Setting the traces on the application server for the major HCL Workload Automation processes

About this task

The application server handles all communications between the HCL Workload Automation processes. The trace for these communications is set to tws_info by default (information messages only). The application server can be set to trace all communications, either for the whole product or for these specific groups of processes:
  • Command line
  • Connector
  • Database
  • Planner
  • Utilities
  • Dynamic workload broker

Significant impact on performance: Activating traces for the WebSphere Application Server Liberty Base leads to a significant impact on performance, especially if you set the tracing to all. Thus you are strongly advised to identify the process group where the problem that you want to trace is occurring, and only set the trace to that group.

To modify the trace level on the WebSphere Application Server Liberty Base, edit the trace.xml file as necessary.

Templates for the master domain manager are stored in the following paths:
On UNIX operating systems
TWA_home/usr/servers/engineServer/configDropins/templates
On Windows operating systems
TWA_home\usr\servers\engineServer\configDropins\templates
Templates for the Dynamic Workload Console are stored in the following paths:
On UNIX operating systems
DWC_home/usr/servers/dwcServer/configDropins/templates
On Windows operating systems
DWC_home\usr\servers\dwcServer\configDropins\templates
When you edit the file with your customized settings for the master domain manager, move it to the following paths:
On UNIX operating systems
TWA_DATA_DIR/usr/servers/engineServer/configDropins/overrides
On Windows operating systems
TWA_home\usr\servers\engineServer\configDropins\overrides
When you edit the file with your customized settings for the Dynamic Workload Console, move it to the following paths:
On UNIX operating systems
DWC_DATA_dir/usr/servers/dwcServer/configDropins/overrides
On Windows operating systems
DWC_home\usr\servers\dwcServer\configDropins\overrides
  1. Copy the template file from the templates folder to a working folder.
  2. Edit the template file in the working folder with the desired configuration.
  3. Optionally, create a backup copy of the relevant configuration file present in the overrides directory in a different directory. Ensure you do not copy the backup file in the path where the template files are located.
  4. Copy the updated template file to the overrides folder. Maintaining the original folder structure is not required.
  5. Changes are effective immediately.
For example, to modify the trace level on WebSphere Application Server Liberty Base, perform the following steps:
  1. Copy the trace.xml file from the TWA_home/usr/servers/engineServer/configDropins/templates folder to a working folder.
  2. Edit the template file in the working folder by changing the following string:
     <variable name="trace.specification" value="*info"/>
    into 
    <variable name="trace.specification" value="com.ibm.tws.dao.model.
=all:com.ibm.tws.dao.rdbms.=all"/>
  3. Copy the updated template file to TWA_DATA_DIR /usr/servers/engineServer/configDropins/overrides. Changes are effective immediately.

Traces are stored in DWC_DATA_dir/appserver/engineServer/logs.

The trace.specification can be found in trace.xml files and can refer to a specific component (tws_xxx) or to the whole product, as follows:
tws_all
"com.ibm.tws.=all:org.apache.wink.server.=all:com.hcl.tws.*=all"
tws_alldefault
"com.ibm.tws.*=error=enabled"
tws_broker_all
"com.ibm.scheduling.*=all:TWSAgent=all"
tws_rest
" com.ibm.tws.conn.=all:com.ibm.tws.twsd.rest.=all:org.apache.wink.server.*=all"
tws_cli
"com.ibm.tws.cli.=all:com.ibm.tws.objects.=all"
tws_utils
"com.ibm.tws.util.*=all"
tws_conn
"com.ibm.tws.conn.=all:com.ibm.tws.objects.=all:com.ibm.tws.updatemanager.=all:com.ibm.tws.dao.plan.=all"
tws_db
"com.ibm.tws.dao.model.=all:com.ibm.tws.dao.rdbms.=all"
tws_planner
"com.ibm.tws.planner.=all:com.tivoli.icalendar.=all:com.ibm.tws.runcycles.=all:com.ibm.tws.conn.planner.=all:com.ibm.tws.cli.planner.*=all"
tws_secjni
"com.ibm.tws.audit.=all:com.ibm.tws.security.=all"
tws_engine_broker_all
"com.ibm.tws.=all:com.ibm.scheduling.=all:TWSAgent=all"

Editing the logging element above with the traceSpecifcation value to tws_all, enables "com.ibm.tws.=all:org.apache.wink.server.=all:com.hcl.tws.*=all".

Other values are reported in variable tags above. You can also replace the value of the trace.specification parameter with a custom string.