Administering the Logging Service

7 Administering the Logging Service

This chapter provides instructions on how to configure logging and how to view log information in the Eclipse GlassFish 8 environment.

The following topics are addressed here:

About Logging

Logging is the process by which Java Virtual Machine captures information about events that occur, such as important method calls, reaching states, or even configuration errors, security failures, or server malfunction.

This data is recorded in log files and is usually the first source of information when problems occur. Analyzing the log files can help you to follow events that occur in the server runtime and determine the overall health of the server.

Although application components can use other logging frameworks as SLF4J or LOG4J2, we recommend to use the Java Util Logging Framework or even better it’s latest facade System.Logger.

Logs may contain sensitive information. Despite the Eclipse GlassFish in default configuration doesn’t log any passwords, before you share logs with anyone else you should verify that you don’t compromise your system by any information contained in logs, especially if you configured more verbose log levels.

Log Manager

Log Manager is a service responsible for the logging system. The service is initialized on JVM startup. After it’s first usage it cannot be changed until the JVM is restarted, but it can be reconfigured. Eclipse GlassFish now comes with customized log manager.

Level

Level is the key feature of the logging system. Every JUL Logger has an internal integer value representing severity. Levels are set to

  • Log Record as the severity level of the record.

  • Logger as the minimal severity level processed by the logger. Log record with lower severity is ignored.

  • Handler as the minimal severity level processed by the handler. Log record with lower severity is ignored.

There are following predefined levels; however the real usage depends on developers:

  • ALL - Special level used by loggers and handlers to declare that they accept all levels.

  • SEVERE - Used for serious errors.

  • WARNING - Used for log records providing an information about some hazards which can be handled by the application or they can even lead to a severe state.

  • INFO - Used to log some important information useful even for the user.

  • CONFIG - Used for providing an information related to a configuration.

  • FINE - Level for tracing. Used for providing an information about internal behavior of the java application, but still not so detailed.

  • FINER - Level for tracing. More detailed information, for example usages of Logger.entering and Logger.exiting methods.

  • FINEST - Level for tracing. Usually very verbose messages slowing down the system but providing a complete information what is going on.

  • OFF - Special level used by loggers and handlers to declare that they ignore all levels.

Some projects define custom levels, but at this time it is rather rare.

Log Record

Log Record is an object created by a Logger or it’s caller and sent to the hierarchy of loggers and handlers which will process it. Every time you use the Logger object to log a message with a level passing configured level filters, one LogRecord instance is created and processed.

Logger

Logger is a facade of the logging system. It is transparent so it can be initialized as a constant. Logger name is usually same as the full name of the class which created it, but specialized loggers can be used too.

Loggers are organized in a tree, so the log record is usually processed by the logger which accepted or created it, then passed to the parent logger (parent package), it’s parent, etc. unless it is configured to not to do so.

The logger log level specifies a severity level to filter what is important for the user. There are several special loggers:

  • root logger - uses an empty string as a name.

  • system root logger - uses an empty string as a name too, but is not accessible outside JDK, which uses it internally.

  • global logger - uses global as it’s name. It is not recommended to use it.

Handler

Handler is responsible for handling the record so it can print the record to the standard output, file, e-mail, network, etc. Handler have also it’s own level set. This level serves as a filter of incomming log records - usually it is not desired to send detailed messages to an e-mail, for example.

Formatter

Formatter is responsible for formatting of the log record to a String object. It is a usual attribute of the handler, but not all handlers use formatters, for example some handlers may just serialize the log record, call the logging system of the operating system or call a web service.

Configuration

JUL is usually configured by the logging.properties file unless you would use different log manager or you use the JVM option java.util.logging.config.file to override it.

Default Configuration

The Configuration File

The DAS as well as each configuration, instance, and cluster has its own logging properties file. By default in an Eclipse GlassFish domain, logging properties files are created in the following locations:

Target Default Location of Logging Properties File

DAS

domain-dir/config/logging.properties

A configuration

domain-dir/config/config-name/logging.properties, where config-name represents the name of a configuration that is shared by one or more instances or clusters.

An instance

domain-dir/config/instance-name-config/logging.properties, where instance-name represents the name of the instance.

A cluster

domain-dir/config/cluster-name-config/logging.properties, where cluster-name represents the name of the cluster.

For information about configuring logging properties, see Configuring the Logging Service.

The Server Log File

By default Eclipse GlassFish log records are captured in the server.log file which can be found in the logs directory under the instance’s directory. Each instance, managed server instance (that is, each cluster member), and the domain administration server (DAS) has an individual server log file.

This file will contain also logs of deployed applications if they use Java Util Logging, System.Logger or any other facade mapped to this logging system in the backend.

Instance Default Location

DAS

domain-dir/logs/server.log

Each server instance

instance-dir/logs/server.log

Cluster instance

instance-dir/logs/server.log

For example, in a domain hosted on a given machine that includes a cluster with two managed servers (ClusterServer1 and ClusterServer1) and a standalone instance (StandaloneServer), the log files might be arranged in the following directory structure. In this directory structure, the server.log file for the DAS is located in domain-dir/logs.

as-install-parent directory
  glassfish/
    domains/
      domain-dir/
        logs/
          server.log
    nodes/
      hostname/
        ClusterServer1/
          logs/
            server.log
        ClusterServer2/
          logs/
            server.log
        StandaloneServer/
          logs/
            server.log

The server.log file uses the ODLLogFormatter log format by default and is rolled to a new file after it’s size exceeds 100 Megabytes. If something in server’s JVM prints to the standard output stream or standard error stream, it is redirected to the server.log file.

