Best approach to examining for specific initial_load.log content

Products

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

Issue/Introduction

When examining the Search Server or Elastic Search Server logging, for the initial_load.log file (generated when creating or updating indexes), one may find the file large and cumbersome to examine.  

The following is a best practise on isolating specific activity related to ElasticSearch.

Environment

Release 17.x and higher

CA Service Management

Resolution

1.  Open the initial_load.log file in a specialised text editor such as Notepad ++
   
   
   
2.  Select "Search" -> "Find" and search for "CA Service Management 17.3", choosing "Find All In Current Document".  Leave all other search options at the same default as the below image
   
   
   
   
3. You will get a response like this:
   
   
   
   
4. Each of the above entries indicates the start of a given block of activity associated with the index being created or updated, which can be used to determine on activity related to such an action.  
   
   
   
5. Example:  if it is known that the index was recently rebuilt, then the last entry in the above search result should help one match to the timeframe of said activity.  One would be looking for line 322740 in this instance, which is the last entry in the initial_load.log that contains the string "CA Service Management 17.3"