Process Logs Test

Logs related to the core server types – namely, Central Management server, Adaptive Processing server and Adaptive Job server - are periodically checked by this test, so that critical problem events can be quickly captured and resolved.

Target of the test : A SAP BOBI Node

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Server Abbreviation configured.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test period

How often should the test be executed

Host

Specify the host for which the test is to be configured.

PortNo

The port number at which the specified host listens.

Log Directory

This is the directory to which logs from various nodes installed on a host are written. Typically, these logs are written to ‘*.glf’ files in the ‘logging’ directory of the BOBI installation. If SAP BOBI is installed in the C drive of a Windows host, the logging directory will be available in the following location by default: C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\

Server Abbreviations

Log file names are generally of the following format : <server abbreviation>_<node name>.<server type>*.glf’ For e.g., cms_SAPBOBI.CentralManagementServer_trace.001284 is one of the log trace files from the Central Management Server running in the node called SAPBOBI. Server abbreviation in this case is cms. The default value for this parameter has hence been set as a comma separated list of server descriptions and their abbreviations as follows : <server description>:<server abbreviation>.  For trace files of the Central Management Server, Adaptive Processing Server and Adaptive Job Server, this parameter has been by default set as: Central Management Servers:CMS,Adaptive Processing Servers:aps,Adaptive Job Servers:jobserver.

SearchPattern

Enter the specific patterns of messages to be monitored. The pattern should be in the following format: <PatternName>:<Pattern>, where <PatternName> is the pattern name that will be displayed in the monitor interface and <Pattern> is an expression of the form - *expr* or expr or *expr or expr*, etc. A leading '*' signifies any number of leading characters, while a trailing '*' signifies any number of trailing characters.  

For example, say you specify ORA:ORA-* in the SearchPattern text box. This indicates that "ORA" is the pattern name to be displayed in the monitor interface. "ORA-*" indicates that the test will monitor only those lines in the log file which start with the term "ORA-". Similarly, if your pattern specification reads: offline:*offline, then it means that the pattern name is offline and that the test will monitor those lines in the log file which end with the term offline.

A single pattern may also be of the form e1+e2, where + signifies an OR condition. That is, the <PatternName> is matched if either e1 is true or e2 is true.

Multiple search patterns can be specified as a comma-separated list. For example: ORA:ORA-*,offline:*offline*,online:*online.

Each of these patterns will be searched for in every log file that is present in the configured Log Directory.

Lines

Specify two numbers in the format x:y. This means that when a line in the log file matches a particular pattern, then x lines before the matched line and y lines after the matched line will be reported in the detail diagnosis output (in addition to the matched line). The default value here is 0:0. Multiple entries can be provided as a comma-separated list. 

If you give 1:1 as the value for Lines, then this value will be applied to all the patterns specified in the SearchPattern field. If you give 0:0,1:1,2:1 as the value for Lines and if the corresponding value in the SearchPattern field is like ORA:ORA-*,offline:*offline*,online:*online then:

0:0 will be applied to ORA:ORA-* pattern

1:1 will be applied to offline:*offline* pattern

2:1 will be applied to online:*online pattern

ExcludePattern

Provide a comma-separated list of patterns to be excluded from monitoring in the ExcludePattern text box. For example *critical*,*exception*. By default, this parameter is set to 'none'

UniqueMatch

By default, the UniqueMatch parameter is set to False, indicating that, by default, the test checks every line in the log file for the existence of each of the configured SearchPatterns. By setting this parameter to True, you can instruct the test to ignore a line and move to the next as soon as a match for one of the configured patterns is found in that line. For example, assume that Pattern1:*fatal*,Pattern2:*error* is the SearchPattern that has been configured. If UniqueMatch is set to False, then the test will read every line in the log file completely to check for the existence of messages embedding the strings 'fatal' and 'error'. If both the patterns are detected in the same line, then the number of matches will be incremented by 2. On the other hand, if UniqueMatch is set to True, then the test will read a line only until a match for one of the configured patterns is found and not both. This means that even if the strings 'fatal' and 'error' follow one another in the same line, the test will consider only the first match and not the next. The match count in this case will therefore be incremented by only 1.

RotatingFile

This flag governs the display of descriptors for this test in the eG monitoring console.

If this flag is set to True, the descriptors of this test will be displayed in the following format: <Full_Path_to_LogDirectory>:<ServerAbbreviation>. For instance, if the log directory parameter is set to c:\SAPBOBI\logs and RotatingFile is set to True, then, your descriptor will be of the following format: c:\SAPBOBI\logs:<ServerAbbreviation>. On the other hand, if the RotatingFile flag had been set to False, then the descriptors will be of the following format: <LogDirectory>:<ServerAbbreviation> - i.e., logs:<ServerAbbreviation> in the case of the example above. 

UseUTF8

If UTF-8 encoding is to be used for reading the log files in the configured log directory, then, set the UseUTF8 flag to True. By default, this flag is set to False.

UseUTF16

If UTF-16 encoding is to be used for reading the log files in the configured log directory, then, set the USEUTF16 flag to True. By default, this flag is set to False.

EncodeFormat

By default, this is set to none, indicating that no encoding format applies by default. However, if the test has to use a specific encoding format for reading from the log files in the log directory, then you will have to provide a valid encoding format here - eg., UTF-8. 

Node Name

Specify the name of the BOBI node being monitored.

DD Frequency

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD frequency.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

High importance messages

Indicates the number of log messages with importance set to ‘high’ in the last measure period.

Messages

High importance designation for the log message is characterized by the ‘>=’ symbol. For each such message, detailed diagnosis provides the details such as location (message source), timestamp, trace category, server, message, user etc.

Highest importance messages

Indicates the number of log messages with importance set as ‘highest’ in the last measure period.

Messages

Highest importance designation for the log message is characterized by the ‘>>’ symbol. For each such message, detailed diagnosis provides the details such as location (message source), timestamp, trace category, server, message, user etc.,

Errors

Indicates the number of error log messages in the last measure period.

Messages

Error log messages have Severity values set to ‘E’. For each such message, detailed diagnosis provides the details such as Location (message source), timestamp, trace category, server, message, user etc.

Asserts

Indicates the number of Assert log messages in the last measure period.

Messages

Assert log messages have Severity values set to ‘A’. For each such message, detailed diagnosis provides the details such as location (message source), timestamp, trace category, server, message, user etc.,

Fatal messages

Indicates the number of fatal log messages in the last measure period.

Messages

Fatal log messages have severity values set to ‘F’. For each such message, detailed diagnosis provides the details such as location (message source), timestamp, trace category, server, message, user etc.,

New messages

 

Indicates the number of log messages in the last measure period.

Messages

 

Problem messages rate

Indicates the rate of all problem messages in the last measure period.

Messages/Sec

A high value is a cause for concern as it indicates that problems are occurring frequently. Compare the value of this measure across server abbreviations to identify the server that is the most problem-prone.