You can change the default name, location, formatting or management of a log file by modifying the logging properties file for the corresponding instance, however we don’t recommend to change the location of the file as it may affect availability of some services.

The Access Log File

The access.log file serves to log all requests made to the HTTP service or virtual server. This feature is disabled by default, but you can enable it by using the asadmin set command, using Admininistration Console or the Admin REST API.

This logging feature is not persisted in logging.properties but in domain.xml, because it doesn’t use Java Util Logging framework but an internal implementation instead.

asadmin> get 'server.http-service.*'
server.http-service.virtual-server.__asadmin.access-log=${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/logs/access
server.http-service.virtual-server.__asadmin.access-logging-enabled=inherit
...
server.http-service.virtual-server.server.access-log=${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/logs/access
server.http-service.virtual-server.server.access-logging-enabled=inherit
server.http-service.access-log.buffer-size-bytes=32768
server.http-service.access-log.format=%client.name% %auth-user-name% %datetime% %request% %status% %response.length%
server.http-service.access-log.max-history-files=-1
server.http-service.access-log.rotation-enabled=true
server.http-service.access-log.rotation-interval-in-minutes=1440
server.http-service.access-log.rotation-policy=time
server.http-service.access-log.rotation-suffix=yyyy-MM-dd
server.http-service.access-log.write-interval-seconds=300
server.http-service.access-logging-enabled=false

Standard Output Stream

When you start the server with the --verbose argument, the server prints log records to the standard output too. The output is limited to just INFO levels and higher and uses the standard error stream, but this can be switched to standard output stream too. Log records are formatted to the Uniform Log Format] by default.

Logger Levels

The logging.properties contains many loggers used by the Eclipse GlassFish to make changes easier. Most of loggers use the INFO level by default.

Configuring the Logging Service

You can either directly edit the logging.properties file or use the asadmin command, Administration Console or REST API. On DAS, changes in the file have immediate effect with some small latency before they get applied. For instances managed by nodes it is a bit more complicated and it depends on the synchronization of the configuration with DAS.

If you edit logging.properties manually on an instance managed by the node, it will be overwritten on the next synchronization with DAS.

Log Records

Because the automatic detection of caller class and method from stacktrace significantly affects performance of the logging system, we added the org.glassfish.main.jul.classAndMethodDetection.enabled property which affects the *.printSource property of formatters.

  • If this key is set to true, GJULE will detect the caller class and method from stacktrace, which is quite expensive operation affecting logging throughput.

  • If it is set to false, GJULE will not perform such detection. Formatters which use getSourceClassName or getSourceMethodName of the record will receive null unless the log record has set these values explicitly.

  • If the property is not set, GJULE makes the decision based on the (.printSource property) - if any formatter requires this feature, the feature is enabled. Note that the .printSource property must be explicitly set to true in logging.properties.

  • It is disabled otherwise.

Loggers

Changing the logger level is quite easy and it is a preferred way how to filter log records by their importance.

So for example if you want to get all records handled by the logging system, you comment out all logger level settings except the root logger and set it’s level to FINEST.

.level=FINEST

Handlers

You can use all JUL features, but some of Eclipse GlassFish features depend on some settings like the existence of the configured GlassFishLogHandler and it’s server.log file. Also be careful when changing it’s configuration as it may affect the performance.

GlassFishLogHandler

The org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler is used to handle persist log records into the server.log file. It is optimized for the best performance so logging would not reduce the performance of the server instance and applications deployed to it.

Example:

org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.buffer.capacity=10000
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.buffer.timeoutInSeconds=0
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.enabled=true
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.encoding=UTF-8
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.file=${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/logs/server.log
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.flushFrequency=1
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter=org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.ODLLogFormatter
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter.excludedFields=
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter.multiline=true
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter.printSource=false
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.level=ALL
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.redirectStandardStreams=true
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.compress=false
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.maxArchiveFiles=0
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.limit.megabytes=100
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.limit.minutes=0
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.rollOnDateChange=false
Basic Settings

  • enabled - false means that the handler will stay configured in the logging system, but it will ignore incoming records. Default is true.

  • encoding - file’s character encoding. Default is UTF-8.

  • file - the output file; you can use also system options - default is ${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/logs/server.log

  • flushFrequency - count of records to be handled in a single batch. Default is 1.

  • formatter - a formatter class to be used for formatting log records as strings. Default value is org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.ODLLogFormatter

  • formatter.* - can be used for custom settings of the formatter. This works only for ODLLogFormatter, UniformLogFormatter and OneLineFormatter.

  • level - Level used to filter log records. Less important log records will be ignored. Default is ALL.

  • redirectStandardStreams - if true, which is default, everything printed to the standard output stream and standard error stream is processed by the handler as an INFO resp. ERROR log record. While using these streams is not recommended in Jakarta EE applications, it should be rather rare.

