HPEL text log configuration settings

We can configure High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) settings for text log.

We can access this page only when the server is configured to use HPEL log and trace mode.

From the admin console, click Troubleshooting > Logs and trace > server > Configure HPEL Text Log.

Enable Text Log

Enables writing log and trace records into the text log file.

That in addition to writing log and trace records in binary format, the logging system writes them in a text format as well. We can configure the text log to be formatted in either of the formats that the basic mode SystemOut.log file uses.

(ZOS) The text log file contains log entries generated by the controller process and from servant or adjunct processes only. As such, application log records are not written to the text log in z/OS. To view log or trace data for all application server processes, use the logViewer command-line tool or the HPEL log viewing tool in the administrative console.

All content that is written to the text log is also written to either the log repository or trace repository. Enabling the text log degrades performance for applications that frequently create log or trace entries.

Directory path

Directory to which log files are written.

The file name format for text logs is TextLog_<yy.mm.dd>_<hh.mm.ss>, where "TextLog_" is a fixed prefix, <yy.mm.dd> is a date (year, month, date) of the first record in the file, and <hh.mm.ss> is the time (hour, minute, second)

This path 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 path for HPEL output.

Enable log record buffering

The logging system avoids writing to disk each time a log record is created. The logging system creates a buffer that can hold a number of log records, and writes the buffered events when the buffer is full. The logging system also writes the buffered events after a few seconds have elapsed, even if the buffer is not full.

Select this setting significantly improves logging performance; however, if the server stops unexpectedly, the contents might not be written to the text log file.

Enable log record buffering in almost all cases. Disable log record buffering only when the server is failing unexpectedly and cannot write buffered content to disk before it stops. bprac

Start new log file daily at <time>

Enables the logging framework to close the log file and start a new file at the specified time of day. Closing the file makes it easy to copy the file to an archive.

To automatically archive the log files, set up the backup program to copy files after the time we configured for new logs to be started. Configure the backup to occur at least 10 minutes after the time configured for new logs to be started to ensure that the server has closed the previous file.bprac

Begin cleanup of oldest records

Log cleanup settings to be used to automatically purge the oldest log records, or log records that no longer fit in the configured space, from the text log directory.

Select When log size approaches maximum to configure automatic log file cleanup to begin when the total size of the text log files approaches the configured maximum size.

Select When oldest records reach age limit to configure automatic log file cleanup to begin when log content is the age limit specified.

Select When either age or size restriction is met to configure automatic log file cleanup to begin when either of the previous conditions is met.

Regardless of the selection that is chosen, text log files are deleted from the text log directory in the order in which they were written.

Log record age limit

Lifespan, in hours, that log records can remain in the text log directory before the log records can be automatically deleted by the server. When all records in a text log file are older than the age limit specified, then that file is targeted for deletion by the server.

Maximum log size

Maximum total size, in megabytes, that the server allows the text log files to reach. When the total size of the text log files approaches this size limit, the server deletes the oldest text log files from the text log directory to make space for new log records.

Out of space action

Specifies how the server reacts to an inability to add content to the text log directory.

Select Stop server to specify that the server stops when the server is unable to write to the text log directory.

Select Purge old records to specify that the server continues to run and that the file containing the oldest log records is immediately removed when the server is unable to write to the text log directory.

Select Stop logging to specify that the server continues to run, but that the server cannot continue to write to the log when the server is unable to write to the text log directory.

Text Output Format

Format to use in the text log file.

Select Basic to specify a shorter, one-line-per-record format.

Select Advanced to specify a longer format using full logger name and more details about each record.

Include trace records

Specifies whether trace records and log records are included in the text log file.

Save runtime changes to configuration as well

That changes are made to both the dynamic state of the running server and the server configuration, which take effect on the next restart. If this check box is not selected, the server does not copy the settings into the server configuration.

Change from basic mode to HPEL logging and tracing