Work with troubleshooting tools

WebSphere Application Server includes a number of troubleshooting tools that are designed to help isolate the source of problems. Many of these tools are designed to generate information to be used by IBM Support, and their output might not be understandable by the customer.

This section only discusses tools that are bundled with the WAS product. A wide range of tools which address a variety of problems is available from the WebSphere Application Server Technical Support website.

1. Select the appropriate tool for the task. For more information on the capacities of the supplied troubleshooting tools, see the relevant articles in this section.

2. Run the tool as described in the relevant article.

3. Contact IBM Support for assistance in deciphering the output of the tool. For current information available from IBM Support on known problems and their resolution, see the IBM Support page. IBM Support has documents that can save you time gathering information needed to resolve this problem. For the last minute updates, limitations, and known problems, see the release notes. Before opening a PMR, see the Must gather page.

4. Use the IBM Support Assistant to help find and use various IBM Support resources, such as updated documentation and problem determination tools.

Subtopics

• Gathering information with the collector tool (deprecated)
  The collector tool gathers information about the WAS installation and packages it in a JAR file that we can send to IBM Customer Support to assist in determining and analyzing the problem. Information in the JAR file includes logs, property files, configuration files, operating system and Java data, and the presence and level of each software prerequisite.

• First failure data capture (FFDC)
  The FFDC feature instantly collects information about events and conditions that might lead up to a failure. The captured data in these files can be used to analyze a problem. FFDC is intended primarily for use by IBM Service. The presence of an FFDC message does not always mean there is a problem. In cases where normal recovery occurs, no further action is needed. After a maximum number of days, these files are automatically deleted from the system.

• Configure first failure data capture log file purges
  The first failure data capture (FFDC) log file saves information that is generated from a processing failure. These files are deleted after a maximum number of days has passed. The captured data is saved in a log file for analyzing the problem.

Related concepts

Troubleshooting help from IBM

Related tasks

Use IBM Support Assistant

Use the IBM Support Assistant Data Collector

Release notes