Basic mode

The default mode, is the existing log and trace framework from prior releases of WebSphere Application Server.

High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) mode

This is a new log and trace framework. HPEL mode must be explicitly enabled. After HPEL mode is enabled, the JVM logs (typically SystemOut.log and SystemErr.log), the trace log (typically trace.log), and the service log (typically activity.log) are no longer written to. Instead, log and trace content is written to a log data or trace data repository in a proprietary binary format. If configured to do so, this content can also be written to a text log file. Text log file names have the following format: TextLog_<yy.mm.dd>_<hh.mm.ss>, where "TextLog_" is a fixed prefix, <yy.mm.dd> is a date (year, month, date) of the first record in the file, and <hh.mm.ss> is the time (hour, minute, second).

Example: TextLog_14.07.16_09.02.09.log

Disabling the writing of this same text log file results in the largest possible performance benefit of HPEL. A log viewing tool, logViewer.sh, is provided to allow for viewing, filtering, monitoring, and formatting the log and trace data in the repositories.

(Windows) logViewer.bat

(Unix- full profile) logViewer.sh

(Unix- Liberty profile) logViewer

-repositoryDir directory_name

Specifies the path to the repository directory. In the case where you want to query both the log and trace data together, provide the path to the parent directory, which contains both the log data and tracedata directories. If you use the default repository location, profile_root/logs/application_server/, and run this tool from the profile bin directory, then this argument is optional. The tool checks the default location if one is not provided. If multiple application servers exist in this profile with HPEL repositories, you are prompted to select which server log and trace repository you want to view.

-outLog file_name

Specifies the file name you want the text output written to. If you do not provide this information, the text output is displayed on the console.

-format basic | advanced | cbe-1.0.1

Specifies the output format. Supported formats include basic, advanced, and the CBE-1.0.1 format. If you do not provide this information, the output is in basic format.

-monitor [integer]

Specifies that you want the logViewer to continuously monitor the repository and output new log record entries as they are created. You can provide an optional integer argument after this parameter to specify how often you want the LogViewer tool to query the repository for new records. By default the logViewer queries the repository for new records every 5 seconds. When used with other filtering options, only those new records that match the filter criteria are displayed.

-help

Use this parameter to have the LogViewer tool list the full set of options that are available.

-startDate date_time

You can filter the results that are displayed from the repository by date and time. Use the -startDate parameter to filter out log entries that occurred after the date or date time provided as an argument. Provide either a date or date and time, entered in the MM/dd/yy format or the MM/dd/yy H:m:s:S z format. With z referring to the timezone.

-stopDate date_time

Use this parameter to filter out log entries that occurred before the specified date or date time. Provide the argument in the same format as the -startDate option.

-level level_name

Specifies that you want the tool to only display those log events which match the level name you provide as an argument. Valid values for the level name are FINEST, FINER, FINE, DETAIL, CONFIG, INFO, AUDIT, WARNING, SEVERE, FATAL.

-minLevel level_name

Specifies that you want the tool to only display records which are at or above the specified level. Valid values for the level name are FINEST, FINER, FINE, DETAIL, CONFIG, INFO, AUDIT, WARNING, SEVERE, FATAL.

-maxLevel level_name

Specifies that you want the tool to only display records that are at or below the specified level. Valid values for the level name are FINEST, FINER, FINE, DETAIL, CONFIG, INFO, AUDIT, WARNING, SEVERE, FATAL.

-includeLoggers logger_name

When this option is used, only log events from the specified loggers are included in the LogViewer output. Separate multiple entries with a comma. The * symbol can be used as a wild card to include all loggers below a parent logger. When used in combination with the -excludedLoggers option, the more specific match determines if the log event is included or excluded.

-excludeLoggers logger_name

Use this option to exclude log events from the specified loggers in the LogViewer output. Separate multiple entries with a comma. The * symbol can be used as a wildcard to include all loggers below a parent logger. When used in combination with the -includeLoggers option, the more specific match determines if the log event is included or excluded.

-thread thread_id

Use this option to restrict LogViewer output to only those log events from a specific thread. Any log messages that were not created by the thread ID provided as an argument to this option are not displayed. Specify the thread ID in hex format.

-extractToNewRepository directory_name

This option redirects log and trace records from a binary repository to a new binary repository at the location that you specify. You can use this option with other filtering options to get a subset of log and trace records into the new repository. This option uses the directory path where the new repository must be written as an argument. Therefore, the directory must be empty. If the directory does not exist, the directory is created. However, errors that occur during the directory creation might create extraneous directories.

-listInstances

Use this option to list the IDs of available server process instances that are available to use with the -instance option. After running LogViewer with the -listInstances option, you can then use the -instance option to invoke LogViewer with one of the server process instance IDs as an argument. Since this option does not process any log or trace records, all other options are ignored when you specify this option.

-instance instance_id

Use this option to retrieve the log and trace data for a given server process instance by providing the server instance ID. Run LogViewer, along with the -listInstances option, before you use this option to obtain a valid instance ID. This option is required when viewing logs and trace from an environment that contains subprocesses, such as the z/OS operating system.

If this option is combined with -latestInstance, -instance is ignored.

-latestInstance

Use this option to retrieve the log and trace data from the most recent server instance. If this option is used with the -instance option, the -instance option is ignored.

-message match_string

Use this option to retrieve only log or trace data with a message field that matches the requested text.

-includeExtensions name[=value][,name[=value]]*

Use this option to retrieve the log and trace data with an extension name that matches the requested name, and an extension value that matches the requested value. You can also use this option to retrieve the log and trace data with an extension name that matches the requested name, and an extension value that matches any value, if you omit the =value part of the option.

Any extension name shown in the advanced format can be used. Note that 'source', 'class', and 'method' are not stored in the log/trace repositories as extensions, and so cannot be filtered on with this option.

Separate multiple name=value arguments with a comma. Specify '==' (two equals signs) in place of '=' (one equals sign) in cases where the name or value must contain an equal sign. Specify ',,' (two commas) in place of ',' (one comma) in cases where the name or value must contain a comma.