Application Server records events, errors, and other useful information in several log files. These tools are useful for finding information about Application Server usage and troubleshooting problems.
Note that the Application Server-specific log files only record information about Application Server; they do not record usage information about your intranet site in general. Your Web server log, in contrast, normally does record information about the entire site managed by the server.
Application Server also sends email alert messages for certain errors. For details about the email alerts, see Configuring Email Settings for Application Server.
This section covers the following topics:
- Available Log Files
- Logging Level
- Rotating File Logger
- Information Recorded in the Application Server Log Files
Available Log Files
Application Server provides the following log files:
- InterAction Log File
- Java Servlet Engine Log Files
- Application Server W3C Log File
- Windows Event Viewer
- Web Server Log File
InterAction Log File
The InterAction log file records any errors the Application Server encounters during startup and processing. It also records information messages when starting Application server, loading configuration files, caching data, and responding to browser requests.
This file is located in the following location:
[Drive]:\Program Files\LexisNexis\InterAction\AppServer\logs
The InterAction log file supports seven logging levels. See Logging Level for details.
The InterAction log file also supports a “rotating” log file feature. See Rotating File Logger.
Java Servlet Engine Log Files
These files record the errors, the events, and the standard text output for the Java servlet engine component of Application Server.
There are three Java servlet engine log files:
- InterAction-err.log - records any Java servlet engine errors during startup and processing.
- InterAction-event.log - records actions taken by the Java servlet engine.
- InterAction-out.log - this is the standard output for the Java servlet engine.
These files are located in the following location:
[Drive]:\Program Files\LexisNexis\InterAction\AppServer\logs
Application Server W3C Log File
This file tracks statistics of method requests using a standard Web log format. You can use this log file with Web tracking/analyzing software to gather information about Application Server usage.
The name and location of this log file is set in the w3cLogFile variable in the InterAction.cfg file. By default, this is the following:
w3cLogFile = $(IRIS_LOG_DIR)/w3c.log
In a new Application Server installation, this log file is turned off.
By default, the InterAction.cfg file is located here:
[Drive]:\Program Files\LexisNexis\InterAction\AppServer\iahome\
Windows Event Viewer
In a Windows Server environment, Application Server can also log events to the Windows Event Viewer.
Normally, you do not need to turn on this option, as the other files provide sufficient logging. If you want to record events, set the following option in the InterAction.cfg file:
enableNTEventLog = true
This is useful if you want to centralize logging for all applications at your site or monitor the Windows Event Viewer remotely.
Web Server Log File
The Web server normally records log files. These files contain information about Application Server requests and responses, as well as the rest of the site managed by the server. Use your Web server software to configure this logging.
Logging Level
The logging level controls the events recorded in the InterAction log file. To set the logging level, set the logLevel variable in the InterAction.cfg file to the desired value.
The InterAction.cfg file is located here: \Program Files\LexisNexis\InterAction\AppServer\iahome\
The logging level is set with either an integer or with a level name. For example, you could set it to the following:
logLevel = 1
This setting gives you the Config, Info, Warning, and Severe logging levels. If you set the level to the following:
logLevel = Info
you would only get the Info, Warning, and Severe logging levels.
The following table summarizes the available logging levels.
Application Server Logging Levels
| Logging Level | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Number | Name | |
| Severe | Serious errors | |
| 0 | Warning | Warnings |
| Info | General information | |
| 1 | Config | Configuration information |
| 2 | Fine | More detailed information |
| 3 | Finer | High-level debugging information |
| 4 | Finest | Fine-grained debugging information |
In general, only use logging levels 2, 3, and 4 when requested to do so by LexisNexis InterAction Technical Support while troubleshooting a problem. Otherwise, the log files grow very large.
Changing the Logging Level in the Web Client
On the Admin page of the Web Client, you can quickly change the logging level to 1 or 2. This change does not update the logLevel value in the InterAction.cfg file, however. It is only a temporary setting which reverts back to the InterAction.cfg setting once the InterAction Application Server restarts.
You must be an Application Server Administrative User to access the Admin page on the Web Client. See Application Server Administrative Users.
Rotating File Logger
Each night at midnight, the InterAction log file “rotates” the log by closing the current log and opening a new one. The current date is included in the file name, for example, InterAction-20040811.log.
The maxLogHistory parameter in the InterAction.cfg file controls how many days worth of logs are kept. When the log rotates, the Application Server deletes any log files older than the specified number of days. The default setting is 30.
Information Recorded in the Application Server Log Files
The InterAction log file records all errors and warnings that occur when Application Server starts up and when users access pages through Web Client.
Note that the same error or warning may appear several times in the log file. This is because the same error may occur every time a particular action takes place, such as every time Application Server refreshes the cache.
