Enabling IDDA Logging

This section provides an overview of how to enable IDDA logging and discusses how to work with and view log results.

System administrators typically use numerous monitoring and logging utilities to diagnose system issues and internet applications. Such logging utilities include:

  • TCPMON

  • ieHttpHeaders

  • Access log

  • Heap dump

  • Thread dump

All of these utilities provide different information, but each helps an administrator gain insight and detailed information related to specific system behavior. PeopleSoft provides a variety of logging and tracing mechanisms as well, enabling you to gather vital information at various levels of the architecture, including database server, application server, web server, and so on.

The PeopleSoft Instrumented Development Diagnostic Aid (IDDA) logger, enables you to gather specific information about various areas within the PeopleSoft Internet Architecture and PeopleSoft Interaction Hub, including:

  • PeopleSoft Internet Architecture processing.

  • Integration Broker.

  • Reporting, Report Repository.

  • Portal.

  • Caching.

  • File processing.

  • Security, authentication.

  • Performance Monitor.

  • WSRP.

  • Jolt.

Typically, administrators only run IDDA traces when instructed to do so by Oracle support contacts, looking for specific information. However, it can also be a useful troubleshooting tool.

Note: When ever tracing or logging is enabled, you should always expect a certain degree of performance degradation as the system incorporates the overhead involved with logging. Disable logging when you finish troubleshooting.

To enable IDDA logging:

  1. Select PeopleTools > Web Profile > Web Profile Configuration, and open the current web profile.

  2. Select the Custom Properties page.

  3. Add a new row, and enter these values:

    Column

    Value

    Property Name

    IDDA

    Validation Type

    Number

    Property Value

    The sum of the bit values of the functional area(s) you want to log.

    For example, if you wanted to log PIA (1) and Portal (8), you enter 9.

  4. Click Save.

  5. Restart the PeopleSoft site.

The IDDA logger, gathers information for a wide range of technology within the PeopleSoft Internet Architecture. Depending on the needs of your troubleshooting, you can select different areas to log.

The different areas of technology are referred to as functional categories in the context of the IDDA logger. Each functional category is assigned a bit value (in a 32-bit space). When you enable IDDA logging, you enter specific bit values or the sum of the bit values of different areas.

The IDDA functional categories are:

Bit Value

Functional Category

1

PeopleSoft Internet Architecture

2

Integration Broker

4

Report repository

8

Portal

16

Web server caching

32

File processing (attachments)

64

Authentication

128

Performance Monitor

256

Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP)

512

Jolt

The type of information included in the log message differs per category. The log message is free format and can display any information that helps troubleshooting for that particular area, such as error codes, exception messages, and so on.

Once you’ve enabled IDDA logging, you can modify configuration options in the logging.properties file, which you can find in this location:

PS_HOME/webserv/domain name/applications/peoplesoft

The relevant configuration properties are:

Property

Description

.level

Sets the global logging level.

  • OFF: Disables all IDDA logging.

  • SEVERE: Displays server issues, such as premature termination and failure.

  • WARNING: Displays less severe issues, such as configuration issues.

  • INFO: Displays basic operational information, such as starting and stopping.

  • FINE, FINER, FINEST: Displays internal non-critical informational messages.

  • ALL: Enables all logging levels.

Default value is INFO.

WARNING and SEVERE messages are always logged, unless IDDA logging is set to OFF.

INFO or FINE, FINER, FINEST messages are only logged if the IDDA value is greater than zero.

java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern

Sets the naming style for the log file and the output directory location.

Default value is: ./servers/PIA/logs/PIA_servlets%u.log

If you are running a multi-server, distributed environment (for clustering and failover purposes), the default value for java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern is not applicable. You must set this property to point to a valid location in order to collect logging messages for a particular server.

Logging output is tab-delimited.

java.util.logging.FileHandler.limit

Limits the size of the output file in bytes. When set to 0, there is no size limit.

Default value is 0.

java.util.logging.FileHandler.count

Sets the total number of log files. Default value is 5.

If the value is greater than 1, the system writes to a rotating set of log files. When the file reaches a given size limit or the web server restarts, the system ends writing to the current file and begins writing to a new file. The system names each file in the sequence it is saved by adding "0", "1", "2", (and so on) into the base filename.

The output log files contain:

  • Machine header information

  • Log message information

Working with Machine Header Information

Each log file displays the following machine environment information at the top of each log file.

Header Entry

Description

Timestamp

Date, time, time zone.

PeopleTools Release

PeopleTools version number.

os.name

Operating system.

os.version

Operating system version.

os.arch

Operating system architecture (such as x86 for Windows servers).

java.version

Java version number.

java.vendor

Java vendor.

java.vm.info

Mode of the Java virtual machine (JVM), such as "compiled mode."

java.home

Java installation directory.

user.dir

The value of the user.dir property.

java.class.path

CLASSPATH setting on the server.

.level

Logging level, such as INFO, SEVERE, WARNING, and so on.

java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern

Logging output directory and file naming convention.

Trace

Current IDDA functional group(s) being logged (integer reflecting the sum of the bit values assigned to each group).

Working with Log Message Information

Each entry in the log file contains this information.

Log Message Data

Description

Timestamp

Date, Time and Time zone. For example, 2/7/09 4:00:39 PM PST

Sequence

Tracks the sequential order of the messages. Starting at 1, the system increments by 1 per each log message.

Thread ID

Java thread ID.

Logging group

Bit value representing the functional grouping, as in 1 for PeopleSoft Internet Architecture.

SRID

A base64 encoded field uniquely associating a user session and it’s service request in the PeopleSoft generated OLTP log files. For example, 17F2TbFWJw69UXCzfobVhZ.

TOP Instance ID

Top correlation attribute in PPM’s PMU Tree. It is a 64-bit integer. For example, 455266533594.

For more information on PMU Tree, see Viewing Open PMU Trees.

Operator ID

PeopleSoft user ID.

Source class

Class name of where the message is logged. For example,

psft.pt8.auth.PSAuthenticator

Source method

Method name of where the message is logged. For example,

SetCookie

Log message

The actual log message.

Viewing Log Contents

The log file is a tab-delimited text file and can be opened in any standard text editor, such as Notepad or Textpad. Because the output is tab-delimited, you can also use a spreadsheet application, such as Microsoft Excel, for more efficient analysis. For example, viewing the output within a spreadsheet enables you to apply filters to columns and only view specific log messages, which can be helpful with large files.