WebSphere Log Files /Logging performance data

Plug-In Logs
WebServer http Plugin will create log, by default named as http-plugin.log, placed under PLUGIN_HOME/logs/
Plugin writes Error messages into this log. The attribute which deals with this is
< Log > in the plugin-cfg.xml
For Example
< Log LogLevel=”Error” Name=”/opt/IBM/WebSphere/Plugins/logs/http_plugin.log” / >

To Enable Tracing set Log LogLevel to “Trace”.
< Log LogLevel=”Trace” Name=”/opt/IBM/WebSphere/Plugins/logs/http_plugin.log” / >

JVM logs
$ find /opt/IBM/WebSphere/ -name SystemOut.log -print
/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/%Profile%/Node/logs/member1/SystemOut.log
/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/%Profile%/Node/logs/member2/SystemOut.log
/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/%Profile%/Node/logs/nodeagent/SystemOut.log
/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/%Profile%/Dmgr/logs/Dmgr/SystemOut.log

NodeAgent Process Log
/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/%Profile%/Node/logs/nodeagent/native_stdout.log
/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/%Profile%/Node/logs/nodeagent/native_stderr.log

IBM service logs – activity.log
/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/%Profile%/Node/logs/activity.log
/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/%Profile%/Dmgr/logs/activity.log

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Enabling automated heap dump generation, DONT DO THIS IN PRODUCTION

1. Click Servers > Application servers in the administrative console navigation tree.
2. Click server_name >Performance and Diagnostic Advisor Configuration.
3. Click the Runtime tab.
4. Select the Enable automatic heap dump collection check box.
5. Click OK

Locating and analyzing heap dumps
Goto profile_root\myProfile. IBM heap dump files are usually named as heapdump*.phd

Download and use tools like heapAnalyzer, dumpanalyzer

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Logging performance data with TPV(Tivoli Performance Viewer)

• 1. Click Monitoring and Tuning > Performance Viewer > Current Activity > server_name > Settings > Log in the console navigation tree. To see the Log link on the Tivoli Performance Viewer page, expand the Settings node of the TPV navigation tree on the left side of the page. After clicking Log, the TPV log settings are displayed on the right side of the page.
  2. Click on Start Logging when viewing summary reports or performance modules.
  3. When finished, click Stop Logging . Once started, logging stops when the logging duration expires, Stop Logging is clicked, or the file size and number limits are reached. To adjust the settings, see step 1.
  By default, the log files are stored in the profile_root/logs/tpv directory on the node on which the server is running. TPV automatically compresses the log file when it finishes writing to it to conserve space. At this point, there must only be a single log file in each .zip file and it must have the same name as the .zip file.
• View logs.
  1. Click Monitoring and Tuning > Performance Viewer > View Logs in the console navigation tree.
  2. Select a log file to view using either of the following options:

     Explicit Path to Log File

     Choose a log file from the machine on which the browser is currently running. Use this option if you have created a log file and transferred it to your system. Click Browse to open a file browser on the local machine and select the log file to upload.

     Server File

     Specify the path of a log file on the server.In a stand-alone application server environment, type in the path to the log file. The profile_root\logs\tpv directory is the default on a Windows system.

  3. Click View Log. The log is displayed with log control buttons at the top of the view.
  4. Adjust the log view as needed. Buttons available for log view adjustment are described below. By default, the data replays at the Refresh Rate specified in the user settings. You can choose one of the Fast Forward modes to play data at rate faster than the refresh rate.

     Rewind	Returns to the beginning of the log file.
     Stop	Stops the log at its current location.
     Play	Begins playing the log from its current location.
     Fast Forward	Loads the next data point every three (3) seconds.
     Fast Forward 2	Loads ten data points every three (3) seconds.

  You can view multiple logs at a time. After a log has been loaded, return to the View Logs panel to see a list of available logs. At this point, you can load another log.
  TPV automatically compresses the log file when finishes writing it. The log does not need to be decompressed before viewing it, though TPV can view logs that have been decompressed.

JVM Logs

The JVM Logs are the SystemOut.log and SystemErr.log files stored in each App Server, Node agent, and Deployment Manager profile. They contain messages sent to the Java System.out and System.err streams.

Location:

/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/AppSrv01/logs/server1/SystemOut.log

/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/AppSrv01/logs/nodeagent/SystemOut.log

Where:

• AppSrv01 is the App Server profile name.
• server1 is the actual server name.
• nodeagent is the actual node agent name for that profile.

Example event:

[2/17/12 13:52:00:440 PST] 00000057 CoordinatorCo W   HMGR0152W: CPU Starvation detected. Current thread scheduling delay is 10 seconds.

Time stamp, ThreadId, Message shortname, EventType, MessageId: Message

Native (Process) Logs

The native_stdout.log or native_stderr.log files are stored in each App Server, Node agent, and Deployment Manager profile. They contain messages sent to stdout and stderr from native code including the JVM.

File location: /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/AppSrv01/logs/server1/native_stdout.log

/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/AppSrv01/logs/nodeagent/native_stderr.log

where:

• AppSrv01 is the App Server profile name.
• server1 is the actual server name.
• nodeagent is the actual node agent name for that profile.

Other server specific log files

All log files stored as part of a profile in individual server directories have a similar structure to the JVM logs. An example of this is startServer.log.These files contain information about specific activities such as starting and stopping servers, adding nodes and so on.

wsadmin.traceout

These files contain data for each wsadmin session and the content of the files is refreshed each time a new wsadmin session is created. They are stored in the Profile's log directory (Structure is similar to the JVM logs)

Dmgr01 is the Deployment Manager's profile name.

/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/Dmgr01/logs/wsadmin.traceout 

FFDC logs

First Fail Data Capture logs contain information generated from a processing failure. The files are stored in the ffdc directory under the Profile's log directory.

Dmgr01 is the Deployment Manager's profile name.

/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/Dmgr01/logs/ffdc/dmgr_cd30cd3_12.02.09_23.17.18.1876809.txt

Optional files

If you are a sophisticated Splunk user you can customize the Splunk App for WAS and create views and dashboards to look at the data in the files listed below. You can search and index these files using Splunk and do some basic field extractions on them. There are no out-of-the-box views that display this data.

Filename	Location
javacore*.txt	/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/Dmgr01/javacore*.txt
activity.log	/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/AppSrv01/logs/activity.log
Server Exception log	/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/Dmgr01/logs/ffdc/dmgr_exception.log
App logs	stored in the Profile's Log folders