Every item in the error log always begins with the date and time of the error. The time is in 24-hour notation:
Thu Dec 28 10:59:23 CST 2000 - WARNING: duplicate client ids for client 1234
Noting the date and time can help you interpret the log, because you can identify messages that were recorded at approximately the same time in response to the same action.
There are three types of errors and warnings that might occur:
- Data Integrity Errors
- Warnings
- Java Exception Errors
Data Integrity Errors
Data integrity errors occur if there is a problem with the data in the InterAction database. These always start with the text “Data Integrity Error” in the log file, for example:
Data Integrity Error multiple global Business apes of the same type: listing id: 2/43598 ape class: com.interaction.ia.ElectronicAddress
To find these errors, use a text editor to search the log file for “Data Integrity.”
Application Server sends an email message about data integrity errors when initially loading the InterAction data into the cache. After the initial load, the errors are recorded in the log as warnings, so additional email messages are not sent. All data integrity errors are put into a single email message.
The error recorded in the Application Server log includes the specific problem, the ID of the contact that caused the problem, and an indicator for the type of phone or address. The contact ID is given in the following format:
Contact Source ID/Contact ID
In the example above, the contact causing the problem has a contact source ID of 2 and a contact ID of 43598. The contact has multiple global Business electronic addresses with the same type.
Data integrity problems may occur in rare cases if there are problems with your database or if two users edit the same information at the same time. Examples of these errors include:
- Contacts with multiple global business phones or addresses. Normally this situation is not allowed, but it can happen in rare cases.
- Contacts with multiple global mailing addresses. Again, this situation should be rare.
To fix these problems, find the contacts and correct the data in InterAction. You can search on contact ID. See Search InterAction for a Specific Contact ID.
Warnings
A data integrity warning occurs if data stored in InterAction does not conform to Application Server’s business rules. For example, if two contacts have the same client ID, the following message is written to the log:
contact: 2/47 and contact: 2/50 have duplicate client ids: 1234
To fix these problems, find the contacts and correct the data in InterAction. You can use a search to find the contacts. For example, if two contacts have the same client number, search the additional field for the client number in InterAction.
Java Exception Errors
A Java error occurs if Application Server encounters a problem that prevents processing. Users may see problems in the Web Client if Java errors are occurring. The following is an example of a Java error:
Thu Dec 28 10:59:23 CST 2000 - (at java.lang.Exception.<init>(Unknown Source)) CustomDef not found in profile: company-general for CustomDef id: 0/32
For some errors, the log file includes additional information about the error. This information may be useful if you need to work with LexisNexis InterAction Technical Support to troubleshoot a problem.
Application Server also sends an email alert with the same information from the log file. For details about the recipient of these messages, see Configuring Email Settings for Application Server.
The main part of the message you need is the error message text after the parenthesis. In the above example, this is the message text:
CustomDef not found in profile: company-general for CustomDef id: 0/32)
These errors are normally the result of incorrect configuration files. For example, in the previous example, the profile configuration for the company-general profile is referring to an additional field that has not been defined in your InterAction environment. Similar errors include profile declarations that refer to folders or classifications that do not exist in your environment.
These types of configuration errors cause problems for users. If a Web Client user tries to access a profile that has one of these errors, he or she will likely encounter errors or unexpected results in the Web pages.
These types of problems might occur if you configure Application Server with a test environment, then switch to a production environment. To correct these types of problems, update the Application Server configuration files for your InterAction environment.
If you are unable to troubleshoot an error, contact LexisNexis InterAction Technical Support and provide the log file or email alert with the error message text.
Generating Log Files for Specific Users
The InterAction log file records all errors the Application Server encounters during startup and processing. You may find it useful to create a separate log file for a particular user or a set of users. For example, a log file for a single user can help you focus on troubleshooting an issue for that particular user.
To create a log file for specific users, set the following parameter in the InterAction.cfg file, using semicolons to separate the user account names:
logusers = userA;userB
For example, for users jtarnoff and eroberts:
logusers = jtarnoff;eroberts
When the InterAction log file rotates to create a new log file for the day, the standard log file is created as well as any additional user log files you have specified.
In the example above, the following three log files are created
for 9/26/2011:
- InterAction-20110926.log
- InterAction-20110926_jtarnoff.log
- InterAction-20110926_eroberts.log
Search InterAction for a Specific Contact ID
- Log in to Windows Client as the system administrator. This gives you access to all contacts in the database.
- In InterAction, choose Folder > New > Search.
- On the Folders tab, select Search ALL folders to which the current user has READ access.
- Choose the Criteria tab.
- Choose Add. Expand the Contact Conditions item, then expand the Object Identifier option.
-
Select Contact ID and choose OK.
- Enter the contact ID that you want to find in the Value edit box and choose OK.
- Repeat steps 5-6, but select the Contact Source ID condition instead.
- Enter the contact source ID for the contact that you want to find in the Value edit box, and choose OK.
- Make sure both conditions appear in the dialog box with And between them, and then choose Search Now to find the contact.