Configuring and Using the WebLogic Diagnostics Framework

Configuring Diagnostic Archives

The Archive component of the WebLogic Diagnostic Framework (WLDF) captures and persists all data events, log records, and metrics collected by WLDF from a server instances and applications running on them. You can access archived diagnostic data in online mode (that is, on a running server). You can also access archived data in off-line mode using the WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST).

You can configure WLDF to archive diagnostic data to a file store or a Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) data source, as described in the following sections:

Configuring the Archive

You configure the diagnostic archive on a per-server basis.The configuration is persisted in the config.xml file for a domain, under the <server-diagnostic-config> element for the server. Example configurations for file-based stores and JDBC-based stores are shown in Listing 5-1 and Listing 5-3.

Configuring a File-Based Store

WLDF creates files containing the archived information. The only configuration option for a WLDF file-based archive is the directory where the file will be created and maintained. The default directory is the DOMAIN_NAME/servers/SERVER_NAME/data/store/diagnostics, where DOMAIN_NAME is the home directory for the domain, and SERVER_NAME is the home directory for the server instance.

When you save to a file-based store, WLDF uses the WebLogic Server persistent store. For more information, see Using the WebLogic Persistent Store in Configuring WebLogic Server Environments.

An example configuration for a file-based store is shown in Listing 5-1.

Listing 5-1 Sample Configuration for File-based Diagnostic Archive (in config.xml)

<domain>
  <!-- Other domain configuration elements -->
  <server>
    <name>myserver</name>
    <server-diagnostic-config>
      <diagnostic-store-dir>data/store/diagnostics</diagnostic-store-dir>
      <diagnostic-data-archive-type>FileStoreArchive
      </diagnostic-data-archive-type>
    </server-diagnostic-config>
  </server>
  <!-- Other server configurations in this domain -->
</domain>

Configuring a JDBC-Based Store

To use a JDBC store, the appropriate tables must exist in a database, and JDBC must be configured to connect to that database.

Creating WLDF Tables in the Database

If they do not already exist, you must create the database tables used by WLDF to store data in a JDBC-based store. Two tables are required:

The wls_events table stores data generated from WLDF Instrumentation events.
The wls_hvst table stores data generated from the WLDF Harvester component.

The SQL Data Definition Language (DDL) used to create tables may differ for different databases, depending on the SQL variation supported by the database. The following code listing shows the DDL that you can use to create WLDF tables in the PointBase database.

Listing 5-2 DDL Definition of the WLDF Tables for PointBase Database

-- DDL for creating wls_events table for instrumentation events

DROP TABLE wls_events;
CREATE TABLE wls_events (
  RECORDID INTEGER IDENTITY,
  TIMESTAMP NUMERIC default NULL,
  CONTEXTID varchar(128) default NULL,
  TXID varchar(32) default NULL,
  USERID varchar(32) default NULL,
  TYPE varchar(64) default NULL,
  DOMAIN varchar(64) default NULL,
  SERVER varchar(64) default NULL,
  SCOPE varchar(64) default NULL,
  MODULE varchar(64) default NULL,
  MONITOR varchar(64) default NULL,
  FILENAME varchar(64) default NULL,
  LINENUM INTEGER default NULL,
  CLASSNAME varchar(250) default NULL,
  METHODNAME varchar(64) default NULL,
  METHODDSC varchar(4000) default NULL,
  ARGUMENTS clob(100000) default NULL,
  RETVAL varchar(4000) default NULL,
  PAYLOAD blob(100000),
  CTXPAYLOAD VARCHAR(4000),
  DYES NUMERIC default NULL
);

-- DDL for creating wls_events table for instrumentation events

DROP TABLE wls_hvst;
CREATE TABLE wls_hvst (
  RECORDID INTEGER IDENTITY,
  TIMESTAMP NUMERIC default NULL,
  DOMAIN varchar(64) default NULL,
  SERVER varchar(64) default NULL,
  TYPE varchar(64) default NULL,
  NAME varchar(250) default NULL,
  ATTRNAME varchar(64) default NULL,
  ATTRTYPE INTEGER default NULL,
  ATTRVALUE VARCHAR(4000)
);

COMMIT;

Consult the documentation for your database or your database administrator for specific instructions for creating these tables for your database.

Configuring JDBC Resources for WLDF

After you create the tables in your database, you must configure JDBC to access the tables. (See Configuring and Managing WebLogic JDBC.) Then, as part of your server configuration, you specify that JDBC resource as the data store to be used for a server's archive.

An example configuration for a JDBC-based store is shown in Listing 5-3.

Listing 5-3 Sample configuration for JDBC-based Diagnostic Archive (in config.xml)

<domain>
  <!-- Other domain configuration elements -->
  <server>
    <name>myserver</name>
    <server-diagnostic-config>
      <diagnostic-data-archive-type>JDBCArchive
      </diagnostic-data-archive-type>
      <diagnostic-jdbc-resource>JDBCResource</diagnostic-jdbc-resource>
    <server-diagnostic-config>
  </server>
  <!-- Other server configurations in this domain -->
</domain>

If you specify a JDBC resource but it is configured incorrectly, or if the required tables do not exist in the database, WLDF uses the default file-based persistent store.