Analyzing Reconciliation job logs

The Reconciliation Engine logs errors that can help you to analyze, interpret, and troubleshoot reconciliation issues.

To analyze Reconciliation job log files

The following steps outline the general process of analyzing Reconciliation job logs:

1. Open the first job log in a text editor.
2. Disable line wrap, so you can see the activity more clearly by scrolling to the right in the log.
3. To find a particular Configuration Item (CI) in the log, search for its instanceid or ReconciliationIdentity value.
4. If the Reconciliation job run generated multiple logs, search in each of the log files.
5. When you identify the particular CI, note the value of the thread ID (TID) on that line.
6. Search up and down in the file for lines with that TID to view the processing of that CI.
7. If the particular CI is not found, search for the class of the CI to see how or if the class was processed.

To debug Reconciliation Engine errors by using the log file

1. Search for the entry in the Reconciliation Engine log file that contains [ERROR] in its description.
2. Note the thread ID (TID) specified in this error entry.
3. Trace back to the beginning of the log file while looking for more entries with the specific TID.
   You will find several entries for the specific TID. Each entry reports the task that the Reconciliation Engine performs at each stage.

Examples of entries in the log file

The Reconciliation job log is a multi-threaded program with all threads writing to the same log file. The log files are divided by activity names. Each of these activities has a start or run entry, indicating the start of the activity, and an end or completed entry indicating the end of the activity. The following examples illustrate both these entries:

Example 1: Starting an activity

[Tues Apr 24 2007 12:10.08.4748] [INFO] [TID: 000011]: Running activity: BMC Topology Import - Identification Activity

Example 2: Ending an activity

[Tues Apr 24 2007 12:10.08.4748] [INFO] [TID: 000011]: Activity completed: BMC Topology Import - Identification Activity

Each entry contains a thread ID (TID) that identifies a unique activity. If multiple instances need to be identified, the Reconciliation job creates separate threads for each instance identification. Therefore, the log file contains mixed entries for various threads instead of having one section for each thread.

The following code is an example of a Reconciliation job log file:

[2007/03/30 10:35:36.1370] [DETAILS] [TID: 003720] : Started waiting for all the threads to finish
[2007/03/30 10:35:39.7710] [DETAILS] [TID: 002696] : Started identifying instance <class = QA_Patch2_No_Ident_Multi_Match: Patch2_1Class_No_Ident_Multi_Match, id = ID00087492D05D8nFOQw8SSKBAawAA>
[2007/03/30 10:35:39.7710] [ TRACE ] [TID: 002696] : Found matching rule group <Patch002-Identify D2 against D1> for class <QA_Patch2_No_Ident_Multi_Match:Patch2_1Class_No_Ident_Multi_Match > in dataset <Data Set 02>
[2007/03/30 10:35:39.7710] [ TRACE ] [TID: 002696] : Applying rule <'Character_Field' = $Character_Field$> and looking in dataset <Data Set 01>
[2007/03/30 10:35:39.7710] [DETAILS] [TID: 002696] : Substituting values in the qualification
[2007/03/30 10:35:39.7710] [DETAILS] [TID: 002696] : Replaced field <id = 536870999 and name = Character_Field> with value <All Match Error During Identification - Recon ID (Below) should remain 0>
[2007/03/30 10:35:39.7810] [ ERROR ] [TID: 002696] : Found multiple matches (instances) for class <QA_Patch2_No_Ident_Multi_Match:Patch2_1Class_No_Ident_Multi_Match > in look-up dataset <Data Set 01>
[2007/03/30 10:35:39.7810] [ ERROR ] [TID: 002696] : for qualification <'Character_Field' = <Character_Field$> of group <Patch002-Identify D2 against D1> with values
[2007/03/30 10:35:39.7810] [ ERROR ] [TID: 002696] : <Character_Field = All Match Error During Identification - Recon ID (Below) should remain 0 >
[2007/03/30 10:35:40.1310] [ INFO ] [TID: 002696] : Processed instance without finding a match for instance <ID00087492D05D8nFOQw8SSKBAawAA> for class <QA_Patch2_No_Ident_Multi_Match:Patch2_1Class_No_Ident_Multi_Match > in dataset
[2007/03/30 10:35:40.1310] [ ERROR ] [TID: 002696] : Cannot identify the instance of class <QA_Patch2_No_Ident_Multi_Match:Patch2_1Class_No_Ident_Multi_Match > with instance id <ID00087492D05D8nFOQw8SSKBAawAA> in dataset <Data Set 02>
[2007/03/30 10:35:40.1310] [ INFO ] [TID: 002696] : Cancelled the processing of rest of the sub-tree for instance of class = QA_Patch2_No_Ident_Multi_Match:Patch2_1Class_No_Ident_Multi_Match and instance id = ID00087492D05D8nFOQw8SSKBAawAA
[2007/03/30 10:35:40.6720] [DETAILS] [TID: 003720] : Finished waiting

In this example, the Identification Rule looks for a match based on the value of the Character_Field attribute. An error is generated for this job because the Reconciliation Engine finds multiple matches in the lookup dataset against which the CI is to be identified. As a result of the error, the Configuration Item (CI) in the source dataset is not identified and the Reconciliation ID remains 0.

Related topics

Configuring core CMDB components and plug-ins

Reconciliation Engine configuration settings

Contents of the logs

Changing log settings for core CMDB components