Examining Installation Log Files (Sun Java Enterprise System 5 Update 1 Installation Guide for UNIX)

Sun Java Enterprise System 5 Update 1 Installation Guide for UNIX

Examining Installation Log Files

If a problem occurs during installation or uninstallation, the first place to look for information on what happened is the installation logs. Informational, warning, and error messages are issued after such operations as user choices, package manipulations, and installation or uninstallation steps. Messages on installation, uninstallation, and install-time configuration are gathered into the source log files. Information that is displayed for each message includes date and time, log level, module ID, and the message text. Passwords are never included.

Log File Formats

There are four types of log files that capture installation or uninstallation information:

A summary provides a high-level description of what was installed and configured.
A detail version A file contains completion information.
A detail version B file contains more details on the log messages.
A debug file contains information that is relevant when installation fails. Use the debug file when one of the other log files indicates an error.

The log messages are stored in a Sun standard format called Unified Logging Format (ULF). If you find ULF difficult to read, you can use the Java ES Log Viewer to view the log messages.

Source log files can be edited with a text editor. The following table lists the formats of the source log files.

Table 9–1 Log File Formats


Logged Entity	Log File Name Format
Installer	`Java_Enterprise_System_5_install.A`timestamp
	`Java_Enterprise_System_5_install.B`timestamp
	`JavaES_Install_log.`timestamp
	`Java_Enterprise_System_5_Summary_Report_install.`timestamp
Uninstaller	`Java_Enterprise_System_5_uninstall.A`timestamp
	`Java_Enterprise_System_5_uninstall.B`timestamp
	`JavaES_UnInstall_log.`timestamp
	`Java_Enterprise_System_5_Summary_Report_uninstall.`timestamp

After an uninstallation, the uninstaller removes the installer, the Log Viewer , and itself. However, source log files are not removed and are stored in the following locations:

Solaris: /var/sadm/install/logs
Linux: /var/opt/sun/install/logs

To Use Log Files for Troubleshooting

Examine the summary file. For example:

Java_Enterprise_System5_Summary_Report_install.timestamp

If a problem occurred, determine which component caused the problem. Determine if multiple problems occurred. You will probably need to look at one or both of the detail logs.

Examine the detail log. For example:

JavaES_Install_logtimestamp

Look for the first error or warning that occurred and resolve it. Sometimes resolving one error resolves a number of seemingly unrelated errors that follow.