How to enable debug logging in Ambari Server

Products

• Services Suite

Issue/Introduction

When troubleshooting Ambari issues, it may be necessary to enable debug logging in the Ambari Server log /var/log/ambari-server/.

If there is a need to enable debug on the Ambari agent, refer to How to enable debug logging in Ambari Agent.

Environment

Resolution

To enable debug logging in Ambari server follow the following steps:
 

1. Open the relevant configuration file in a UNIX text editor:

• Ambari Server Log Configuration: /etc/ambari-server/conf/log4j.properties

2. Locate the entry "log4j.rootLogger":

[root@hawq20 conf]# grep rootLogger /etc/ambari-server/conf/log4j.properties
log4j.rootLogger=INFO,file
[root@hawq20 conf]# 

3. Replace "INFO" with "DEBUG":

[root@hawq20 conf]# grep rootLogger /etc/ambari-server/conf/log4j.properties
log4j.rootLogger=DEBUG,file
[root@hawq20 conf]#

4. Save the configuration file and close it.

5. Restart the Ambari server:

ambari-server restart

Note:

1. The Ambari server logging level will only change on one host and will not affect other hosts in the cluster.
2. The debug logging can be very verbose, available disk space should be checked before enabling debug logging and debug logging should be disabled as soon as troubleshooting is complete.