Network Deployment (Distributed operating systems), v8.0 > New features > Overview and new features: Troubleshooting
What is new for troubleshooters
This version provides many new features for troubleshooting and servicing the product, with a focus on the ability to automatically detect and recover from problems.
- Collecting Java dumps and core files
The Java virtual machine (JVM) is capable of producing Java dump and core files to aid in troubleshooting. We can use heap dump and system dump files to help you diagnose memory-related problems, such as memory leaks. We can use Java core files to help you diagnose problems where the CPU is persistently 100% busy, when threads are hanging, or where threads are in a deadlock.
- High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL)
- HPEL provides a convenient mechanism for storing and accessing log, trace, System.err, and information produced by the application server or the applications. It is an alternative to the basic log and trace facility, which provided the JVM logs, diagnostic trace, and service log files commonly named SystemOut.log/SystemErr.log, trace.log, and activity.log.
- HPEL has been designed and tested to significantly outperform the existing basic log and trace facility. One result is that the application server can run with trace enabled while causing less impact to performance than tracing the same components using basic logging. Another result is that applications that frequently write to the logs might run faster with HPEL. A number of factors contribute to the overall performance of HPEL logging and tracing.
- HPEL has been designed to be easy to configure and understand. For example, administrators can easily configure how much disk space to dedicate to logs or trace, or how long to retain log and trace records, and leave the management of log and trace content up to the server. As another example all log, trace, , and System.err content can be accessed using one easy-to-use command (LogViewer), avoiding any possible confusion over which file to access for certain content.
- HPEL has been designed to make working with log and trace content more flexible and effective than the basic logging facility. Log and trace content can be easily filtered to show only the records that are of interest. We can use the command line (see the description of the HPEL LogViewer command), or developers can create powerful log handling programs using the HPEL API.