How to get some additional traces from the BI Platform Web Apps

Have you ever seen a log file in your Application Server directory called TraceLog_<pid>_<date_timestamp>.glf?  Ever wondered what that was?

This log file is generated from a number of the BI Platform Web Applications and by default will contain on Error level messages.  Here is an example of one I found on my test machine:

Found in Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\tomcat\

Filename:  TraceLog_1140_2014_11_20_05_23_52_898_trace.glf

Contents:

|64DF6F8D078E466397CBCD8D875B98240|2014 11 20 05:23:52.904|-0800|Error| |==|E| |TraceLog| 1140|  18|Start Level Event Dispatcher| ||||||||||||||||||||com.bo.aa.layout.DashboardManager||underlying implementation doesn’t recognize the attribute

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: http://javax.xml.XMLConstants/feature/secure-processing

  at org.apache.xerces.jaxp.DocumentBuilderFactoryImpl.setAttribute(Unknown Source)

  at com.bo.aa.layout.DashboardManager.setDocBuilderFeaturesForXXE(DashboardManager.java:134)

  at com.bo.aa.layout.DashboardManager.<clinit>(DashboardManager.java:161)

  at com.bo.aa.impl.DBServerImpl.<clinit>(DBServerImpl.java:397)

  at com.bo.aa.servlet.AFBootServlet.InitServers(AFBootServlet.java:80)

  at com.bo.aa.servlet.AFBootServlet.init(AFBootServlet.java:47)

  at com.businessobjects.http.servlet.internal.ServletRegistration.init(ServletRegistration.java:81)

  at com.businessobjects.http.servlet.internal.digester.WebXmlRegistrationManager.loadServlets(WebXmlRegistrationManager.java:127)

  at com.businessobjects.http.servlet.internal.digester.WebXmlRegistrationManager.registerRest(WebXmlRegistrationManager.java:209)

  at com.businessobjects.http.servlet.internal.ProxyServlet.readXml(ProxyServlet.java:368)

  at com.businessobjects.http.servlet.internal.ProxyServlet.registerInternal(ProxyServlet.java:395)

  at com.businessobjects.http.servlet.internal.ProxyServlet.register(ProxyServlet.java:317)

  at com.businessobjects.http.servlet.config.WebXmlConfigurator.register(WebXmlConfigurator.java:60)

  at com.businessobjects.bip.core.web.bundle.CoreWebXmlActivator.start(CoreWebXmlActivator.java:66)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleContextImpl$1.run(BundleContextImpl.java:782)

  at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleContextImpl.startActivator(BundleContextImpl.java:773)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleContextImpl.start(BundleContextImpl.java:754)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleHost.startWorker(BundleHost.java:352)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.AbstractBundle.start(AbstractBundle.java:280)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.AbstractBundle.start(AbstractBundle.java:272)

  at com.businessobjects.http.servlet.Activator.startBundle(Activator.java:129)

  at com.businessobjects.http.servlet.Activator.start(Activator.java:116)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleContextImpl$1.run(BundleContextImpl.java:782)

  at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleContextImpl.startActivator(BundleContextImpl.java:773)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleContextImpl.start(BundleContextImpl.java:754)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleHost.startWorker(BundleHost.java:352)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.AbstractBundle.resume(AbstractBundle.java:370)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.Framework.resumeBundle(Framework.java:1068)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.StartLevelManager.resumeBundles(StartLevelManager.java:557)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.StartLevelManager.incFWSL(StartLevelManager.java:464)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.StartLevelManager.doSetStartLevel(StartLevelManager.java:248)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.StartLevelManager.dispatchEvent(StartLevelManager.java:445)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.eventmgr.EventManager.dispatchEvent(EventManager.java:220)

  at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.eventmgr.EventManager$EventThread.run(EventManager.java:330)

For those of you that have spent time looking at these types of messages, you will likely recognize a few things.  The first, is that the bulk of this error message is a Java backtrace. Backtraces are often read from the bottom up and it gives you an idea of the sequence of calls that occurred leading up to the error.  In this case, we can see the error: 

com.bo.aa.layout.DashboardManager||underlying implementation doesn’t recognize the attribute

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: http://javax.xml.XMLConstants/feature/secure-processing

Which tells us what caused the error trace log entry, but we might be more interested in what happened leading up to this error. For that, we can traverse the backtrace to get an idea of what was going on before this error. 

In this case, I have no idea what actually caused this error.  I just found it on my test machine from around 3 weeks ago.  But from the backtrace, I can made an educated guess that the cause was related to a Dashboard layout of some sort.  Regardless, this is not the purpose of this blog so I will move on.

The error messages found in these TraceLog*.glf files are not usually enough to properly troubleshoot an issue.  To get proper details around what causes an issue, we need have more verbose logging.

One way we can enable verbose logging for the BI Platform Web Apps is by enabling it in the CMC.  Section 25.4.1 in the BIP Administrator’s guide covers how to do this.  In the CMC, you can enable traces for the BI Launchpad, CMC, Open Document, Promotion Management, Version Management, Visual Difference and Web Services applications.

Another way to enable tracing for the BI Platform Web Apps is to follow the below steps.  I have found added details in the these log files that wasn’t available through the CMC enabled logs:

Steps to setup Verbose logging for the TraceLog Application server traces (example for Tomcat)

1. Go to this folder and copy the BO_Trace.ini:  C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\tomcat\webapps\BOE\WEB-INF\TraceLog
2. Paste this file in the C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\tomcat directory and rename it to TraceLog_trace.ini
3. Edit this file and change the line:
   sap_trace_level = trace_error;

       to

   sap_trace_level = trace_debug;

4. Find the line below it and change it as well:
   sap_log_level = log_error;

       to

   sap_log_level = log_info;

5. I also like to set the append = true; to append = false; which will use the Process ID and Date/Time stamp in the naming convention of the log files.
6. Save the TraceLog_trace.ini file and within a minute, you should start seeing some log files growing in the Tomcat directory.

Here is an example of what my log files contain after enabling the above log levels:

|039A2887DCF24130ADA77A3BA3DBF3A6155|2014 12 17 14:57:25.015|-0800|Information| |==| | |TraceLog| 1144|  47|http-bio-8080-exec-7| ||||||||||||||||||||com.businessobjects.bip.core.web.bridge.ServletBridgeLoggingDelegate||servletbridge.relative.url.prefix.out.of.bundle: ../..

|039A2887DCF24130ADA77A3BA3DBF3A6156|2014 12 17 14:57:25.015|-0800|Information| |==| | |TraceLog| 1144|  47|http-bio-8080-exec-7| ||||||||||||||||||||com.businessobjects.bip.core.web.bridge.ServletBridgeLoggingDelegate||servletbridge.relative.url.prefix.to.root.of.bundle: ../../IVExplorer

We can see that the type of entry is “Information” now which tells us our settings are being used.

Now, this trace is quite verbose so really the only time I would recommend using it is when you can reproduce an issue in a short period of time.  To deactivate the trace, you just edit the TraceLog_trace.ini file and set the trace/log levels back to *_error. 

Do not delete the file as this will not deactivate the current trace levels.  Just edit and save the file to deactivate it.  If you do delete the file, you will need to restart Tomcat to disable the traces again.

Any ways, this trace can sometimes give you additional details that are not available in other tracing methods.  Be sure to deactivate it as soon as you are done using it though as it does have a slight impact on performance.

Thanks,

Jb