Procedure

Overview

LogViewer.jsp is a diagnostic tool that is included with RCM/ActOne that displays log messages generated by the application.   It is accessible via the following URL:

http://rcm-hostname:rcm-port/RCM/LogViewer.jsp


How To Use It

LogViewer is good for diagnosing problem that can be reproduced on-demand by end users.    The typical use scenario is below:

  1. The end user opens TWO browser tabs in RCM/ActOne.    The first tab is for reproducing the problem.   The second tab is for LogViewer.jsp.
  2. In the LogViewer tab, set "Level" dropdown list to "DEBUG" and click the "Set" button.    Set the "Show Last" button to 1000.
  3. In the first tab, the user performs the steps that are necessary to reproduce the issue.
  4. As soon as possible, click the "Refresh" or "Create Report" button in the LogViewer tab.    The relevant log messages should be displayed or written to a CSV file (if the Report button was clicked).

Notes and Best Practices

> In production environments, the LogViewer level should not be set to DEBUG or TRACE for any extended period of time.   This increased logging volume can have a noticeable impact on performance.

> Setting the Level in LogViewer.jsp also affects the level of the messages written to the "actimizeWarn" and "actimizeErr" log files.

> When investigating an issue, it is sometimes better to start by setting the LogViewer level to WARN.    When an end-user sees and error within the RCM/ActOne GUI, a corresponding WARN or ERROR message is usually logged.    This log message may sufficient to troubleshoot and and solve the issue.   In such cases, DEBUG or TRACE information may be overkill, and result in LogViewer output that takes more time to interpret.

> LogViewer records ALL activity that takes place on a single RCM instance.   This means that actions performed by other users may result in "noisy" logs.    In such cases, it may be helpful to reproduce the problem and gather LogViewer output with the system is less-active (i.e. during off-business hours).

> Even when the "Show Last" is set to ALL, the number of log entries that are displayed are limited by the "log4j.appender.servlet.bufferSize" parameter in "WEB-INF/config/actimize_log4j.properties".   The default limit is 2048.     This means that setting the level to DEBUG or TRACE in order to debug scenarios that require many steps/actions is usually not practical.   

- LogViewer only shows activity on a single RCM instance... not the entire activity of all RCM instance in a particular cluster/environment.


Other Actions in LogViewer

1) Diagnostics:    This action opens a dialog showing important information about the RCM/ActOne environment.   This includes version information, JVM parameters, and OS properties.  

2) Create Report:    Creating a report prints the LogViewer.jsp contents to a CSV file.   This CSV also includes the Diagnostics information.

3) Clear Cache:   To improve performance, RCM/ActOne caches many different types of data.      This "clear cache" action clears the internal caches, forcing the application to reload them from the database.   This action may cause the application to become slow or unresponsive for several seconds.    Under normal circumstances, it should not be necessary to perform this action.    However, under rare circumstances, it may be necessary to perform this action as a workaround for certain types of issues.