Excluding scheduled task messages from fs-server.log

Author: isenberg
Publication Date: 1/12/2016 10:18

This addendum extents

    PDF: Manual for Administrators

    Section: 4.3.6 Logging configuration (fs-logging.conf)

With the default configuration after installation, the FirstSpirit Server collects all log messages in the following files in folder firstspirit5/log:

• fs-wrapper.log: stdout/stderr from Java process and diagnostics of Java Wrapper about Java process
• fs-server.log: common FirstSpirit Server logs, scheduled tasks for page generation and deployment, preview generation, authentication, module installation, SQL database connection
• fs-gc.log: garbage collection by Java process
• fs-client.log: error and warning messages from SiteArchitect clients
• fs-webapp-HOSTNAME-PORT.log: FirstSpirit WebApps
• log/fs-schedule.SCHEDULE-ID.EXECUTION-ID.ACTION-ID.log: each scheduled task's output is written to a single file

The log messages of scheduled tasks are duplicated in fs-schedule.*.log and fs-server.log. That means on servers with a large number of projects or a high frequency of schedule task executions, the common fs-server.log can get flooded with thousands of lines per minute.

To improve readability of the fs-server.log for system administrators, who are usually not responsible for managing scheduled task of individual FirstSpirit projects, this additional configuration should be applied. It creates a new file fs-main.log containing all messages from fs-server.log except those producted by the scheduled tasks. That means, the FirstSpirit ServerMonitor will be usable in the same way as before, showing all scheduled task messages in the section "Logfiles".

As it is not possible to change the content of fs-server.log without disabling the output to fs-schedule.*.log, this approach with adding an additional logfile is required.

Installation

1. Download apache-log4j-extras-1.2.17.jar from http://archive.apache.org/dist/logging/log4j/extras/1.2.17/ and copy it to firstspirit5/shared/lib/
2. Log in to the FirstSpirit start page as user with ServerAdmin role, i.e. username Admin, open the FirstSpirit ServerMonitor and navigate to Configuration -> Logging (fs-logging.conf)
3. Append ", fsmain" to the first line:
   

   log4j.rootCategory=INFO, fs, fsmain

4. After the last line add the following lines:

   # FirstSpirit server log without client, webapp and schedule task messages
   # requires apache-log4j-extras-1.2.17.jar from http://archive.apache.org/dist/logging/log4j/extras/1.2.17/
   # copied to firstspirit5/shared/lib/
   log4j.appender.fsmain=org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender
   log4j.appender.fsmain.File=log/fs-main.log
   log4j.appender.fsmain.MaxFileSize=5MB
   log4j.appender.fsmain.MaxBackupIndex=9
   log4j.appender.fsmain.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
   log4j.appender.fsmain.layout.ConversionPattern=%-5p %d{dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS} (%c): %m%n
   log4j.appender.fsmain.filter.1=org.apache.log4j.filter.ExpressionFilter
   log4j.appender.fsmain.filter.1.expression=(PROP.CW LIKE [a-zA-Z]+) || (PROP.CE LIKE [a-zA-Z]+) || (PROP.wHN LIKE [a-zA-Z]+) || (PROP.seID LIKE [0-9]+)
   log4j.appender.fsmain.filter.1.acceptOnMatch=false

5. Restart the FirstSpirit Server

Tags: admindoc