The Administration Server log files record data about the server, including the types of errors encountered and information about server access. Viewing these logs allows you to monitor server activity and troubleshoot problems by providing data like the type of error encountered and the time certain files were accessed.
You can specify the type and format of the data recorded in the administration server logs using the Log Preferences page from the administration console. For instance, you can choose to log data about every client who accesses the administration server or you can omit certain clients from the log. In addition, you can choose the Common Log Format, which provides a fixed amount of information about the server, or you can create a custom log file format that better suits your requirements.
The log type can be broadly classified as:
Access Log — The access log records information about requests to and responses from the server.
Server Log — The Server Log lists all the errors the server has encountered since the log file was created. It also contains informational messages about the server, such as when the server was started and who tried unsuccessfully to log in to the server.
Viewing Server Logs.
wadm> get-log --user=admin --password-file=admin.passwd
--host=localhost --port=8989 --start-date=01/01/2006:09:00:00 --end-date=04/01/2006:10:00:00
--config=test cat.test.com
The above command will
display the Server Logs of a given configuration between the date 01/Jan/2006:09:00:00
and 04/Jan/2006:10:00:00
.
Viewing Access Logs.
wadm> get-access-log --user=admin --password-file=admin.passwd
--host=localhost --port=8989 --status-code=300 --config=test cat.test.com
The above command will display only those access log entries of a given configuration which have status code as 300.
In the above commands, the start-date and the end-date options should be in the in the format — dd/MM/yyyy:HH:mm:ss. The date format can also be customized. You could use a variable wadm_log_date_format in the rcfile to specify your own date format rather than using the default date format.
New — In Sun Java System Web Server Update 1, you can enable access log by executing the following command:
enable-access-log --user=admin --host=serverhost
--password-file=../admin.passwd --port=8989 --ssl=true --no-prompt --rcfile=null
--config=config1 --vs=vs --uri-pattern="*.html" --file=../logs/access.new
--log-ip=true--format="%Req->reqpb. protocol% %Req->headers.authorization%
%vsid% %Ses->client.dns%"
For enabling and editing log settings for a configuration, perform the following tasks:
Click Configuration tab
Select the configuration for which you will need to enable/edit log settings.
Click General Settings > Log Settings tab
The fields in the Access Log Preferences section are described in the following table:
Table 13–5 Field Description > Editing Access Log Preferences
The fields in the Server Log Preferences section are described in the following table:
Table 13–6 Field Description > Editing Server Log Preferences
Field |
Description |
Server Log Location |
The server path, where the Server Log files will be stored. The default value is ../logs/errors |
Log Verbosity Level |
This option provides you with an elegant way of setting log granularity. For testing and debugging web applications, the recommended level is finest. For production environment, the recommended log level is failure or security. catastrophe log level will log very few details. |
Log Virtual Server Name |
If this option is selected, along with the errors, the name of the virtual server processing the request is also logged. |
Log to System Log |
Log all messages to the system log. |
Log to console |
If this option is selected, exceptions arising from deployed web applications are logged, if they are written to console. This option is enabled by default. |
Date Format |
The time format, which will be used to append time stamps to the error messages. The default value is [%d/%b/%Y:%H:%M:%S] |
You can set up your log files to be automatically archived. At a certain time, or after a specified interval, the server rotates your access logs. The server saves the old log files and marks the saved file with a name that includes the date and time they were saved.
For example, you can set up your files to rotate every hour, and the server saves and names the file “access.199907.0152400,” where “name|year|month|day|24-hour time” is concatenated together into a single character string. The exact format of the access log archive file varies depending upon which type of log rotation you set up.
Access log rotation is initialized at server startup. If rotation is turned on, the server creates a time-stamped access log file and rotation starts at server startup.
Once the rotation starts, the server creates a new time stamped access log file when there is a request that needs to be logged to the access log file and it occurs after the previously-scheduled “next rotate time.”
You can create a schedule for error/access log rotation for the configured instances by using the log rotation option. For setting up log rotation, perform the following steps:
Click Configuration tab
Select the configuration for which you need to enable/edit log settings.
Click General Settings > Log Settings tab
Click New button under Log Archiving Section
The fields in the new log rotation page is described in the following section:
Table 13–7 Field Description > Setting Log Rotation
Field |
Description |
---|---|
Event |
Access Log Rotation / Server Log Rotation. Select any or both of these options to configure rotation for that log type. |
Time |
The configured time when the event will start. Select the hour and minutes value from the drop down box. Every Day — Starts the event specified every day at the specified time. Specific Days — Starts the event specified at specific days. 1. Days — Specify any day from Sunday to Saturday. 2. Dates — Specify any day of the month from 1 to 31 as comma separated entries. E.g. 4,23,9 Specific Months — Starts the event specified at the specific time and month. Specify month from January to December. |
Interval |
Start the specified event after this time period. 1. Every Hours — Select the number of hours from the drop down box. 2. Every Seconds — Select the number of seconds from the drop down box. |
If you need to delete the scheduled log rotation, Click Delete button in the Log Archiving section.