Diagnostic trace service settings
Use this page to configure diagnostic trace service settings.
Supported configurations: We can only access this page when the server is configured to use basic log and trace mode.
To view this administrative console page, click Troubleshooting > Logs and trace > server_name > Diagnostic trace.
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.
Trace Output
Specifies where trace output should be written. The trace output can be written directly to an output file, or stored in memory and written to a file on demand using the Dump button found on the runtime page.
Different components can produce different amounts of trace output per entry. Naming and security tracing, for example, produces a much higher trace output than web container tracing. Consider the type of data being collected when you configure the memory allocation and output settings.
- None
- If this option is selected, the trace data is not logged or recorded anywhere. All other handlers (including handlers registered by applications) still have an opportunity to process these traces.
- Memory Buffer
- The trace output should be written to an in-memory circular buffer. If we select this option specify the following parameters:
- Maximum Buffer Size
- Number of entries, in thousands, that can be cached in the buffer. When this number is exceeded, older entries are overwritten by new entries.
- File
- Specifies to write the trace output to a self-managing log file.
The self-managing log file writes messages to the file until the specified maximum file size is reached. When the file reaches the specified size, logging is temporarily suspended and the log file is closed
and renamed. The new name is based on the original name of the file, plus a timestamp qualifier that indicates when the renaming occurred.
Once the renaming is complete, a new, empty log file with the original name is reopened, and logging resumes. No messages are lost as a result of the rollover, although a single message may be split across the two files. If we select this option specify the following parameters:
- Maximum File Size
- Maximum size, in megabytes, to which the output file is allowed to grow. This attribute is only valid if the File Size attribute is selected. When the file reaches this size, it is rolled over as previously described.
- Maximum Number of Historical Files
- Maximum number of rolled over files to keep.
- File Name
- Name of the file to which the trace output is written.
Avoid trouble: This file cannot be shared between servers. The server creates a file with a .owner extension to help detect when two or more servers happen to be trying to use the same file.gotcha
Trace Output Format
Format of the trace output.
We can specify one of three levels for trace output:
- Basic (Compatible)
- Preserves only basic trace information. Select this option to minimize the amount of space taken up by the trace output.
- Advanced
- Preserves more specific trace information. Select this option to see detailed trace information for use in troubleshooting and problem determination.
- Log analyzer trace format
- Preserves trace information in the same format as produced by Showlog tool.
Runtime tab
Save runtime changes to configuration
Save runtime changes made on the runtime tab to the trace configuration as well. Select this box to copy runtime trace changes to the trace configuration settings as well. Saving these changes to the trace configuration will cause the changes to persist even if the application is restarted.
Trace Output
Specifies where trace output should be written. The trace output can be written directly to an output file, or stored in memory and written to a file on demand using the Dump button found on the run-time page.
- None
- If this option is selected, the trace data is not logged or recorded anywhere. All other handlers (including handlers registered by applications) still have an opportunity to process these traces.
- Memory Buffer
- The trace output should be written to an in-memory circular buffer. If we select this option specify the following parameters:
- Maximum Buffer Size
- Number of entries, in thousands, that can be cached in the buffer. When this number is exceeded, older entries are overwritten by new entries.
- Dump File Name
- The name of the file to which the memory buffer will be written when it is dumped. This option is only available from the Runtime tab.
- File
- Specifies to write the trace output to a self-managing log file.
The self-managing log file writes messages to the file until the specified maximum file size is reached. When the file reaches the specified size, logging is temporarily suspended and the log file is closed
and renamed. The new name is based on the original name of the file, plus a timestamp qualifier that indicates when the renaming occurred.
Once the renaming is complete, a new, empty log file with the original name is reopened, and logging resumes. No messages are lost as a result of the rollover, although a single message may be split across the two files. If we select this option specify the following parameters:
- Maximum File Size
- Maximum size, in megabytes, to which the output file is allowed to grow. This attribute is only valid if the File Size attribute is selected. When the file reaches this size, it is rolled over as previously described.
- Maximum Number of Historical Files
- Maximum number of rolled over files to keep.
- File Name
- Name of the file to which the trace output is written.
- View
- View the file specified by the File Name parameter. This does not apply the configuration.
Avoid trouble: Do not specify the same file name for more than one managed server. The server creates a file with a .owner extension to track which server can use a particular file name for output.gotcha
Related tasks
Reference topic