Work with trace

Use trace to obtain detailed information about running the WAS components, including application servers, clients, and other processes in the environment.

Trace files show the time and sequence of methods called by WebSphere Application Server base classes, and we can use these files to pinpoint the failure. Collecting a trace is often requested by IBM technical support personnel. If we are not familiar with the internal structure of WAS, the trace output might not be meaningful to you.

We can configure trace settings with the administrative console, or we can configure tracing from the MVS™ console using the modify command.

This topic references one or more of the application server log files. As a recommended alternative, we can configure the server to use the High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) log and trace infrastructure instead of using SystemOut.log , SystemErr.log, trace.log, and activity.log files on distributed and IBM i systems. We can also use HPEL in conjunction with the native z/OS logging facilities. If we are using HPEL, we can access all of the log and trace information using the LogViewer command-line tool from the server profile bin directory. See the information about using HPEL to troubleshoot applications for more information on using HPEL.

1. Configure an output destination to which trace data is sent.

2. Enable trace for the appropriate WebSphere Application Server or application components.

3. Run the application or operation to generate the trace data.

4. Analyze the trace data or forward it to the appropriate organization for analysis.

5. Analyze the trace data or forward it to the appropriate organization for analysis.

Results

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. Before opening a PMR, see the IBM Support page.

Subtopics

• Enable trace on client and stand-alone applications
  When stand-alone client applications (such as Java applications which access enterprise beans hosted in WebSphere Application Server) have problems interacting with WebSphere Application Server, it might be useful to enable tracing for the application. Enable trace for client programs will cause the WAS classes used by those applications, such as naming-service client classes, to generate trace information.

• Enable trace at server startup
  Use the administrative console to enable tracing at a server's startup. We can use trace to assist you in monitoring system performance and diagnosing problems.

• Enable trace on a running server
  Use the administrative console to enable tracing on a running server. We can use trace to assist you in monitoring system performance and diagnosing problems.

• Manage the application server trace service
  Manage the trace service for a server process while the server is stopped and while it is running. We can specify which components to trace, where to send trace output, the characteristics of the trace output device, and which format to generate trace output in.

• Diagnostic trace service settings
  Use this page to configure diagnostic trace service settings.

• Select a server to configure logging and tracing
  Use this page to select the server for which to configure logging and trace settings.

• Log and trace settings
  Use this page to view and configure logging and trace settings for the server.

• Set up component trace (CTRACE)
  WebSphere Application Server for z/OS uses z/OS component trace (CTRACE) facilities to manage the collection and storage of trace data. CTRACE data is written to address space buffers in private (pageable) storage, which can be formatted using IPCS if a dump of the address space is taken. CTRACE data can also be written to trace data sets on disk or tape using an external writer.

Related tasks

Use High Performance Extensible Logging to troubleshoot applications