Monitoring and Displaying Log Files

Concept

Log and trace files contain information about the system execution.

Log records are mainly used by administrators to monitor the system operation and to perform error analysis. Logs are typically written to categories.
Trace records are usually used by developers and support engineers to record and analyze the occurrence of certain events in programs during runtime. Traces are typically written to locations.

More information: Logging Features

Configuration

The table below contains configuration settings you can perform if the default setting are not suitable:

Configuration Task	Description
Configure log controllers severities	You use the Log Configuration tool in the SAP NetWeaver Administrator. The default severity values are: for categories - INFO for locations - ERROR More information: Log Configuration with SAP NetWeaver Administrator
Configure storage of traces	You can configure the storage location for trace files, using the Log Manager . More information: Log Manager
Switch archiving on and off	Log and trace archiving is switched off by default. You can switch it on and configure the archive storage location and specify which files to be archived. More information: Configuring Log Files Archiving

Configuration Task

Description

Configure log controllers severities

You use the Log Configuration tool in the SAP NetWeaver Administrator.

The default severity values are:

for categories - INFO
for locations - ERROR

More information: Log Configuration with SAP NetWeaver Administrator

Configure storage of traces

You can configure the storage location for trace files, using the Log Manager .

More information: Log Manager

Switch archiving on and off

Log and trace archiving is switched off by default. You can switch it on and configure the archive storage location and specify which files to be archived.

More information: Configuring Log Files Archiving

Tasks

The table below contains tasks you can perform, when required:

Task	Description
Filter and display logs when the AS Java is running	In any predefined or custom view, you can filter and display log and trace records on AS Java that meet a specified filter criterion. More information: Filtering Logs and Traces
Filter and display logs when the AS Java is not running	If an AS Java is not running on the system to be monitored, you can filter and display log and trace records, using a remote Log Viewer. More information: Connecting to a Remote System
Display log records with severity ERROR or FATAL	To monitor the SAP NetWeaver system landscape for critical issues, in any predefined view or custom view, you can filter and display only log and trace records with severity ERROR or FATAL.
Deleting log files	Three ways of deleting log files: Automatic - when the logs reach the size of five files at 10 MB each, the new logs start overwriting the old ones, that is, the old logs are deleted automatically. If you activate archiving, the system backs up the set of five files into a ZIP file and then starts overwriting the first log file. You can manually delete part of the log or trace files that you do not need, for example, you may not need the default traces. Caution In several countries, the backup of security logs is enforced by law. Therefore, you must perform regular backups and keep all of your security log files. You can delete the temporary log and trace files that are generated by the system when you view the archives using the Log Viewer. When you open archives of logs and traces, the log and trace files of each archive are extracted to the temporary directory `./log/archive/temp` . Afterwards, the log and trace files are not deleted from the temporary directory. The next time you want to view the same archives, they will be displayed faster. Recommendation We recommend that you delete these log and trace files periodically to save disk space.
Monitor log and trace file size	There are two types of monitors for logs and traces - for files size and for achieve size. More information: Log Configurator . You can also change the settings of the monitor's traffic light, for example, the value when the monitor's traffic light changes from yellow to green. To perform this, use Monitor Browser in SAP NetWeaver Administrator. More information: Monitor Browser .

Tools

The Log Viewer tool in SAP NetWeaver Administrator allows you to view all list and text formatted logs and traces that are generated from the whole SAP NetWeaver system landscape.

You can also use the following tools to monitor and display logs:

Additional Information

From <SAP_install_dir>\<system_name>\<instance_name>\j2ee\cluster\<Server_name>\log , you can find the following logs:

\system\database.log

\system\security.log

\system\server.log

\system\logging.log

\system\userinterface.log

\system\configchanges.log

\application.log

Additional list of specific AS Java log controllers is available as follows:

AS Java Component	Log category	Trace location
AS Java General	`/System`
Business Process Management	`/Applications/BPM/Runtime`	`com.sap.glx`
Composite Application Framework	`/Applications/CAF` `/Applications/Security`	`com.sap.caf` `com.sap.caf.rt` `com.sap.caf.ui` `com.sap.caf.runtime.ui.configuration`
Guided Procedures	`/Server`	`com.sap.caf.eu.gp.*`
Portal Administration environment issues Object-based navigation (OBN) issues Portal connectivity issues Federated Portal Network (FPN) issues Creating content via XML scripts (Generic Creator) issues Permissions/security issues Content deployment issues Page rendering issues	`/System/Server`	`com.sap.portal.adminstudio` `com.sap.portal.admin.adminstudio` `com.sap.portal.OBN` `com.sap.portal.connectors` `com.sap.portal.fpn` `com.sap.portal.ivs.genericCreator` `com.sap.portal.pcd` `com.sapportals.portal.security` `com.sap.portal.prt.sapj2ee` `com.sap.portal.pb`
Service Composition	`/Applications/Common/Configuration`	`com.sap.sa.rt*`
Visual Composer	`/Server`	`com.sap.vc.server05`
Web Services	`/System/Server/WS`	`com.sap.engine.services.webservices`