Tracing and logging configuration

You can configure tracing and logging settings to help diagnose problems or evaluate system performance.

You can configure the application server to start in a trace-enabled state by setting the appropriate configuration properties. You can only enable trace for an application client or standalone process at process startup.

In WebSphere Application Server version 6.0.x, logging infrastructure, extending Java Logging, is used. This results in the following changes to the configuration of the logging infrastructure in WebSphere Application Server:

Loggers defined in Java logging are equivalent to, and configured in the same way as, trace components introduced in previous versions of WebSphere Application Server. Both are referred to as "components".
Both Java logging levels and WebSphere Application Server levels can be used. The following is a complete list of valid levels, ordered in ascending order of severity:
1. all
2. finest or debug
3. finer or entryExit
4. fine or event
5. detail
6. config
7. info
8. audit
9. warning
10. severe or error
11. fatal
12. off
Setting the logging and tracing level for a component to all will enable all the logging for that component. Setting the logging and tracing level for a component to off will disable all the logging for that component.
You can only configure a component to one level. However, configuring a component to a certain level enables it to perform logging on the configured level and any higher severity level.
Several levels have equivalent names: finest is equivalent to debug; finer is equivalent to entryExit; fine is equivalent to event; severe is equivalent to error.

Java Logging does not distinguish between tracing and message logging. However, previous versions of WebSphere Application Server have made a clear distinction between those kind of messages. In WebSphere Application Server version 6.0.x, the differences between tracing and message logging are as follows:

Tracing messages are messages with lower severity (for example, tracing messages are logged on levels fine, finer, finest, debug, entryExit, or event).
Tracing messages are generally not localized.
When tracing is enabled, a much higher volume of messages will be produced.
Tracing messages provide information for problem determination.

Trace and logging strings

In WebSphere Application Server version 5.1.1 and earlier, trace strings were used for configuring tracing only. In WebSphere Application Server version 6.0.x, the "trace string" becomes a "logging string"; it is used to configure both tracing and message logging.

In WebSphere Application Server version 5.1.1 and earlier, the trace service for all WebSphere Application Server components is disabled by default. To request a change to the current state of the trace service, a trace string is passed to the trace service. This trace string encodes the information detailing which level of trace to enable or disable and for which components.

In WebSphere Application Server, the tracing for all components is disabled by default. To change to the current state of the tracing and message logging, a logging string must be constructed and passed to the server. This logging string specifies what level of trace or logging to enable or disable for specific components.

You can type in trace strings (or logging strings), or construct them using the administrative console. Trace and logging strings must conform to a specific grammar. For WebSphere Application Server version 5.1.1 and earlier, the specification of this grammar is as follows:

TRACESTRING=COMPONENT_TRACE_STRING[:COMPONENT_TRACE_STRING]* 

 COMPONENT_TRACE_STRING=COMPONENT_NAME=LEVEL=STATE[,LEVEL=STATE]* 

LEVEL = all | entryExit | debug | event 

STATE = enabled | disabled 

COMPONENT_NAME = COMPONENT | GROUP

For WebSphere Application Server version 6.0.x, the previous grammar is supported. However a new grammar has been added to better represent the underlying infrastructure:

LOGGINGSTRING=COMPONENT_LOGGING_STRING[:COMPONENT_LOGGING_STRING]* 

 COMPONENT_TRACE_STRING=COMPONENT_NAME=LEVEL

LEVEL = all | (finest | debug) | (finer | entryExit) | (fine | event ) | detail | config | info | audit | warning | (severe | error) | fatal | off 
COMPONENT_NAME = COMPONENT | GROUP

The COMPONENT_NAME is the name of a component or group registered with the trace service logging infrastructure. Typically, WebSphere Application Server components register using a fully qualified Java class name, for example com.ibm.servlet.engine.ServletEngine. In addition, you can use a wildcard character of asterisk (*) to terminate a component name and indicate multiple classes or packages. For example, use a component name of com.ibm.servlet.* to specify all components whose names begin with com.ibm.servlet. You can use a wildcard character of asterisk (*) at the end of the component or group name to make the logging string applicable to all components or groups whose names start with specified string. For example, a logging string specifying "com.ibm.servlet.*" as a component name will be applied to all components whose names begin with com.ibm.servlet. When "*" is used by itself in place of the component name, the level the string specifies, will be applied to all components.

Note:

In WebSphere Application Server version 5.1.1 and earlier, you could set the level to "all=disabled" to disable tracing. This syntax in version 6 will result in LEVEL=info; tracing will be disabled, but logging will be enabled.
The logging string is processed from left to right. During the processing, part of the logging string might be modified or removed if the levels they configure are being overridden by another part of the logging string.
In WebSphere Application Server version 6.0.x "info" is the default level. If the specified component is not present (*=xxx is not found), *=info is always implied. Any component that is not matched by the trace string will have its level set to info.
If the logging string does not start with a component logging string specifying a level for all components, using the "*" in place of component name, one will be added, setting the default level for all components.

STATE = enabled | disabled is not needed in version 6. However, if used, it has the following effect:

"enabled" sets the logging for the component specified to the level specified

"disabled" sets the logging for the component specified to one level above the level specified. The following examples illustrate the effect that disabling has on the logging level:

Logging string Resulting logging level Notes
com.ibm.ejs.ras=debug=disabled com.ibm.ejs.ras=finer debug (version 5) = finest (version 6)
com.ibm.ejs.ras=all=disabled com.ibm.ejs.ras=info "all=disabled" will disable tracing; logging is still enabled.
com.ibm.ejs.ras=fatal=disabled com.ibm.ejs.ras=off
com.ibm.ejs.ras=off=disabled com.ibm.ejs.ras=off off is the highest severity

Logging string	Resulting logging level	Notes
com.ibm.ejs.ras=debug=disabled	com.ibm.ejs.ras=finer	debug (version 5) = finest (version 6)
com.ibm.ejs.ras=all=disabled	com.ibm.ejs.ras=info	"all=disabled" will disable tracing; logging is still enabled.
com.ibm.ejs.ras=fatal=disabled	com.ibm.ejs.ras=off
com.ibm.ejs.ras=off=disabled	com.ibm.ejs.ras=off	off is the highest severity

Examples of legal trace strings include:

Version 5 syntax Version 6 syntax

com.ibm.ejs.ras.ManagerAdmin=debug=enabled

com.ibm.ejs.ras.ManagerAdmin=finest

com.ibm.ejs.ras.ManagerAdmin=all=enabled,event=disabled

com.ibm.ejs.ras.ManagerAdmin=detail

com.ibm.ejs.ras.*=all=enabled

com.ibm.ejs.ras.*=all

com.ibm.ejs.ras.*=all=enabled:com.ibm.ws.ras=debug= enabled,entryexit=enabled

com.ibm.ejs.ras.*=all:com.ibm.ws.ras=finer

Version 5 syntax	Version 6 syntax
com.ibm.ejs.ras.ManagerAdmin=debug=enabled	com.ibm.ejs.ras.ManagerAdmin=finest
com.ibm.ejs.ras.ManagerAdmin=all=enabled,event=disabled	com.ibm.ejs.ras.ManagerAdmin=detail
com.ibm.ejs.ras.*=all=enabled	com.ibm.ejs.ras.*=all
com.ibm.ejs.ras.*=all=enabled:com.ibm.ws.ras=debug= enabled,entryexit=enabled	com.ibm.ejs.ras.*=all:com.ibm.ws.ras=finer

Related tasks

Enabling trace on client and standalone applications

Enabling trace at server startup

Enabling trace on a running server

Managing the application server trace service

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