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System event logging


Message logging

Messages for WebSphere Portal are logged in the following files:

    SystemOut.log
    Monitor the health of the WebSphere Portal server and all running processes.

    System.err
    Exception stack trace information.

Log files for WebSphere Portal, including SystemOut.log and System.err are in

    WP_PROFILE/logs/WebSphere_Portal


Set traces for a session

  1. Log in as the administrator and go to...

      Administration | Portal Analysis | Enable Tracing

  2. Type the required trace string into the field "Append these trace settings". For example...

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

  3. Click the Add icon.

Restarting WebSphere Portal removes these temporary traces. To remove without restarting portal, 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.


Set traces for more than one session.

  1. Access the WAS console...

      http://hostname:port/ibm/console

    ...and go to...

      Servers | Server Types | WebSphere application servers | application_server | Troubleshooting | Change Log Detail Levels

  2. Specify the required trace settings. For example, this setting can be...

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

  3. Save the updates.

  4. Restart the WebSphere_Portal server.

  5. To disable tracing, specify tracestring: *=info and restart the WebSphere_Portal server.


Change the log file name and location

We can change the locations of the log files by configuring them in the WAS console...

    Troubleshooting | Logs and Trace | server_name | logger_type

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 that was used for the WebSphere Portal installation. However, because WebSphere Portal supports a number of languages, we can choose to have the log file information that is written in a language other than that language used during installation.

To change the language used for the log file, edit the file log.properties. This file is in the following WebSphere Portal directory:

    WP_PROFILE/PortalServer/config/config

Add the following line:

    locale=xx

Where xx is the two-letter abbreviation for the locale. For a list of the locale abbreviations used with WebSphere Portal, refer to the topic about Directory structure and go to the section about Directories for languages. For example, to have log information generated in English, we would add the following line:

    locale=en


Reference: Log file format

If the logs are written to the log file of WebSphere Portal and not redirected to the logging facility WebSphere Application Server, 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:

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

  • The classification is one of the following letters:

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

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

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

  • The messagecode is a unique identifier for this message, to uniquely identify the specific message and refer to it when we are 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 that identifies the message in the component.
    • A one-letter classification code, which can be E, W, or I.

  • The 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.

  • The 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 globalization features of WebSphere Portal and can be configured using LocalizerService.

Here is an example of a log record:

    2011.05.16 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.


Parent Logging and tracing

Related tasks:
Start and stop servers, deployment managers, and node agents
Set service configuration properties
Portal service configuration
Localizer Service
Directory structure
WebSphere Application Server 8.5.:Log and trace settings