IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Troubleshooting and support
Transaction log file
The transaction (tranlog) log file stores critical transactional data that is written to databases. It is an internal file that WebSphere Application Server uses to manage in-flight transactions and attempt to recover them if the server locks up.
CAUTION:
Never delete the transaction log file from a production environment. Deleting this file removes information on in-flight transactions from IBM BPM memory. Without the transaction log file, there is no functionality to recover transactional information. In addition, long-running processes remain in an inconsistent state and you cannot complete the process flow except by deleting running instances. Deleting running instances might cause you to lose operational or business-critical data, which makes the database inconsistent with the message destination. Other inconsistencies that may be caused by deleting the transaction log file includes the following:
- Started transactions will neither be rolled back nor committed
- Artifacts will remain in the Java™ Virtual Machine (JVM) since they are referenced or allocated by a transaction but never garbage collected
- Database content (amongst others navigation state of long running BPEL processes) remains in the Business Process Choreographer related tables and are never deleted
- Navigation messages of the Business Process Engine (BPE) of long running processes are never processed further
- Service Component Architecture messages that belong to a process navigation and transaction remain on SCA-related queues
Deleting the transaction log from a development environment causes the same problems. Because you can re-create business processes, deleting the files from a test environment is not as damaging as deleting them from a production environment.