Debug logs and Logviewer concepts Part 2…

Introduction

The Netweaver Log viewer is a versatile tool that provides access to all Netweaver logs as well as logs from deployed applications such as SAP Sourcing / CLM. The filtering capabilities of the tool provide access to a specific node or all nodes with the results merged into a single display. In addition to the display capabilities, the tool also provides download capabilities for either the filtered content or the raw log files. When the content results exceed 5MB, the tool automatically generates separate 5MB files. In the case of the raw log files, the tool automatically compresses the files in a zipfile. The UI and functionality is slightly different between CE 7.11 and 7.3. This is part 2 in a 3 part series. In part 2, the discussion is specific to the use of Netweaver 7.3.

Part 2 Netweaver 7.30

Initial Configuration

In this system we have one Java server with three server processes(nodes). As such there are three application instances on three server nodes. There are three sets of log and trace files generated.

Setting up debug logging

In the log configuration area of NWA, select Tracing Locations in the Show field.

Select DEBUG on the area or areas you want to set DEBUG logging on. Typically we select The E-Sourcing Folder, Set Debug then use the Copy to Subtree button. At this point you would see the selections shown below. This currently includes SQL debug. Unless this is specifically asked for, the suggested setting would be to set the sql severity back to error. Click save configuration.

Using Custom Views to limit files and content

This section describes the steps to create and save a custom Log Viewer view with some specific guidance on some settings for SAP Sourcing.

Navigate to Troubleshooting –> Log Configuration

Navigate to Open View –> Create New View…

In Netweaver 7.30 the file selection and content filtering is in the same section (Filter by Content).

Configured filters…. In this example, we chose to only select log files with eso in the filename. Since both the .log and .trc files are created in the filname format eso<n>.log and eso<n>.trc, this would include all the files. We could also use 2 filter lines as shown in the final version(below). The 2 equivalent lines would be log files named *.log followed by the operator OR and the second rule log files named *.trc. Next, we have the capability to include / exclude specific server nodes. In this example we have chosen to include all nodes. We can also specify filters that include the application name, Date and Time, Severity and Message content. As you can see, the resulting log entries displayed can be very specific if need be. This would help analyzing problems that occur in either a very brief period or one that happens slowly over time. In any case, the combination of these filters allows for very efficient analysis of a problem. The following screen shot shows the inclusion of a message filter the uses stats_monitor. The results of this would be all the stats_monitor lines between the date/times selected from all the server nodes. This might be useful to analyze system usage over a period of tme, memory consumption etc.

Save View…. Select a view name that describes the result or the problem type it will help analyze.

Example custom view filtering source files and content. In this case, we chose log entries from all nodes that were logging messages that contained “Script” in them.

Using the custom view going forward…

Open View –> Select saved view. These are the selections located above the ———————–

Adding additional fields to the results to identify log entry source

View –> Customize Layout.

When there are multiple server nodes or multiple Instances involved, it may be useful to include one or more of thefollowing:

Host

System

Instance

Node

This will facilitate locating where the problem manifested itself and allow for a second level of investigation.

Dowloading filtered results

The facility to download the filtered results is simple to use and allows for some basic manipulation. If the results exceed 5MB, the file will be broken into 5MM chunks. Click download…