I have a number of systems that rely on application-level mirroring to a secondary server. The secondary server pulls data by means of a series of remote SSH commands executed on the primary. The application is a bit of a black box, and I may not be able to make modifications to the scripts that are used.

My issue is that the logging in /var/log/secure is absolutely flooded with requests from the service user, admin. These commands occur many times per second and have a corresponding impact on logs. They rely on passphrase-less key exchange. The OS involved is EL5 and EL6. Example below.

• Is there any way to reduce the amount of logging from these actions. (By user? By source?)
• Is there a cleaner way for the developers to perform these ssh executions without spawning so many sessions? Seems inefficient. Can I reuse the existing connections?

Example log output:

Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46367]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session closed for user admin
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46446]: Accepted publickey for admin from 172.30.27.32 port 33526 ssh2
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46446]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user admin by (uid=0)
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46446]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session closed for user admin
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46475]: Accepted publickey for admin from 172.30.27.32 port 33527 ssh2
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46475]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user admin by (uid=0)
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46475]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session closed for user admin
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46504]: Accepted publickey for admin from 172.30.27.32 port 33528 ssh2
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46504]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user admin by (uid=0)
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46504]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session closed for user admin
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46583]: Accepted publickey for admin from 172.30.27.32 port 33529 ssh2
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46583]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user admin by (uid=0)
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46583]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session closed for user admin
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46612]: Accepted publickey for admin from 172.30.27.32 port 33530 ssh2
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46612]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user admin by (uid=0)
Jul 24 19:08:54 Cantaloupe sshd[46612]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session closed for user admin
Jul 24 19:08:55 Cantaloupe sshd[46641]: Accepted publickey for admin from 172.30.27.32 port 33531 ssh2
Jul 24 19:08:55 Cantaloupe sshd[46641]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user admin by (uid=0)
Jul 24 19:08:55 Cantaloupe sshd[46641]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session closed for user admin
Jul 24 19:08:55 Cantaloupe sshd[46720]: Accepted publickey for admin from 172.30.27.32 port 33532 ssh2
Jul 24 19:08:55 Cantaloupe sshd[46720]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user admin by (uid=0)
Jul 24 19:08:55 Cantaloupe sshd[46720]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session closed for user admin
Jul 24 19:08:55 Cantaloupe sshd[46749]: Accepted publickey for admin from 172.30.27.32 port 33533 ssh2
Jul 24 19:08:55 Cantaloupe sshd[46749]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user admin by (uid=0)
Jul 24 19:08:55 Cantaloupe sshd[46749]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session closed for user admin
Jul 24 19:08:55 Cantaloupe sshd[46778]: Accepted publickey for admin from 172.30.27.32 port 33534 ssh2
Jul 24 19:08:55 Cantaloupe sshd[46778]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user admin by (uid=0)
Jul 24 19:08:55 Cantaloupe sshd[46778]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session closed for user admin
Jul 24 19:08:55 Cantaloupe sshd[46857]: Accepted publickey for admin from 172.30.27.32 port 33535 ssh2