Error log directories

IBM MQ uses a number of error logs to capture messages concerning its own operation of IBM MQ, any queue managers that you start, and error data coming from the channels that are in use. The location of the error logs depends on whether the queue manager name is known and whether the error is associated with a client.

The location the error logs are stored in depends on whether the queue manager name is known and whether the error is associated with a client. MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH represents the high level directory where IBM MQ is installed.

• If the queue manager name is known, the location of the error log is shown in Table 1.

  Platform	Directory
  UNIX and Linux systems	/var/mqm/qmgrs/ qmname /errors
  Windows systems	MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH\QMGRS\ qmname \ERRORS\AMQERR01.LOG

• If the queue manager name is not known, the location of the error log is shown in Table 2.

  Platform	Directory
  UNIX and Linux systems	/var/mqm/errors
  Windows systems	MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH\QMGRS\@SYSTEM\ERRORS\AMQERR01.LOG

• If an error has occurred with a client application, the location of the error log on the client is shown in Table 3.

  Platform	Directory
  UNIX and Linux systems	/var/mqm/errors
  Windows systems	MQ_DATA_PATH\ERRORS\AMQERR01.LOG

In IBM MQ for Windows, an indication of the error is also added to the Application Log, which can be examined with the Event Viewer application provided with Windows systems.

Early errors

There are a number of special cases where these error logs have not yet been established and an error occurs. IBM MQ attempts to record any such errors in an error log. The location of the log depends on how much of a queue manager has been established.

If, because of a corrupt configuration file for example, no location information can be determined, errors are logged to an errors directory that is created at installation time on the root directory ( /var/mqm or C:\Program Files\IBM\MQ).

If IBM MQ can read its configuration information, and can access the value for the Default Prefix, errors are logged in the errors subdirectory of the directory identified by the Default Prefix attribute. For example, if the default prefix is C:\Program Files\IBM\MQ, errors are logged in C:\Program Files\IBM\MQ\errors.

For further information about configuration files, see Change IBM MQ and queue manager configuration information.

Note: Errors in the Windows Registry are notified by messages when a queue manager is started. Parent topic: Error logs on UNIX, Linux, and Windows