Installation and Upgrade Guide

Configuring the Logging Utilities

This chapter discusses how to configure and launch the Logging Utilities.

Logging Spy

To launch Logging Spy in Windows, click Start | All Programs | BEA | ALI Logging Utilities | Logging Spy. Or, from the command line, <install folder>\ptlogging\6.1\bin\ptspy.exe

To launch Logging Spy in UNIX or Linux, <install folder>/ptlogging/6.1/bin/ptspy.sh

For details on configuring Logging Spy, see the online help provided with the utility.

Logger

In Windows, Logger is a Windows service. Start and stop the service by clicking Start | All Programs | BEA | ALI Logging Utilities | Logger Start and Logger Stop.

In UNIX and Linux, Logger is a daemon. Start and stop the daemon using the shell script
<install folder>/ptlogging/6.1/bin/ptlogger.sh

The log files produced by the Logger are located in the following folder:

The primary use of the Logger is to save log messages to a disk file, but it can also be used in other ways, such as sending log messages to an e-mail system. This can be done by modifying the ptLogger.xml configuration file and adding Log4J appender elements as explained below.

The ptLogger.xml configuration file (<install directory>/settings/ptlogging/ptLogger.xml) specifies which servers the logger should receive messages from, and which Log4J appenders should be used for the log messages from each server. Each server can be associated with one or more appenders. You can also specify that only messages at certain logging levels should be sent to an appender.

The specification for the ptLogger.xml file is as follows.

The root level xml node must be <configuration>. Under <configuration> there are two types of nodes: <appender> and <filters>. There may be zero or more of any of these nodes and they may appear in any order. The syntax and semantics of each node is defined below.

An <appender> node defines the settings for a specific Log4J appender, and must follow the format specified in the Log4J specification, as shown in the example below.

<appender class=”org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender” name=”CollabRollingLogFile”>

     <layout class=”com.plumtree.openlog.log4jbridge.MyPatternLayout” /> 

     <!-- The output file name --> 

<param name=”File” valued:/collab.log” /> 

     <!-- The maximum size of each file --> 

<param name=”MaxFileSize” value=”10MB” /> 

     <!-- The maximum number of files to keep around --> 

<param name=”MaxBackupIndex” value=”1” /> 

</appender> 

A <filters> node is used to specify a log message sender from which the Logger should receive messages and an appender to which messages should be channeled. It specifies which logging levels are enabled for the given appender, for each component in the sending application. Here are two examples of <filters> nodes.

<filters appender=”CollabRollingLogFile” server=”collab.Foo-w2k.BarryF”> 

	<component-defaults> 

		<level enabled=”false” value=”Debug” /> 
		<level enabled=”false” value=”Info” /> 
		<level enabled=”false” value=”Warning” /> 
		<level enabled=”true” value=”Error” /> 
		<level enabled=”true” value=”Fatal” /> 
		<level enabled=”false” value=”Action” /> 
		<level enabled=”false” value=”Performance” /> 
		<level enabled=”false” value=”Function” />

	</component-defaults> 

	<component name=”Documents”> 

		<level enabled=”false” value=”Debug” /> 
		<level enabled=”true” value=”Info” /> 
		<level enabled=”true” value=”Warning” /> 
		<level enabled=”true” value=”Error” /> 
		<level enabled=”true” value=”Fatal” /> 
		<level enabled=”true” value=”Action” /> 
		<level enabled=”false” value=”Performance” /> 
		<level enabled=”false” value=”Function” /> 

	</component>

</filters>

<filters appender=”EmailAppender” server=”collab.Foo-w2k.BarryF” enabled=”true” > 

	<component name=”Documents”> 

		<level enabled=”false” value=”Debug” /> 
		<level enabled=”false” value=”Info” /> 
		<level enabled=”false” value=”Warning” /> 
		<level enabled=”true” value=”Error” /> 
		<level enabled=”true” value=”Fatal” /> 
<level enabled=”false” value=”Action” /> 
<level enabled=”false” value=”Performance” /> 
<level enabled=”false” value=”Function” /> 

</component>

</filters> 

Here is a detailed explanation of the syntax and semantics of a <filters> node:

Console Logger

To start the Console Logger in Windows, execute
<install folder>\ptlogging\6.1\bin\consolelogger.bat

To start the Console Logger in UNIX or Linux, execute
<install folder>/ptlogging/6.1/bin/consolelogger.sh

The Console Logger uses an XML configuration file called consolelogger.xml. The format for consolelogger.xml is identical to that of ptLogger.xml (see Logger). The Console Logger ships with one <appender> node in consolelogger.xml:

<appender class=”org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender” name=”Console”>

	<layout class=”com.plumtree.openlog.log4jbridge.MyPatternLayout” />

</appender> 

This node uses the Log4J Console Appender which, as the name implies, sends log messages to the console. It is possible to add additional <appender> nodes to consolelogger.xml as with ptLogger.xml, but this approach is uncommon.