How Administration and Reporting Tool V8.1.4.2 manages restarts of the RLKS to prevent the RLKS log file from being overwritten and the loss of license usage data

Answer

Consider the case where the RLKS Administration Agent is configured with the RLKS log file, lmgrd.log.

1. To prevent the RLKS log file from being overwritten when the Rational License Key server is stopped and restarted, the following activities are performed by the RLKS Administration Agent when the Start Reporting operation is executed.
   
• 1.1 The agent checks if a backup file (lmgrd.log.backup) exists for the configured log file.
  If the backup file exists, the file continues to be used as a backup.
  
  
• 1.2 If the backup file is not present:
  
  A. An lmswitch operation is done. The Log file is switched to a new file having the name ibmratl_<timestamp>.log (example: ibmratl_2014-02-21-15-26-12). This file is created in the same location as the configured log file.
  
  B. An options file (ibmratl.opt) is created if not present in the location where the license file is present. If the file is already present, the existing options file is used.
  
  C. A DEBUGLOG option is added / modified to point to the newly switched log file (for example DEBUGLOG) +"C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\IBM\RationalRLKS\common\ibmratl_2014-02-21-15-26-12.log"
  
  D. A backup of the configured log file is created.
  For example, if the agent is configured to use lmgrd.log file, then a backup file lmgrd.log.backup is created.
  
  
2. To prevent the log file from growing too large, the size of the currently used log file (ibmratl_<ts>.log) is periodically checked, and if it grows beyond a configured size (the default value is 500 MB), then the log file is rotated again via lmswitch. Users will see a new log file (ibmratl_<ts>.log). The options file is updated to point to this newly created file.
   
   
3. The log file size of 500 MB can be changed using the LOGFILE_MAX_SIZE property present in the <Agent_Install_Location>\servers\rclagent\conf\rclagent\rclagentconf.properties file. The agent needs to be restarted for the new value to take effect.

1. The created backup file (lmgrd.log.backup) and the debug log files ( ibmratl_<timestamp>.log) should be retained always. Deleting one or many files will result in data to be lost and will affect accuracy of the generated reports.
2. The DEBUGLOG option in the options file should not be modified after reporting operation has been started in the RLKS Administration and Reporting Tool. Any modifications to this will cause data to be written to incorrect files thereby resulting in inaccurate reports and loss of data.