Receive Buffer

The GlassFishLogHandler has a receive buffer for incomming log records to optimize throughput. If the buffer is full and a logger tries to add another record, logger’s thread is blocked. Then if the timeout is set to 0, the thread is blocked until there’s free capacity available - if the handler cannot process records, it may be blocked forever. But if you set the timeout to a positive value, and the thread is blocked for longer time, the whole buffer is reset and added is just an error record describing what happened.

Despite this situation should not occur in standard situation, it may happen ie. when the file system stops working or is extremely slow.

  • buffer.capacity - count of records in the receive buffer, default is 10000 log records.

  • buffer.timeoutInSeconds - maximal time for waiting. Default is 0 which means forever. The buffer is reset after timeout, which means that all unprocessible log records are lost.

Log File Rotation

The GlassFishLogHandler can roll the output log file under following conditions:

  • if user forced him to do so, see To Rotate Log Files Manually for more

  • if the size of the file exceeded given limit

  • if the date changed

  • if the specified number of minutes have passed since the file was opened

The last two conditions are exclusive, the date change has higher priority.

The flushFrequency parameter affects how many log records will be formatted into the log file before the file is rolled out even after the file size exceeded it’s configured limit.

The rotation means that the log file is renamed, so the new file name gets a current timestamp as a suffix. If there already is a file with the same name, the implementation tries to add another suffix with a counter until it finds a name which doesn’t exist yet.

drwxrwxr-x 14 admin admin   4096 jul 29 21:21 ../
-rw-rw-r--  1 admin admin   2521 aug  3 18:18 server.log
-rw-rw-r--  1 admin admin 191391 jul 29 21:21 server.log_2022-07-29T21-21-54
-rw-rw-r--  1 admin admin  24920 aug  3 18:18 server.log_2022-08-03T18-18-38

You can configure the logging service to change the default settings for log file rotation, as explained in Setting Log File Rotation.

This is a list of related configuration properties:

  • rotation.compress - compress the rotated file using GZIP algorithm provided by JDK. Default is false.

  • rotation.maxArchiveFiles - maximal count of archived log files (excludes the active one). Default is 0, which means unlimited.

  • rotation.limit.megabytes - size of the file initiating rotation of the file. Default is 100 Megabytes. The final file will be slightly larger.

  • rotation.limit.minutes - number of minutes since the last rotation. Default is 0 (unlimited, disabled).

  • rotation.rollOnDateChange - if set to true rolls the file at midnight. Default is false.

SimpleLogHandler

The org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SimpleLogHandler has similar targets as the `ConsoleHandler`, with few differences:

  • can be configured to use STDOUT instead of STDERR

  • uses OneLineFormatter by default

The handler configuration properties:

  • encoding - output character encoding. Default is null which means it will use the system default.

  • formatter - a formatter class to be used for formatting log records as strings. Default value is org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.OneLineFormatter

  • formatter.* - can be used for custom settings of the formatter. This works only for ODLLogFormatter, UniformLogFormatter and OneLineFormatter.

  • level - Level used to filter log records. Less important log records will be ignored. Uses INFO as a default.

  • useErrorStream - if false, uses STDOUT instead of STDERR. Default is true.

Configuration example:

org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SimpleLogHandler.formatter=org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.OneLineFormatter
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SimpleLogHandler.formatter.printSource=false
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SimpleLogHandler.level=INFO
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SimpleLogHandler.useErrorStream=true
SyslogHandler

The org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler is a special handler which is able to send log records to the Unix Syslog facility. The prerequisity is that the Syslog service must listen on the configured network endpoint. See Syslog on Wikipedia.org for more.

The handler configuration properties:

  • buffer.capacity - count of records in the receive buffer. Default is 5000 log records.

  • buffer.timeoutInSeconds - maximal time for waiting. Default is 300. The buffer is reset after timeout, which means that all unprocessible log records are lost.

  • enabled - false means that the handler will stay configured in the logging system, but it will ignore incoming records. Default is true.

  • encoding - output character encoding used to send data to the Syslog service. Default is UTF-8.

  • formatter - a formatter class to be used for formatting log records as strings. Default value is java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter

  • host - a host name or IP address used of the UDP endpoint. Default is an autodetected name of the local host.

  • level - Level used to filter log records. Less important log records will be ignored. The default level is WARNING.

  • port - a port of the Syslog UDP listener. Default is 514.

Configuration example:

org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler.enabled=true
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler.encoding=UTF-8
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler.formatter=java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler.host=
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler.level=SEVERE
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler.port=514

Formatters

Excluded Fields

Some of formatters support exclusion of some of fields. Currently is possible to exclude following fields:

  • tid - Thread id and name

  • levelValue - Integer value of the log level.

ODLLogFormatter

The org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.ODLLogFormatter logs records in the Oracle Diagnostic Loggging Format (ODL).

