MILESTONE level logging for SOAP SDM Web Services

Products

• CA Service Desk Manager
• CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager

Issue/Introduction

How can we find out more information about web services sessions, such as login time, login user, IP address of the logged in user, and  API call?

Environment

CA Service Desk Manager 17.x

Resolution

Use the following commands to install the WEBSVC_LOGGING option and then recycle the CA Service Desk Manager (CA SDM) service(s):

pdm_options_mgr -c -s WEBSVC_LOGGING -v 1 -a pdm_option.inst 

pdm_options_mgr -c -s WEBSVC_LOGGING -v 1 -a pdm_option.inst -t 

Note: You must run the commands and recycle the CA SDM services as per the best practices for the configuration type of the environment (i.e. Conventional primary/secondaries or Advanced Availability). 

The information that is logged for every web services session includes the IP address from where the request originated, the username, the web services method being called, the Session ID, and the timestamp of the request.

You will find the logging under NX_ROOT\log\jsrvr.log.  

Sample Output:

INFO USDLogHandler ? USDJWS: <timestamp> - xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx - <username> : login 
INFO usdjws65 ? Web Services session created <SID> from caller IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 
INFO USDLogHandler ? USDJWS: <timestamp> - xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx - <SID>: doSelect - objectType=pcat, whereClause=tenant.name 

In the above, xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx would be replaced with a real IP address. 

There may be some level of performance impact due to I/O and also quicker filling up and rolling over of the jsrvr logs. 

Per best practice, try it out in a test environment first.

Additional Information

The above logging will generate information on the web services calls that are being made, which includes some statistical data about the calls.  

For more extensive, DEBUG and TRACE level logging, which exposes additional details about the SOAP calls being made as well as other interactions such as Attachments and Exports, please review KB Article 137240.  However, the logging details that are generated via the instructions in this KB Article (enabling the  WEBSVC_LOGGING options) are not exposed as part of the logging configuration described in KB Article 137240.  Both methods may be needed to obtain a fuller picture of the web services activity, depending on the situation.