Issue with /var/log mounting

This document (000020348) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2

Situation

After upgrading to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 auditd rules were missing then we noticed that auditd wasn't running because /var/log/audit was missing. We found that they were getting mounted to the wrong directory as seen below.

1. /var/log mounts to /run/initramfs/log
2. /var/log/audit mounts to /run/initramfs/log/audit

Test
*Make a bind mount of the root file system and check where /var/log points:
# mkdir /mnt/root
# mount --bind / /mnt/root
# ls -ld /mnt/root/var
# ls -ld /mnt/root/var/log

Possible Results
s4ha6prd:~ # mount --bind / /mnt/root
s4ha6prd:~ #
s4ha6prd:~ # ls -ld /mnt/root/var
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 28 Aug 31 11:58 /mnt/root/var
s4ha6prd:~ #
s4ha6prd:~ # ls -ld /mnt/root/var/log
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Aug 31 11:58 /mnt/root/var/log -> /run/initramfs/log
s4ha6prd:~ #

In general, since /var is in their case a mount point for /dev/system/lvvar, it
is advised to make this directory empty on the root file system. All files in
it will be made inaccessible when /dev/system/lvvar gets mounted over it.

Resolution

Run these commands to fix the issue
# mount --bind / /mnt/root
# rm /mnt/root/var/log

Reboot

Disclaimer

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