[2022-08-01T19:43:29.952291+02:00] [GlassFish 7.0] [INFO] [] [com.sun.enterprise.server.logging.LogManagerService] [tid: _ThreadID=1 _ThreadName=main] [levelValue: 800] [[
Using property file: /app/appservers/glassfish8/glassfish/domains/domain1/config/logging.properties]]

[2022-08-01T19:43:29.986871+02:00] [GlassFish 7.0] [INFO] [NCLS-LOGGING-00009] [com.sun.enterprise.server.logging.LogManagerService] [tid: _ThreadID=1 _ThreadName=main] [levelValue: 800] [[
Running GlassFish Version: Eclipse GlassFish  7.0.0  (build master-b827-g71a6150 2022-08-01T11:18:51+0200)]]

The formatter has following properties:

  • excludedFields - comma separated list of fields which should not be printed. None by default. See Excluded Fields

  • fieldSeparator - String separating fields. Space by default.

  • multiline - if set to true (default), the end of line character is inserted before the log message.

  • printSequenceNumber - if set to true, logs the sequence number of each log record. Default is false.

  • printSource - if set to true, logs the class and method which created the log record. Default is false.

  • timestampFormat - see the DateTimeFormatter documentation. Default is ISO-8601 timestamp with microseconds and time zone.

UniformLogFormatter

The org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.UniformLogFormatter logs records in the Uniform Loggging Format.

[#|2022-08-02T18:16:29.677628+02:00|INFO|GlassFish 7.0|com.sun.enterprise.server.logging.LogManagerService|_ThreadID=1;_ThreadName=main;_LevelValue=800;|
Using property file: /app/appservers/glassfish8/glassfish/domains/domain1/config/logging.properties|#]

[#|2022-08-02T18:16:29.755356+02:00|INFO|GlassFish 7.0|com.sun.enterprise.server.logging.LogManagerService|_ThreadID=1;_ThreadName=main;_LevelValue=800;_MessageID=NCLS-LOGGING-00009;|
Running GlassFish Version: Eclipse GlassFish  7.0.0  (build master-b827-g71a6150 2022-08-01T11:18:51+0200)|#]

The formatter has following properties:

  • excludedFields - comma separated list of fields which should not be printed. None by default. See Excluded Fields

  • fieldSeparator - String separating fields. Space by default.

  • multiline - if set to true (default), the end of line character is inserted before the log message.

  • printSequenceNumber - if set to true, logs the sequence number of each log record. Default is false.

  • printSource - if set to true, logs the class and method which created the log record. Default is false.

  • recordMarker.begin - the prefix of the log record, default is [#|.

  • recordMarker.end - the suffix of the log record, default is |#].

  • timestampFormat - see the DateTimeFormatter documentation. Default is ISO-8601 timestamp with microseconds and time zone.

OneLineFormatter

The org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.OneLineFormatter logs records in the following simple format:

22:50:43.174228    INFO                 main          com.sun.enterprise.server.logging.LogManagerService Using property file: /app/appservers/glassfish8/glassfish/domains/domain1/config/logging.properties
22:50:43.266648    INFO                 main          com.sun.enterprise.server.logging.LogManagerService Running GlassFish Version: Eclipse GlassFish  7.0.0  (build master-b827-g71a6150 2022-08-01T11:18:51+0200)

  • printSource - if set to true (default), logs the class and method which created the log record while when set to false it prefers the logger name.

  • size.level - number of characters taken by the level column. Default is 7.

  • size.thread - number of characters taken by the thread column. Default is 20.

  • size.class - number of characters taken by the class name column. Default is 60.

  • timestampFormat - see the DateTimeFormatter documentation. Default is ISO-8601 time with microseconds (not date, no timezone).

SimpleFormatter

The full name is java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter. It is a default formatter provided by the JDK, simple but very flexible. It’s most important property is format. Read the documentation of the SimpleFormatter class for more.

Using Asadmin

Each instance in an Eclipse GlassFish domain has a dedicated server.log file, and each instance and cluster has its own logging.properties file. To configure logging for an instance or a cluster, Eclipse GlassFish allows you target specific log files or logging properties files when you do the following:

  • Set log levels

  • Rotate server.log files or compress them into a ZIP archive

  • Change logging property attributes

  • List log levels or log attributes

The following subcommands optionally accept a target specification. A target can be a configuration name, server name, cluster name, or instance name, and is specified as either an operand or as a value passed using the --target option. If no target is specified when using any of these subcommands, the default target is the DAS.

Subcommand Description Target Specification

collect-log-files

Collects all available log files into a ZIP archive.

--target=target-name

list-log-attributes

Lists logging attributes in the logging properties file.

target-name operand

list-log-levels

Lists the loggers in the logging properties file and their log levels.

target-name operand

rotate-log

Rotates the log file by renaming it and creating a new log file to store new messages.

--target=target-name

set-log-attributes

Sets the specified logging attributes in the logging properties file.

--target=target-name

set-log-file-format

Sets the log file formatter.

--target=target-name

set-log-levels

Sets the log level for one or more loggers listed in the logging properties file.

--target=target-name

This section contains the following examples:

To Change the Location of the logging.properties File

You can set the name and location of the logging properties file by setting the java.util.logging.config.file system property.

