Understanding the log files

The log files capture information in chronological order. The log file name matches the name of the component installer. By default, logging levels are set to WARN and the samples in this section describes the WARN logging level. For more information about the different logging levels, see Logging levels on grid.log file.

BMC Atrium Orchestrator creates several different types of logs:

• Installation logs
• grid.log
• Tomcat logs
• Configuration file logs

Installation logs

During the installation process, installation log files are created in the target computer's temporary directory.

• If the installation is successful, the installation program copies the installation logs to the installation target folder.
• If the installation is not successful, the installation log file stays in the temporary directory.

Installation log files for each component are created during the installation process and are an invaluable resource for troubleshooting installation problems.

The following figure shows an example of the BAO_install_log.txt file that was created during an installation on a Windows computer.

Sample BAO_install_log.txt file

Log message format

The installation log files contain the following primary types of log messages:
LOG EVENT, PROGRESS EVENT, THROWABLE EVENT, and Summary section.
The property FAILED_INSTALL_FEATURES lists features that failed during installation and provides a reason for the failure. The general format of all the log messages is:

<timeOfEvent>,<severityOfEvent>,<sourceOfEvent>,<eventMessageContent>

The text start of eventMessageContent indicates the type of message.
Log file messages have the following severity levels: SEVERE, WARNING, INFO, CONFIG, FINE, FINER, FINEST. When you view the installation log file in the file view, the SEVERE level are displayed in red and WARNING log level are displayed in yellow. The following example shows a LOG EVENT message that occurred at 1:10:28 AM with a severity level of CONFIG from the InstallationTaskAction source class.

(Jul 17 2008 01:10:28 AM
\-0500),CONFIG,com.bmc.install.builder.installanywhere.InstallationTaskAction,LOG
EVENT{Description=\[CREATED
InstallationTask\],Detail=[com.bmc.install.product.arsuitekit.ARSuiteKitProjectInitializationInstallationTask\]

Types of installation log messages

The following table describes the types of message in the installation logs.

Installation log message types

grid.log

The grid.log is the most important log file that BMC Atrium Orchestrator generates.

The grid.log file constantly receives information and can became large. After the file reaches 4 MB the file is archived to a sequentially numbered file, grid.log.#, where # is a single digit from 1 to 9, and BMC Atrium Orchestrator creates a new grid.log. The rolled over file, grid.log.#, no longer receives logging information. Over time, you will see many grid.log.# files in the
[conbaosys:AO_HOME]/tomcat/logs directory.

Logging levels for the grid.log file

The log files record information in chronological order. They include information according to the logging level that you set. To change logging levels for the grid.log file, use the Manage > Peers tab. You can set a different logging level for each peer.
The following table describes the information provided at each logging level.

Tomcat logs

Tomcat logging is useful when troubleshooting issues such as the container failing to start, a web application failing to start, or if the server stops responding unexpectedly. Information about the failure might be logged in the catalina or the localhost logs. Tomcat is a servlet container. By default, a Tomcat server is installed in the
[conbaosys:PEER_HOME]/tomcat directory. Tomcat logs are recorded in the directory
[conbaosys:PEER_HOME]/tomcat/logs. The PEER_HOME directory is the AO_HOME directory on the computer where the peer is installed.

Tomcat logs include:

• admin.date.log
• catalina.date.log or catalina.out
• host-manager.date.log
• localhost.date.log
• manager.date.log

catalina log

The catalina log contains log messages about actions by the container, actions on startup and shutdown, and any actions taken to load a web application. The following example shows a catalina log message for a failure to start a web application.

SEVERE: Error initializing endpoint
java.net.BindException: Address already in use<null>:8080

Web contexts are used to identify the BMC Atrium Orchestrator applications in the catalina log files. You will not see terms like CDP, activity peer, or Grid Manager. During installation, you can specify alternate names for the web context, which are reflected in the catalina log. The default web context names are:

• baocdp for a configuration distribution peer (CDP)
• baoap for an activity peer (AP)
• baolap for a lightweight activity peer (LAP)
• baoam for BMC Atrium Orchestrator Access Manager
• baoocp for BMC Atrium Orchestrator Operator Control Panel
• baograph for the graphing server component

localhost logs

The localhost logs are used to troubleshoot startup and shutdown errors. The localhost logs appear in the same directory as catalina logs. By default, the localhost logs are logged with a date in the file name; for example: localhost.2008-12-12.log.

Logging configuration files

BMC Atrium Orchestrator uses the log4j logging framework. You can review the logging properties for the components in these files.

The following table shows where you can find the logging configuration files for each component. For server components, the log paths in the table are relative to
[conbaosys:TOMCAT_HOME] and assume that the default context name is used. The path is
[conbaosys:TOMCAT_HOME]
[conbaosys:AO_HOME]/tomcat.