Turning on logging for xFlow

Products

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

Issue/Introduction

With the new xFlow interface available, there may exist concerns that would warrant additional logging to be turned on to assist in troubleshooting a case.

This document describes the most effective ways in which one can increase logging to debug or trace levels for the xFlow microservices

Environment

CA Service Management 17.1 and higher

Resolution

To turn on the logging:

1. Identify which MicroService is relevant here.  Assuming a default install of xFlow, all of the MicroServices are stored in the C:\Program Files\CA\xFlow\APPS\Services under the following directories:
   
   insightmicroservice-17.XXXX (suitable for any issues to do with Insight reporting)
   pushmicroservice-17.XXXX (suitable for any issues to do with notifications)
   searchmicroservice-17.XXXX (suitable for any issues to do with search features, including Chatbot searches)
   incidentmicroservice-17.XXXX (suitable for any issues when creating a support ticket)
   collabmicroservice-17.XXXX (suitable for any issues with chat features to a support technician or the chatbot)
   
   Under each of these directories "conf" folders is a logback.xml file, which we will be using to activate the additional logging.  In this case, we will utilize the incident MicroService, or incidentmicroservice-17.0.479
   
   
2. From C:\Program Files\CA\xFlow\APPS\Services, access the "incidentmicroservice-17.0.479\conf" directory.
   
   
3. Backup the logback.xml file, making sure to use an extension other than xml (ideally, you would want to copy this file to a separate backup location.
   
   
4. Edit the logback.xml file
   
   
5. change all the logger levels on below lines from INFO to DEBUG
   
   Original lines:
   

     <logger name="play" level="INFO" />
     <logger name="application" level="INFO" />
   
     <!-- Set logging for all Akka library classes to INFO -->
     <logger name="akka" level="INFO" />

   
   Revised lines:
   

     <logger name="play" level="DEBUG" />
     <logger name="application" level="DEBUG" />
   
     <!-- Set logging for all Akka library classes to INFO -->
     <logger name="akka" level="DEBUG" />

   
   
   There is also a root level line that should also be set to DEBUG
   
   Original line:
   

     <root level="INFO">

   
   Revised line:
   

     <root level="DEBUG">
   

6. Restart xFlow Service
   
   
7. The xFlow logs are stored in: C:\Program Files\CA\xFlow\APPS\logs

Additionally, Bop_logging on domsrvr/virtdb may also be needed, and is done separately, ie, from an admin command prompt, run these two bop_logging commands:

bop_logging domsrvr -f $NX_ROOT\log\domsrvr.out -n 10 -m 20000000 ON
bop_logging bpvirtdb_srvr -f $NX_ROOT\log\bpvirtdb.out -n 10 -m 20000000 ON

The above bop_logging commands will take effect immediately.  One does not need to cycle xFlow or any other Services for bop_logging to take effect.

To turn off the logging:

1. Restore the logback.xml file from the backup to the appropriate MicroService Directory.
   
   
2. Restart xFlow.
   
   
3. If you also started the bop_logging command described above, run:
   bop_logging domsrvr -f $NX_ROOT\log\domsrvr.out -n 10 -m 20000000 OFF
   bop_logging bpvirtdb_srvr -f $NX_ROOT\log\bpvirtdb.out -n 10 -m 20000000 OFF

Additional Information

The above items are provided for informational purposes.  We do not advise turning on any sort of additional logging without first consulting with Support to see what is required to troubleshoot a given issue.  If logging is improperly turned on, performance issues and other such concerns may arise, potentially causing more problems with the application, and possibly leading to the application becoming unusable.