You have to ensure that the output log file is always used by a single instance. In the default logging.properties it is ensured by using the ${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot} which always resolves to the instance’s root directory. Example:

org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.file=${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/logs/server.log

  1. Set the java.util.logging.config.file system property.

    asadmin create-jvm-options --target=server-config -Djava.util.logging.config.file=/logging.properties

    Alternatively, you can use the Administration Console to set this system property.

  2. To apply your change, restart all instances using this configuration. In our case it would be the DAS:

    asadmin restart-domain

To Change the Location of the Log File

Even in complex domain you can always find the right logging.properties file and update it manually. But probably safer is to use an asadmin command to do that.

To change the name and location of the log file, first use the list-log-attributes command to obtain the current log attribute setting for the log file name and location. Then use the set-log-attributes command to specify the new name or location. The default target for these two commands is the DAS. However, you can optionally specify one of the following targets:

  • Configuration name — to target all instances or clusters that share a specific configuration name.

  • Server name — to target only a specific server.

  • Instance name — to target only a specific instance.

  • Cluster name — to target only a specific cluster.

  1. Ensure that the DAS is running. Remote commands require a running server.

  2. Use the list-log-attributes command in remote mode to obtain the current log attribute settings. The name and location of the log file is set with the org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.file attribute of the logging properties file. Optionally you can target a configuration, server, instance, or cluster. If you do not specify a target, the log attribute settings for the DAS are displayed.

  3. Use the set-log-attributes command in remote mode to define a custom name or location of the log file. If you do not specify a target, the log file for the DAS is targeted by default. If you target a cluster, the name of the cluster log file for each member instance can be changed (the server log file name cannot).

Example 7-1 Changing the Name and Location of a Cluster’s Log File

This example changes the name of the cluster log file for Cluster1 to cluster1.log. Cluster1 has two server instances: ClusterServer1 and ClusterServer2.

asadmin list-log-attributes Cluster1
handlers        <org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler,org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SimpleLogHandler,org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.buffer.capacity      <10000>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.buffer.timeoutInSeconds      <0>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.enabled      <true>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.encoding     <UTF-8>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.file <${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/logs/server.log>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.flushFrequency       <1>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter    <org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.ODLLogFormatter>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter.excludedFields     <>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter.multiline  <true>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter.printSource        <false>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.redirectStandardStreams      <true>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.compress    <false>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.limit.megabytes     <100>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.limit.minutes       <0>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.maxArchiveFiles     <0>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.rollOnDateChange    <false>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SimpleLogHandler.formatter       <org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.UniformLogFormatter>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SimpleLogHandler.formatter.excludedFields        <>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SimpleLogHandler.formatter.printSource   <false>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SimpleLogHandler.useErrorStream  <true>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler.buffer.capacity    <5000>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler.buffer.timeoutInSeconds    <300>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler.enabled    <false>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler.encoding   <UTF-8>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler.formatter  <java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler.host       <>
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.SyslogHandler.port       <514>
Command list-log-attributes executed successfully.

asadmin set-log-attributes --target Cluster1 org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.file=\${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/logs/cluster1.log

org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.file logging attribute value set to ${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/logs/cluster1.log.
The logging attributes are saved successfully for cluster-config.

Command set-log-attributes executed successfully.

asadmin list-log-attributes ClusterServer1
...
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.file <${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/logs/cluster1.log>
...

asadmin list-log-attributes ClusterServer2
...
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.file <${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/logs/cluster1.log>
...

See Also

You can view the full syntax and options of these subcommands by typing asadmin help list-log-attributes and asadmin help set-log-attributes at the command line.

Setting Log Levels

The log level determines the granularity of the message as it is described in the chapter Level.

When setting log levels, you can target a configuration, server, instance, or cluster.

Setting log levels is done by using the set-log-levels subcommand. Listing log levels is done by using the list-log-levels subcommand.

The following topics are addressed here:

To List Logger Levels

Eclipse GlassFish provides the means to list all loggers and their log levels. Listing the loggers provides a convenient means to view current loggers and log levels either prior to or after making log level changes.

Use the list-log-levels subcommand in remote mode to list the modules and their current log levels. The default target for this subcommand is the DAS. However, you can optionally specify one of the following targets:

  • Configuration name — to target all instances or clusters that share a specific configuration name.

  • Server name — to target a specific server.

  • Instance name — to target a specific instance.

  • Cluster name — to target a specific cluster.

    1. Ensure that the DAS is running. Remote subcommands require a running server.

    2. List the existing module loggers and log levels by using the list-log-levels subcommand.

Example 7-2 Listing Logger Levels for DAS

This example shows a partial list of the existing loggers and their log levels in the DAS.

asadmin list-log-levels
MBeans  <INFO>
com.sun.enterprise.glassfish.bootstrap  <INFO>
com.sun.enterprise.glassfish    <INFO>
com.sun.enterprise.security     <INFO>
com.sun.webui   <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.admin.rest.client    <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.admin.rest.connector <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.admin.rest   <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.bootstrap    <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.cluster.gms.admin    <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.cluster.gms.bootstrap        <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.cluster.gms  <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.concurrent   <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.config.api   <INFO>
...
Command list-log-levels executed successfully.

