Logs for Deploy Jobs


This topic discusses the log files in which Deploy Job activities are logged.

Types of log files with information from Deploy Jobs

Deploy Jobs log activities in several different log files during the various phases of a Deploy Job. The following table provides a brief description of these logs in the context of Deploy Jobs.

Log type

Description

Job logs

Basic messages displayed within the GUI, in the TrueSight Server Automation Console.

Note

If you need to debug job execution, you can also generate job debug logs using the job property DEBUG_MODE_ENABLED, as described in Obtaining-job-diagnostics.

In addition to the log messages for the overall Deploy Job, you can also obtain details for the individual items within a BLPackage through the Deploy Job Results view in the TrueSight Server Automation Console. For more information see Item-wise-status-for-a-Windows-BLPackage-Deploy-Job.

Deploy logs

Each run of a Deploy Job creates a pair of log files on the target servers. These log files are created by the two main deployment executables, the bldeploy process and the bltargetjobmanager process. (For more information about these processes and the exit and error codes that they generate, see Deploy-Job-exit-and-error-codes.)

By default, the Deploy log files are stored in the /Transactions/log directory in the RSCD installation directory on the target servers. You can configure a different location for the Transactions directory on any specific target server using the TRANSACTION_DIR property.

For a description of the naming convention for these log files, see Naming convention for Deploy logs.

By default, the logging level for these files is set to DEBUG, due to the importance of the messages for troubleshooting deployment failures. You can control the logging level through the log4crc.txt file found in the RSCD installation directory.

The Simulate and Commit phases of a Deploy Job log most of their activities in these log files.


Deployment engine logs for Windows patching

NewLogs of every Windows patching deployment are available in STDeploy.log rolling file in RSCD\Transactions\shavlik\Logs directory. The information in the STDeploy.log is appended for various deployments. The rollover policy specified for this file is 5MBx2. Thus, the maximum number of log entries can be in two files (STDeploy.log and STDeploy.log.1, each of size 5MB). After that, the current STDeploy.log is rolled over to STDeploy.log.1 and the earlier STDeploy.log.1 is deleted automatically.

Application Server logs

An appserver.log file for each Application Server instance (that is, for each Application Server deployment) in the Application Server installation directory.

The Staging phase of a Deploy Job logs all its activities in the Application Server log files.

RSCD Agent log

JNI calls made by the Application Server through pre and post commands are logged in the rscd.log file in the RSCD installation directory on the target servers and the repeater server.

For more information about the various log files, see Overview-of-TrueSight-Server-Automation-log-files.

Debugging Deploy Job failures

When you encounter a failure in any of the phases of a Deploy Job, you can obtain debugging information from the various log files discussed above. The following table summarizes where to find debugging information for failures in each phase, in addition to the basic information provided on-screen in the job log.

Deploy Job phase
with failures

Deploy
logs

appserver
logs

rscd
log

Simulate

✅️

✅️

✅️

Staging

❌️

✅️

✅️

Commit

✅️

✅️

✅️

Pre or Post commands

❌️

✅️

✅️

Naming convention for Deploy logs

The Deploy Job logs have the following names:

  • For the bldeploy process: bldeploy-<UUID>.log
  • For the bltargetjobmanager process: bltargetjobmanager-<UUID>.log

Each pair of bltargetmanager and bldeploy log files share a single universally unique identifier (UUID). A new UUID is generated by the Deploy Job every time the job is run, one UUID per target server.

This UUID of a Deploy Job run on a specific target is logged in the job log, as shown in the following figure. You can use this log message to find the corresponding bldeploy and bltargetmanager log files on the target server. In this example, the names of the log files are bldeploy-a866ad823c2a3884b25cb8e12eb557e8.log and bltargetjobmanager-a866ad823c2a3884b25cb8e12eb557e8.log.

Note

For the message with the UUID to appear, ensure that the job logging level is set to All Information (as specified through the Job Options panel or tab during the creation or modification of a Deploy Job).

UUID.png


Packaging Deploy Job logs for Support

When you need to diagnose issues in the execution of Deploy Jobs and are preparing to contact BMC Customer Support, you can generate a zip package that contains the various log files that pertain to a Deploy Job run. For more information about this option, see Generating a log package for a job run.


 

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