PowerFlex: Syslog Messages Missing Hostname Information
Summary: PowerFlex Management Platform (PFMP) generates syslog messages that omit the sending server's hostname, violating the standard format and affecting audit‑log retention.
Symptoms
When configuring PFMP to log to an external syslog destination, the logs are sent in a syslog format, passing the pod/service name but not the server hostname as the source of the log, as expected.
This doesn’t follow normal syslog formats, making system identification and long-term retention difficult, and sometimes impossible.
Impact
Customers with PCI or other compliance requirements cannot reliably tag or retain logs by originating system, leading to potential audit gaps.
Cause
The PFMP syslog formatter introduced in version 4.5 was released without parsing code for the hostname. The formatter builds the RFC‑5424 message using a hard‑coded hyphen for the {hostname} element, which the container runtime then replaces with the pod identifier. Consequently, the transmitted message never contains the actual server hostname.
The current code implementation shows that the hostname field is populated from the Kubernetes pod metadata rather than the configured node name.
{priority} {version} {timestamp} {hostname} {appname} {proc_id} {msg_id} {structured_data} {msg}
<14>1 2025-07-15T11:57:45.779Z - block-mdm - 078423d567f5adfd - {"code": "20010027", "name": "MDM_CLI_CONF_COMMAND_RECEIVED", "description": "Command enter_storage_node_maintenance_mode received, User: 'block-legacy-gateway'. [27227847]. Storage Node: with ID 48c2012600000002; components: all, force another node in mm: FALSE, force degraded or failed FALSE, force failed node FALSE", "severity": "INFORMATION", "category": "AUDIT", "details": {"command_name": "enter_storage_node_maintenance_mode", "user": "block-legacy-gateway", "seq": "27227847", "command_payload": ". Storage Node: with ID 48c2012600000002; components: all, force another node in mm: FALSE, force degraded or failed FALSE, force failed node FALSE", "system-id": "5ba64259cd5bf50f"}, "domain": "BLOCK", "id": "078423d567f5adfd", "timestamp": "2025-07-15T11:57:45.779Z", "resource_type": "block-config", "resource_name": "", "resource_id": "5ba64259cd5bf50f", "service_name": "block-mdm", "service_version": "5.0.0", "service_instance_id": "5ba64259cd5bf50f", "originating_application_name": "MDM Service", "request_id": null, "related_events": null, "job_id": "f2942b491e2b90c479ff8f46e01aeb33", "trace_parent": "00-f2942b491e2b90c479ff8f46e01aeb33-305f463900006b6a-01", "trace_state": "block-mdm=15afa4566be3ad55,block-legacy-gw=305f463900006b6a", "source_ip": null, "user_id": "block-legacy-gateway", "is_internal": null}
<14>1 2025-07-15T11:57:45.779Z pfmp-hostname.delllabs.net block-mdm - 078423d567f5adfd - {"code": "20010027", "name": "MDM_CLI_CONF_COMMAND_RECEIVED", "description": "Command enter_storage_node_maintenance_mode received, User: 'block-legacy-gateway'. [27227847]. Storage Node: with ID 48c2012600000002; components: all, force another node in mm: FALSE, force degraded or failed FALSE, force failed node FALSE", "severity": "INFORMATION", "category": "AUDIT", "details": {"command_name": "enter_storage_node_maintenance_mode", "user": "block-legacy-gateway", "seq": "27227847", "command_payload": ". Storage Node: with ID 48c2012600000002; components: all, force another node in mm: FALSE, force degraded or failed FALSE, force failed node FALSE", "system-id": "5ba64259cd5bf50f"}, "domain": "BLOCK", "id": "078423d567f5adfd", "timestamp": "2025-07-15T11:57:45.779Z", "resource_type": "block-config", "resource_name": "", "resource_id": "5ba64259cd5bf50f", "service_name": "block-mdm", "service_version": "5.0.0", "service_instance_id": "5ba64259cd5bf50f", "originating_application_name": "MDM Service", "request_id": null, "related_events": null, "job_id": "f2942b491e2b90c479ff8f46e01aeb33", "trace_parent": "00-f2942b491e2b90c479ff8f46e01aeb33-305f463900006b6a-01", "trace_state": "block-mdm=15afa4566be3ad55,block-legacy-gw=305f463900006b6a", "source_ip": null, "user_id": "block-legacy-gateway", "is_internal": null}Resolution
Upgrade PowerFlex Manager to version 4.8 or later, where the missing syslog formatter code is added, and the hostname field is populated correctly.
After the upgrade, verify compliance by reviewing a sample of forwarded logs in the external syslog system.
Impacted Versions
PFMP 4.5.x.x
PFMP 4.6.x.x
Fixed In Version
PFMP 4.8