Example 7-3 Listing Logger Levels for an Instance

This example shows a partial list of the loggers and log levels for the instance MyServer2.

asadmin list-log-levels MyServer2
MBeans  <INFO>
com.sun.enterprise.glassfish.bootstrap  <INFO>
com.sun.enterprise.glassfish    <INFO>
com.sun.enterprise.security     <INFO>
com.sun.webui   <INFO>
cz.acme.level   <ALL>
jakarta.enterprise.admin.rest.client    <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.admin.rest.connector <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.admin.rest   <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.bootstrap    <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.cluster.gms.admin    <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.cluster.gms.bootstrap        <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.cluster.gms  <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.concurrent   <INFO>
jakarta.enterprise.config.api   <INFO>
...
Command list-log-levels executed successfully.

See Also

You can view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help list-log-levels at the command line.

To Set the Logger Log Level

You will probably need to set logger levels most often. Let’s imagine that you would need to set the most verbose logging of an application using the org.acme package (and logger names).

Logs may contain sensitive information. Despite the Eclipse GlassFish in default configuration doesn’t log any passwords, before you share logs with anyone else you should verify that you don’t compromise your system by any information contained in logs, especially if you configured more verbose log levels.

Then you can edit the logging.properties file directly, what can be quite more complicated it you use more than one instance, see the warning.

Safer is to use the set-log-levels subcommand:

Example 7-5 Changing the Logger Log Level for a Cluster

asadmin set-log-levels --target Cluster1 org.acme=ALL
org.acme package set with log level ALL.These logging levels are set for Cluster1.
Command set-log-levels executed successfully.

Example 7-5 Setting Log Levels for Multiple Loggers

The following example sets the log level for security and web container loggers in the DAS.

asadmin set-log-levels jakarta.enterprise.system.core.security=FINE\
:jakarta.enterprise.system.container.web=WARNING
jakarta.enterprise.system.core.security package set with log level FINE.jakarta.enterprise.system.container.web package set with log level WARNING.These logging levels are set for server.
Command set-log-levels executed successfully.

See Also

You can view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help set-log-levels at the command line.

To Set the Handler Log Level

The handler log level specifies a severity level filter to prevent overloading of the handler. Default value is usually given by handler’s implementation and reflect targets and expected throughput of the handler. For example, you would not want to send all FINEST LogRecords by e-mail, but you would like to see them in a local log file.

Because JUL uses the same property syntax for Logger levels as for Handler levels you can use both set-log-levels and set-log-attributes subcommands to get the same result (with a bit different syntax).

Both commands in remote mode. The default target for this subcommand is the DAS. However, you can optionally specify one of the following targets using the --target option:

  • Configuration name — to target all instances or clusters that share a specific configuration name.

  • Server name — to target a specific server.

  • Instance name — to target a specific instance.

  • Cluster name — to target a specific cluster.

  1. Ensure that the DAS is running.

  2. Set the log level by using the set-log-attributes subcommand, specifying the log level of the org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler handler. For example:

    org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler <ALL>

Example 7-6 Changing the Handler Log Level

This example sets the log level for GlassFishLogHandler in the DAS to INFO:

asadmin set-log-attributes org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.level=INFO

org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.level logging attribute value set to INFO.
The logging attributes are saved successfully for server.

Command set-log-attributes executed successfully.

See Also

You can view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help set-log-attributes at the command line.

Setting the Log File Format

You can set the format for log records in log files. The following topics are addressed here:

To Set the Log File Format

Use the set-log-file-format subcommand in remote mode to set the formatter used by Eclipse GlassFish to format log records in log files. This command is limited to the GlassFishLogHandler settings. You can also use the set-log-attributes subcommand which is more flexible. Log formats for all server instances in a cluster will be the same. For information about log formats, see Formatters.

Changing the log format forces log rotation to avoid mixed format in the same file.

  1. Ensure that the DAS is running. Remote commands require a running server.

  2. Set the formatter by using the set-log-file-format subcommand.

  3. To apply your change, restart affected instances or clusters with the synchronization enabled.

Example 7-7 Setting the Log File Format using set-log-file-format

This example sets the log file format to OneLineFormatter for standalone instance ManagedServer1 using the set-log-file-format subcommand.

asadmin set-log-file-format --target ManagedServer1 org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.OneLineFormatter
The log file formatter is set to org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.OneLineFormatter for instance server.
Command set-log-file-format executed successfully.

Example 7-8 Setting the Log File Format using set-log-attributes

This example sets the log file format to ULF for standalone instance ManagedServer1 using the set-log-attributes subcommand.

asadmin set-log-attributes --target ManagedServer1 \
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter=org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.OneLineFormatter

org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter logging attribute value set to org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.OneLineFormatter.
The logging attributes are saved successfully for ManagedServer1-config.

Command set-log-attributes executed successfully.

See Also

You can view the full syntax and options of the set-log-file-format subcommand by typing asadmin help set-log-file-format at the command line. You can view the full syntax and options of the set-log-attributes subcommand by typing asadmin help set-log-attributes at the command line.

