Unable to use Env variables in riemann.config - Riemann 0.3.2

[tarunngidwani]

I am unable to access the value of an env variable in my riemann.config file. When I run riemann using systemctl start riemann the logs indicate that the value of the env variable is null.

I have exported the env variable and tried adding to the /etc/profile and/or /etc/environments with no luck. In the riemann.config file, I have tried accessing it directly using System/getenv and created a def to hold the env variables value.

I have attached some screenshots of setup. Any help would be much appreciated.

[sanel]

These env variables are not visible from init system. If you have /etc/sysconfig/riemann file (centos/rhel), you can set it there. On Ubuntu it is /etc/default/riemann.

[tarunngidwani]

@sanel How do I access the variable once I set it in /etc/default/riemann? I tried (System/getenv "GRAPHITE_HOST") but that did not work and the value was still null

How does the riemann daemon know to look for variables in /etc/default/riemann on Ubuntu? I am using Systemd to start and manage the riemann daemon.

[faxm0dem]

Can you show the output of systemctl cat riemann ?

[tarunngidwani]

[faxm0dem]

You must add an EnvironmentFile directive in the [Service] section as explained here

[sanel]

@tarunngidwani ah, systemd is ignoring this file too :S As @faxm0dem mentioned, you can use this riemann.service (you can find it in /etc/systemd/system somewhere):

[Service]
...
EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/riemann

or set env variable directly in riemann.service:

[Service]
...
Environment="GRAPHITE_HOST=graphite-mc"

Make sure to reload systemd after editing this file.

[tarunngidwani]

@sanel @faxm0dem On Ubuntu 18.04 the Systemd service file is autogenerated using the SystemV init.d system. I tried adding an env variable and exporting in /etc/init.d/riemann as such:

That did not work and the environment variable still comes up as null. Any ideas?

[sanel]

/etc/default/riemann should be read if /etc/init.d/riemann was used. Also, try to put export GRAPHITE_HOST=... in /etc/default/riemann as well.

If you are going to edit /etc/init.d/riemann, try to put GRAPHITE_HOST on top (before service was started).

[sanel]

Another approach is to have separate config.clj file (in eg /etc/riemann/files folder), where you set editable variables. For example:

;; /etc/riemann/files/config.clj
(ns files.config)
;; put all global variables here
(def GRAPHITE_HOST "graphite-mc")

;; /etc/riemann/riemann.config
(use 'files.config)

;; usual riemann.config stuff and GRAPHITE_HOST is visible here
(let [index (index)]
 ...
)

This way, you can distribute or put all /etc/riemann folder under git/hg and don't have to worry if some external variable needs to be set before service was started.

[tarunngidwani]

Thank you @sanel @faxm0dem for all your help. Adding the env var to /etc/default/riemann worked. The only thing that was missing was exporting the variable

For Debian-based OSs:

• export GRAPHITE_HOST=graphite-a worked by adding it to /etc/default/riemann

For RHEL-based OSs:

• export GRAPHITE_HOST=graphite-a worked by adding it to /etc/sysconfig/riemann