhere to notice since it’s displaying that level of message verbosity. You should remove this setting so the default level of warn is used.

I’d also suggest resolving the Init: Session Cache is not configured warning.

Answer 3

To get rid of the error messages follow the steps here.

To see less of the logging, you can edit this line in your httpd.conf file LogLevel warn to LogLevel error which will log only if there is error that causing the server to malfunction.

If you only want to get rid of the first message, then you can disable the SSL module if you don't need it by commenting the line LoadModule ssl_module in your httpd.conf file. Or by configuring the SSLSessionCache correctly. Detailed instructions are found here.

If the following error is encountered in the error.log file:

[warn] Init: Session Cache is not configured [hint: SSLSessionCache]

This usually points to a distro breaking up SSL directives from the base SSL virtual host configuration. The default SSL configuration shipped with apache.org's Apache package contains these SSL configurations along with a base virtual host configuration.

Make sure that your SSL configuration file gets loaded before your virtual host configuration file and contains a line that looks like:

SSLSessionCache shmcb:/some/example/path/ssl_scache(512000)

Note: for it to work you need to install and enable socache_shmcb_module.