System event logging

 

+

Search Tips   |   Advanced Search

 

Overview

System event logging records...

• messages
• traces

Message logging

Log of messages that report errors and status information, including...

Informational	Condition worth noting but does not require the user to perform an action.
Warning	Abnormal condition has been detected. The user may have to take action. However, WebSphere Portal code is able to handle the condition without failing.
Error	Serious failure in the execution of the application that requires further action.

Trace logging

Switched off by default.

Temporary

Traces set for a temporary period using the administration portlet Enable Tracing or the administrative console.

To set traces by using Enable Tracing portlet...

1. Log in as the administrator.

2. Click...
   Administration | Portal Analysis | Enable Tracing

3. Type the required trace string into the field...
   Append these trace settings

   For example, this can be...

   com.ibm.wps.command.credentialvault.*=finest

4. Click the Add icon. Enable Tracing updates the field...
   Current trace settings:

Restarting WebSphere Portal will remove traces that were set by using the Enable Tracing Administration portlet.

To disable tracing, do either of the following:

• Select the current trace settings under...
  Current trace settings:

  ...and click the Remove icon. By the example given above, the current setting can be...

  com.ibm.wps.command.credentialvault.*=finest

• Type the trace string *=info into the field...
  Append these trace settings:

  ...and click the Add icon.

  This trace string overwrites all settings listed under...

  Current trace settings:

  ...and resets it to the default.

Extended

Set trace for more than one session.

1. Access the admin console...
   http://hostname:port_number/ibm/console

2. For WAS v6.1...
   Servers > Application servers

3. For WAS v7...
   Servers | Server Types | WebSphere appservers

4. Select the appserver.

5. Click...
   Troubleshooting | Change Log Detail Levels

6. Specify the required trace settings.

   For example...

   com.ibm.wps.command.credentialvault.*=finest

7. Save your updates.

8. Restart WebSphere Portal.

9. To disable tracing, specify tracestring: *=info and restart WebSphere Portal.

Change the log file name and location

To change the locations of the log files...

Troubleshooting | Logs and Trace | server_name

...and select the logger type that you want to change.

In the configuration dialog change the path for the log file as required.

Change the language used in the log file

By default, information in the log file is written in the language used in portal installation.

To change the language used for the log file, edit log.properties in....

UNIX: profile_root/PortalServer/config/config

i5/OS: profile_root/PortalServer/config/config

Windows: profile_root\PortalServer\config\config

...and add the following line:

locale=xx

...where xx is the two-letter abbreviation for the locale.

For example, generate log information in English...

locale=en

Log file format

If the logs are written to the log file of WebSphere Portal and not redirected to the logging facility WAS, the log file consists of a sequence log records that are separated by blank lines.

The log records have the following format:

timestamp classification classname method threadID messagecode: logmessage

Where:

• timestamp is the time (to the millisecond) when the log record was created.

• classification is one of the following letters:

  E	error messages
  W	warning messages
  I	informational messages
  l	traces (low details)
  m	traces (medium details)
  h	traces (high details)

• classname is the Java class containing the code that triggered the log event.

• method is the name of the Java method containing the code that triggered the log event.

• messagecode is a unique identifier for this message, to uniquely identify the specific message and refer to it when consulting documentation or support.

  The message code is only available for error, warning, or informational messages, and not for traces. It consists of:

  • a four-character identifier for the component that defines the message.
  • a four-digit number identifying the message in the component.
  • a one-letter classification code, which can be E, W or I , as defined above.

• logmessage is the actual log message describing the logged event. Error, warning, and informational messages are translated into the system locale. Trace messages are not translated.

• threadID is the identification of the thread that triggered the log event.

1. Traces are written only if the specific tracing facility is enabled; all other messages are written unconditionally.

2. The system locale is part of the general internationalization features of WebSphere Portal and can be configured via LocalizerService.

The following is an example of a log record:

2003.05.16 13:36:14.449 W com.ibm.wps.services.datastore.DataStoreServiceImpl init 0000003a DSTO0063W: The transaction isolation level is not set to READ_COMMITTED.

The current value is TRANSACTION_REPEATABLE_READ.

See also:

Log and tracing
Set service configuration properties
Portal configuration services
WAS v6.1 Log and trace settings
WAS v7.0 Log and trace settings