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IBM Tivoli Monitoring > Version 6.3 > User's Guides > Agent Builder User's Guide > Monitor a log file IBM Tivoli Monitoring, Version 6.3

Log file parsing and separators

You can change the default separator that is used to separate one or more attributes in a log file record.

When you create a log file attribute group, a separator is by default assigned. The default separator is a tab. The separator is used by the agent to parse and delimit the data for each attribute in the data row. You can change the default attribute separator to be:

You change the default separator that is used for all attributes in the group in the following ways:

  1. When you are creating the attribute group, on the Log File Information page.

  2. After you create the attribute group, by opening the Agent Editor > Data Sources tab, selecting the attribute group and choosing a separator in the Field Identification area.

You can also optionally assign specific separators to one or more individual attributes. You can assign specific separators for individual attributes to use:

You change the separator that is used for individual attributes in the following ways:

  1. By selecting Advanced on the Attribute Information page when you are creating an attribute.

  2. By opening the Agent Editor > Data Sources tab, selecting the attribute and selecting Advanced on the Log File Attribute Information tab.


Example 1 - Simple log file output

Some log file records have clear and regular separators, for example:

Here the "," character is a clear and regular separator between the three pieces of data on the row. In this case, select Separator Text and specify "," as the default separator for the attribute group. There is no need to change or define other separators. Defining this separator for a log file that contains the data row that is shown earlier in this example is shown in the following output:

Figure 1. Example attribute value output when Agent parses a simple log file data row.


Example 2 - Complex log file output

Some log files can contain data rows that have irregular or changing separators, for example:

In this example an assignment of separators to attribute definitions that you can use is:

  1. In the previous example you set the default separator to ",". This separator is used for all attributes unless you over-ride it with a specific separator. In this example the default separator of "," is correct to use again for the first three attributes in the row.

  2. For the fourth attribute, assume the string between the"[" and "]" is a value that you want to extract. In this case when you define the fourth attribute, you assign a separator type Begin and End Text with begin and end text values of "[" and "]".

  3. For the fifth attribute, assume that you want to extract the values between the "]" and ":" characters. In this case when you define the fifth attribute, you assign separator type Separator Text set to ":".

  4. For the sixth attribute, your default attribute group separator "," is fine again.

  5. For the seventh attribute, you do not need to specify a separator as it is the last attribute.

Defining these separators on a log file that contains the data row that is shown earlier in this example is shown in the following output:

Figure 2. Example attribute value output when Agent parses a complex log file data row.

The procedure to define the attribute separators is described under step 5 of ( Monitor a log file).


Parent topic:

Monitor a log file

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