Reading the logs

Several log files are provided to help you diagnose and resolve problems when they occur.

If you experience problems during or after application deployment in your IBM Spectrum Scale environment, there are a number of log and trace files that can help you diagnose the cause of the problem.

Actions that you perform when deploying the IBM Spectrum Scale Server or when running an operation on the IBM Spectrum Scale Server component are recorded in various log files for tracking purposes. For more general information about accessing and viewing log files for virtual application virtual machines, see the Related links.

Log files are organized by virtual machine name. From the Virtual Application Instances page, you can select a IBM Spectrum Scale instance deployment to view the details on the virtual machines that make up that deployment. In the Middleware perspective section, the virtual machines with the roles of GPFS_Manager, GPFSServerMain, GPFSServer, or GPFSClient each have an associated Log link under VM Status that you can click to display the Log Viewer for that virtual machine.

In the Log Viewer, log files for the selected virtual machine are grouped under several categories such as DeploymentInlet, IBM Spectrum Scale, IWD Agent, and OS.

To view log and trace information related to IBM Spectrum Scale Server or IBM Spectrum Scale Client application execution, refer to the following logs under the IWD Agent category:

.../logs/install/trace.log:
This log contains trace information for execution during the initial setup of the virtual machine. At this trace level, as part of the IBM Spectrum Scale pattern deployment, the IBM Spectrum Scale binary files are downloaded from the internal Cloud Pak System repository and initial setup configuration is performed.

For a IBM Spectrum Scale Client deployment, this log contains the entire IBM Spectrum Scale Client logging configuration, because the IBM Spectrum Scale Client is set up and configured during the virtual application pattern installation process.
.../logs/<GPFS_VM_name>.<GPFS_VM_Role>/trace.log:
This directory path, including the IBM Spectrum Scale virtual machine name and IBM Spectrum Scale virtual machine role name, is displayed similar to the following example:
```
.../logs/GPFS-Manager.11403040855949.GPFS_Manager
```
The trace.log file contains IBM Spectrum Scale configuration information and details about any operation that is run by using the operations under the GPFS_Manager section of the Manage > Operations page of the Instance Console.
.../logs/<GPFS_Client_VM_name>.<GPFS_Client_role_name>/trace.log:
This directory path, including the IBM Spectrum Scale Client virtual machine name and IBM Spectrum Scale Client role name, is displayed similar to the following example:
```
.../logs/Web_Applications-was.1403271859732.GPFSClient
```
The trace.log file contains details about any operation that is run by using the operations under the GPFSClient section of the Manage > Operations page of the Instance Console.

You can view additional log and trace information for your selected deployed IBM Spectrum Scale virtual machine under the IBM Spectrum Scale category of the Log Viewer:

tmp/gpfs_logs/gpfs_pattern_install.log:
Examine this log to find the cause of errors encountered during the pattern deployment.
.../gpfs_logs/data:
This folder contains a set of files describing the state and configuration for the current deployment including information such as rack name; initial LUN IDs attached to the system, and associated IBM Spectrum Scale Manager IP addresses. These logs are available only for IBM Spectrum Scale Server deployments.

IBM Spectrum Scale Manager IP addresses for primary, mirror, passive or tiebreaker configurations are listed if this deployment is associated with these types of configurations. For example, if this is a primary deployment with mirror and tiebreaker configurations attached, you should see two data files under .../gpfs_logs/data containing the information about the attached mirror and tiebreaker IBM Spectrum Scale Manager IP addresses.
.../gpfs_logs/operation_logs:
These log files are available only for the virtual machine with the GPFS_Manager role. Each operation that is run by using the operations under the GPFS_Manager section of the Manage > Operations page of the Instance Console is logged under this folder, in a separate log file.

For example, when you use the Add New Member operation to attach a Mirror configuration, the operation is logged under this folder in a file with a name such as addMirror_1403043061.23.log.
.../adm/ras:
This directory is available only for virtual machines that have a role other than GPFS_Manager or GPFSManagerTie.

All IBM Spectrum Scale application logs are stored in this directory.

Log files for IBM shared service for IBM Spectrum Scale

You can find deployment information about the IBM® shared service for IBM Spectrum Scale in the following kernel services logs:

console.log
ffdc.log
trace.log

To view these files immediately after deploying the IBM shared service for IBM Spectrum Scale, click System > Workload Troubleshooting, and click Download the latest log files only.

Inside the downloaded compressed file, you will find additional compressed files. Expand servers.zip, then expand kernelservices.zip, to obtain the latest console.log, ffdc.log and trace.log files.