To Exclude Fields in Logs

Use the set-log-attributes subcommand in remote mode to exclude specific name-value fields from log records. If the excludeFields attribute is not specified, all name-value fields are included. The following fields can be excluded:

  • tid

  • levelVal

  1. Ensure that the DAS is running. Remote commands require a running server.

  2. Exclude fields by using the set-log-attributes subcommand, specifying the attribute and the fields to exclude.

  3. To apply your change, restart Eclipse GlassFish.

Example 7-9 Excluding Fields in the ODLLogFormatter

This example excludes the tid (thread ID and name) and levelValue (numerical value of the Level) name-value fields in log records for standalone instance ManagedServer1:

asadmin set-log-attributes --target ManagedServer1 \
org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.ODLLogFormatter.excludedFields=tid,levelValue

org.glassfish.main.jul.formatter.ODLLogFormatter.excludedFields logging attribute value set to tid,levelValue.
The logging attributes are saved successfully for ManagedServer1-config.

Command set-log-attributes executed successfully.

If there’s the same attribute of the handler’s formatter property, it has higher priority.

Example 7-10 Excluding Fields in the GlassFishLogHandler

This example excludes the tid (thread ID and name) and levelValue (numerical value of the Level) name-value fields in log records for standalone instance ManagedServer1:

asadmin set-log-attributes --target ManagedServer1 \
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter.excludedFields=tid,levelValue

org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter.excludedFields logging attribute value set to tid,levelValue.
The logging attributes are saved successfully for ManagedServer1-config.

Command set-log-attributes executed successfully.

See Also

You can view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help set-log-attributes at the command line.

To Disable Multiline Mode

Use the set-log-attributes command in remote mode to disable the multiline mode. When multiline mode is enabled (the default), the body of a log message starts on a new line after the message header and is indented.

  1. Ensure that the DAS is running. Remote commands require a running server.

  2. Set multiline mode by using the set-log-attributes subcommand, specifying the formatter attribute and its value (true or false):

  3. To apply your change, restart the instance.

Example 7-11 Disabling the Multiline Mode in the log file

Multiline mode is enabled by default. The following example disables multiline mode in log files for standalone instance ManagedServer1:

asadmin set-log-attributes --target ManagedServer1 \
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter.multiline=false

org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.formatter.multiline logging attribute value set to false.
The logging attributes are saved successfully for ManagedServer1-config.

Command set-log-attributes executed successfully.

See Also

You can view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help set-log-attributes at the command line.

Setting Log File Rotation

As explained in The Server Log File, Eclipse GlassFish by default rotates the server.log file when it’s size exceeds 100 MB. However, you can change the default rotation settings. For example, you can change the file size limit at which the server rotates the log file or you can configure a server to rotate log files based on a time interval. In addition to changing when rotation occurs, you can also:

  • Specify the maximum number of rotated files that can accumulate. By default, Eclipse GlassFish does not limit the number of rotated log files that are retained. However, you can set a limit. After the number of log files reaches this limit, subsequent file rotations delete the oldest rotated log file.

  • Rotate the log file manually. A manual rotation forces the immediate rotation of the target log file.

Changing the default log rotation settings is done using the set-log-attributes subcommand, and rotating log files manually is done using the rotate-log subcommand, as explained in the following sections:

To Change the Rotation File Size

Use the set-log-attributes subcommand in remote mode to change the log rotation file size. The default target of this subcommand is the DAS. Optionally, you can target a configuration, server, instance, or cluster.

  1. Ensure that the DAS is running.

  2. Change the rotation file size limit by using the set-log-attributes subcommand, specifying the attribute and the desired limit in megabytes:

    org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.limit.megabytes=1000

  3. Changes will be applied automatically after saving the change to the instance’s logging.properties file.

Example 7-12 Changing the Rotation Size

The following example sets the log file rotation size to 1 MB for the standalone instance ManagedServer1:

asadmin set-log-attributes --target ManagedServer1 \
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.limit.megabytes=1000

org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.limit.megabytes logging attribute value set to 1000.
The logging attributes are saved successfully for ManagedServer1-config.

Command set-log-attributes executed successfully.

See Also

You can view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help set-log-attributes at the command line.

To Change the File Rotation Interval

Use the set-log-attributes subcommand in remote mode to change the log file rotation time limit interval. The default target of this subcommand is the DAS. Optionally, you can target a configuration, server, instance, or cluster. The default value is 0.

  1. Ensure that the DAS is running.

  2. Change the rotation time limit by using the set-log-attributes subcommand, specifying the following attribute and the desired limit in minutes:

    org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.limit.minutes=minutes

  3. Changes will be applied automatically after saving the change to the instance’s logging.properties file.

Example 7-13 Changing the Rotation Interval

The following example sets the log file rotation time limit for the cluster Cluster1, and all it’s instances.

asadmin set-log-attributes --target Cluster1 \
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.limit.minutes=60

org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.limit.minutes logging attribute value set to 60.
The logging attributes are saved successfully for cluster-config.

Command set-log-attributes executed successfully.

See Also

You can view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help set-log-attributes at the command line.

To Change the Limit Number of Archive Log Files

Use the set-log-attributes subcommand in remote mode to change the limit on the number of log files that the server creates to store old log messages. The default target of this subcommand is the DAS. Optionally, you can target a configuration, server, instance, or cluster. The default limit value is 0, which results in no limit placed on the number of rotated log files that are retained.

