Configuring logging on the Notification Server and an Altiris Agent computer

Products

• IT Management Suite
• Client Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

How to configure logging on the Notification Server and on Altiris Agent computers

How to enable Verbose Logging

Environment

ITMS 8.x

Resolution

We've created Tasks to make the changes below.  Please see KB Altiris Diagnostic Tasks.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

NOTE: The below values are typically what we use in Symantec Support in order to troubleshoot issues. the only item for consideration is the increased logging will take more space on the disk. Make sure you have enough space for the values selected.

• Severity = For verbose logging: 0xFF (hex value), or 255 (decimal value)
• MaxFiles
  • Agent: 100 (decimal value)
  • Server: 200 (decimal value)
• MaxSize
  • Agent: 1000 (decimal value)
  • Server: 2000 (decimal value)

Altiris Agent logging is controlled by registry values in the registry key:

HKLM\Software\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Event Logging\LogFile

NOTE: The same registry values apply to both Altiris Agent and SMP logging.

 

FileName: The naming convention for these logs (String value)

• Agent default: agent.log
• SMP default: a.log

FilePath: Folder path where the log files will be stored; (String Value)

• Agent default: 
  • C:\ProgramData\Symantec\Symantec Agent\Logs
• SMP default:
  • C:\ProgramData\Symantec\SMP\Logs
  • Altiris Log Viewer - Options > Log Options

MaxFiles: Maximum number of log files to create; (DWORD Value)

• Agent default: 10 (files)

MaxSize: Maximum size of each log file (in KB); (DWORD Value)

• Agent default: 100 (KB)

Severity: The level of logging to be recorded; (DWORD Value)

• Agent default: value not set, will capture Error, Warning & Informational messages
• NS default: same as Agent

Additional information:

• These values can be modified on the client as well as on the server. 
• The NS logging severity level can be set in the SMP Console: Settings > All Settings; Notification Server > Notification Server Settings; Logging tab
  • Logging level can also be set in the Altiris Log Viewer: Options > Log Options
• When the logs are generated, a.log is always the current log and when the max size is reached, it becomes a1.log. The next one would be a2.log and so on until the max files is reached. At that point you may begin to lose data unless archiving or purging kicks in.
• Very large log files sizes on the Notification Server can result in poor performance when viewing from the Web console, so you may be better off increasing the MaxFiles rather than the MaxSize. 

There are five main levels of severity logging, and they are:

• Errors
• Warnings
• Information
• Trace
• Verbose

The registry Severity key can be manually adjusted to the desired logging level (these are Decimal values):

1 = Errors
2 = Warnings
3 = Errors and Warnings
4 = Information
5 = Errors & Information
6 = Warnings & Information
7 = Errors, Warning & Information
8 = Trace
9 = Errors and Trace
10 = Warnings and Trace
11 = Errors, Warnings, and Trace
12 = Information and Trace
13 = Errors, Information, and Trace
14 = Warnings, Information, and Trace
15 = Errors, Warnings, Information, and Trace

16 = Verbose

17 = Verbose, Errors

........
255 (0xFF) = Verbose logging (All logging options enabled)

 

ULMAgent

 

Run the following command to set Logging to the highest level

sudo aex-helper agent -s "Configuration" debug_level DEVNOTE

Run the following command to set Log File size to Unlimited

sudo aex-helper agent -s "Configuration" debug_file_size 0

 

Then restart ULM Agent

sudo /opt/altiris/notification/nsagent/bin/rcscript restart

Additional Information

Please see KB Altiris Diagnostic Tasks for Tasks that can be imported to the SMP Console to make these Registry changes for you.