Viewing and Configuring Diagnostic Log Files

Diagnostic log files can help you troubleshoot issues before and after they occur.

You can view diagnostic log files and configure settings that affect diagnostic log files and the information that they contain, as described in the following sections:

Using Fusion Middleware Control to View Log Information, Error Messages, and Alerts

You can search for and view the log entries for Oracle Business Intelligence components using Fusion Middleware Control Log Viewer.

The log files can be searched for log messages, and you can apply filters that can, for example, target a certain date range, user, user transaction, or level of message (error, warning, notification, and so on). You can also view log files in their entirety from the Fusion Middleware Control Log Viewer.

When log entries for error messages and warnings are generated across multiple log files, they can be difficult to trace. However, it is possible to view logging information for specific user transactions across multiple log files. Transaction level logging associates a unique transaction ID, which is called the Execution Context ID (ECID), with every log and error message that is generated in response to a user request. This logging enables rapid diagnosis of the cause of underlying issues. However, some messages in the log (for example system messages for server startup or shutdown) do not have a transactional attribute. All log messages that are related to client requests do have a transactional attribute.

Before you begin this procedure, ensure that you are familiar with the information in Using Fusion Middleware Control.

  1. Go to the Business Intelligence Overview page.
  2. Display the Log Messages tab of the Diagnostics page.

    Click the Help for this page menu option to access the page-level help for its elements.

  3. View lists of the following:

    • Recent errors under the Most Recent Errors region

    • Recent warnings under the Most Recent Warnings region

  4. Select a link under View Log Messages to display messages for all log files, or for the messages for the log files of a specified component:

    • Search the log files using the Log Viewer

    • Presentation Services Log

    • Server Log

    • Scheduler Log

    • JavaHost Log

    • Cluster Controller Log

    • Action Services Log

    • Security Services Log

    • Administrator Services Log

    Fusion Middleware Control displays messages in the Log Messages page that correspond to your selection.

  5. Enter appropriate search criteria to display corresponding error messages.

    To view messages by ECID, click View Related Messages and select the by ECID (Execution Context ID) menu option.

  6. Select one or more rows to view the log file entry details for the selected messages.

Configuring Log File Rotation Policy and Specifying Log Levels

You can configure criteria that determine when a new log file must be created, based on the size of the log file and the age of the log file.

You can also specify log levels to determine what level of message the log files contain.

This section contains the following topics:

Using Fusion Middleware Control to Configure Log File Rotation Policy and Specify Log Levels

Configuring log file rotation policies and log levels ensures that the log files remain manageable while retaining sufficient data.

Before you begin this procedure, ensure that you are familiar with the information in Using Fusion Middleware Control.

  1. Go to the Business Intelligence Overview page.
  2. Display the Log Configuration tab of the Diagnostics page.
  3. Click Lock and Edit to enable changes to be made.
  4. Complete the elements using the descriptions in the help topic for the page.

    For example, you can specify which log levels to use, and for some you can set their granularity.

    Click the Help for this page menu option to access the page-level help for the following options:

    Log Configuration

    • Maximum File Size option

    • Maximum Log Age option

    Query Logs

    • Maximum File Size option

    • Maximum Log Age option

    Default Log Level

    Component Specific Log Levels

  5. Click Apply, then click Activate Changes.
  6. Return to the Business Intelligence Overview page and click Restart.

Manually Changing Additional Log File Settings

In addition to the log file settings that you can change in Fusion Middleware Control, you can change other settings manually. Use various elements in the log configuration file for a component to change these settings.

  1. Open the component log configuration file located in:

    BI_DOMAIN/config/fmwconfig/biconfig/

    For information, see What Are Diagnostic Log Configuration Files and Where Are They Located?

  2. Locate the section in which you must add the Format element, which specifies the log file format. The default is ODL-TEXT.

    To use the Fusion Middleware Control Log Viewer to view and search through the log files for Oracle Business Intelligence, then the files must be in either ODL-Text or ODL-XML format.

  3. Include the element and its ancestor elements as appropriate, as shown in the following example: 
    <server>
   <ServerInstance>
      <Log>
         <Format>ODL-TEXT</Format>
      </Log>
   </ServerInstance>
</server>

    For an example of a JavaHost Server diagnostic log configuration file, see What Are Diagnostic Log Configuration Files and Where Are They Located? .

  4. Save your changes and close the file.
  5. Restart Oracle Business Intelligence.

Diagnosing Issues Using the Log Viewer

You can use the Log Viewer in Fusion Middleware Control to find messages that can assist you in resolving issues with the Oracle Business Intelligence system.

  1. Display Fusion Middleware Control.

  2. In the Navigator, select WebLogic Domain, right-click bi, and select Logs, then View Log Messages.

    The Log Messages page is displayed. The Log Viewer collects lines from all log files and displays them on this page. You can filter the lines to view the ones in which you are interested.

  3. To start filtering the list, enter search criteria to locate the messages in which you are interested:

    • If you know that an error occurred around a certain date, then set the Date Range to Time Interval. Select the start and end dates for filtering.

    • If the error happens continually, then set the Date Range to Most Recent. Select Days and specify a number such as 1 or 3.

    • For Message Types, select the following: Incident Error, Error, Warning, and Notification. If the number of messages that is returned is too large, then deselect Notification to see only errors and warnings.

      The advantage of selecting Notification is that you can see what the Oracle Business Intelligence system was doing, which can assist you in determining where something went wrong.

  4. To filter for the messages for Oracle Business Intelligence

    1. Click Add Fields, then select Module, and click Add.

    2. Ensure that Module is set to contains, then enter the following value:

      oracle.bi.management

      That value specifies the name of the Java package from which all log entries for systems management for Oracle Business Intelligence originate.

  5. Click Search.

    The page lists all log messages that meet the criteria, including the errors and warnings that lead up to the problem that you are diagnosing.

  6. To save a copy of the log messages, click Export Messages to File, then As Oracle Diagnostic Log Text (.txt) or other format appropriate to your needs.

As you view the log messages, you can see that the Message column explains what operations happened at what times. You can learn important information such as when servers were restarted or a configuration change occurred. You can use the values in the Log File column to learn which files were written to, which gives a clue as to what Oracle Business Intelligence was doing. For example, a value of nqserver.log indicates an interaction with the Oracle BI Server and a value of sawlog5.log indicates an interaction with Presentation Services.

You can view the log messages to see what might have contributed to a particular situation. For example, suppose that you make changes in Fusion Middleware Control to specify a different repository, but you cannot see the repository in Presentation Services. When you view the log messages, you find an error message that indicates that the computer that hosts the Managed Server and to which the new repository was copied has run out of memory. An earlier error message indicates that the Administration Server had reported the change to the repository and had tried to synchronize the change to the Managed Server.