  1. Ensure that the DAS is running.

  2. Change the limit number of retained log files by using the set-log-attributes subcommand, specifying the following attribute and the desired file limit number:

    org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.maxArchiveFiles=number

  3. Changes will be applied automatically after saving the change to the instance’s effective logging.properties file.

Example 7-14 Changing the Limit Number of Archived Log Files

The following example sets the log limit number of retained log files for the DAS to 10.

asadmin set-log-attributes \
org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.maxArchiveFiles=10

org.glassfish.main.jul.handler.GlassFishLogHandler.rotation.maxArchiveFiles logging attribute value set to 10.
The logging attributes are saved successfully for server.

Command set-log-attributes executed successfully.

See Also

You can view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help set-log-attributes at the command line.

To Rotate Log Files Manually

You can rotate log files manually by using the rotate-log subcommand in remote mode. The default target of this subcommand is the DAS. Optionally, you can target a configuration, server, instance, or cluster. When you use this subcommand, the target log file is immediately moved to a new time-stamped file and a new log file is created.

Because log rotation is a dynamic operation, you do not need to restart Eclipse GlassFish for changes to take effect.

  1. Ensure that the target server or cluster is running.

  2. Rotate log files by using the rotate-log subcommand.

Example 7-15 Rotating Log Files Manually

The following example rotates the server.log file for ManagedServer2 to server.log_yyyy-mm-dd`T`hh-mm-ss, where yyyy-mm-dd`T`hh-mm-ss represents the time when the file is rotated, and creates a new server.log file.

asadmin rotate-log --target ManagedServer2
Rotated log on instance named 'ManagedServer2'.
Command rotate-log executed successfully.

See Also

You can view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help rotate-log at the command line.

Viewing Log Records

The recommended means for general viewing of logging information is to use the Log Viewer in the Administration Console. The Log Viewer simplifies reading, searching, and filtering log file contents. For instructions, see the Administration Console online help.

Eclipse GlassFish also allows you to collect log files into a ZIP archive, which provides the means to obtain and view log files for an instance or cluster even when it is not currently running. The following section explains how to collect all available log files for an instance or cluster and compile them into a single ZIP archive, which is done by using the collect-log-files subcommand.

To Collect Log Files into a ZIP Archive

Use the collect-log-files subcommand in remote mode to collect log files into a ZIP archive. The default target of this subcommand is the DAS. Optionally you can target a configuration, server, instance, or cluster.

  1. Ensure that the target server or cluster is running. Remote subcommands require a running server.

  2. Use the collect-log-files subcommand to create the ZIP archive.

    The default location in which the ZIP archive is created is the domain-dir/collected-logs directory. The collect-log-files subcommand allows you to specify a nondefault directory in which the ZIP archive is to be created by using the --retrieve option set to true, followed by the directory name.

    The name of the ZIP file contains the timestamp, as follows:

    log_yyyy-mm-dd_hh-min-sec.zip

Example 7-16 Collecting and Downloading Log Files as a ZIP File

This example shows collecting the log files for the cluster Cluster1 and compiling them into a ZIP archive in the /tmp/space/output directory.

asadmin collect-log-files --target Cluster1 --retrieve true /tmp/space/output
Log files are downloaded for ClusterServer1.
Log files are downloaded for ClusterServer2.
Created Zip file under /tmp/space/output/log_2022-08-06_14-57-53.zip.
Command collect-log-files executed successfully.

When the ZIP file created by the preceding command is uncompressed, the following directory structure is created:

as-install-parent/
  glassfish/
    domains/
      domain-dir/
        collected_logs/
          logs/
            ClusterServer1/
              server.log
            ClusterServer2/
              server.log

See Also

You can view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help collect-log-files at the command line.

Listing Loggers

You can list and view information about all public loggers in your distribution of Eclipse GlassFish.

To List Loggers

Use the list-loggers subcommand in remote mode to list the logger name, subsystem, and description of subsystem loggers in your distribution of Eclipse GlassFish. Class name based loggers are not listed.

  1. Ensure that the DAS is running. Remote commands require a running server.

  2. List loggers by using the list-loggers subcommand.

Example 7-17 Listing Loggers

This example lists the logger name, subsystem, and description for each logger. Some lines of output are omitted from this example for readability.

asadmin list-loggers
Logger Name                                  Subsystem               Logger Description
...
jakarta.enterprise.system.core                CORE                   Core Kernel
jakarta.enterprise.system.core.ee             AS-CORE                Jakarta EE Core Kernel
jakarta.enterprise.system.core.security       SECURITY               Core Security
jakarta.enterprise.system.core.security.web   SECURITY               Core-ee Security Logger
jakarta.enterprise.system.jmx                 JMX                    JMX System Logger
jakarta.enterprise.system.security.ssl        SECURITY - SSL         Security - SSL
...
Command list-loggers executed successfully.

See Also

You can also view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help list-loggers at the command line.

As an alternative you can take a look into the default-logging.properties file which should contain all useful basic loggers set to a default level. The same cofiguration is distributed in the new domain1’s logging.properties file, so you can print all actual logger names and levels as we described in To List Logger Levels.