Gathering information with the collector tool

The collector tool gathers information about your WebSphere Application Server installation and packages it in a Java™ archive (JAR) file that you can send to IBM® Customer Support to help to determine and analyze your problem. Information in the JAR file includes logs, property files, configuration files, operating system and Java data, and the presence and level of each software prerequisite.

Before you begin

IBM includes the collector tool in the product code, along with other tools that help capture the information that you must provide when you report a problem. The collector tool is designed to make problem reporting as easy and complete as possible.

There are two phases of using the collector tool. The first phase runs the collector tool on your WebSphere® Application Server product and produces a Java archive (JAR) file. The IBM Support team performs the second phase, which is analyzing the JAR file that the collector program produces. The collector program runs to completion as it creates the JAR file, despite any errors that it might find like missing files or invalid commands. The collector tool collects as much data in the JAR file as possible.

About this task

The tool is within the installation root directory for WebSphere Application Server. You run the tool from a working directory that you create outside of the installation root directory. This procedure describes both of those steps and all of the other steps for using the tool and reporting the results from running the tool.

There are two ways to run the collector tool. Run the collector tool to collect summary data or to traverse the system to gather relevant files and command results. The collector tool produces a JAR file of information that is needed to determine and solve a problem. The collector summary option produces a lightweight collection of version and other information that is useful when first reporting the problem to IBM Support. Run the collector tool from the root user or from the administrator user to access system files that contain information about kernel settings, installed packages, and other vital data.

The tool collects information about the default profile if you do not use the optional parameter to identify another profile.

Procedure

Run the collector tool.
1. Log on to the system as root or a member of the administrator group on a Windows platform.
2. Make a working directory somewhere outside of the WAS_HOME directory where you can start the collector program.
  For example, you might create a /tmp/collector-log directory.
3. Make the working directory the current directory.
  For example, run the cd /tmp/collector-log command.
4. Run the collector program by entering the fully qualified command from the command line of the working directory.
  Important: Run the tool from the working directory that you created in step 2 by using a fully qualified path in the command, similar to the following example.
```
/usr/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/bin/collector.sh
```
  The tool generates a JAR file that is saved in the current working directory, for example, /tmp/collector-log/collector.jar.
  - Run the following command:
    app_server_root/bin/collector.sh
```
app_server_root\bin\collector.bat
```
    Use the command with no additional parameter to gather one copy of the profile data and data from each server in the node, and to store the data in a single JAR output file.
  - Use the following command to gather data from a specific profile that might not be the default profile:
    app_server_root/bin/collector.sh -profileName profile_name
```
app_server_root\bin\collector.bat -profileName profile_name
```
5. Optional: You can run the collector tool from a profile bin directory instead of the app_server_root/bin/ directory.
  Run the following command:
```
profile_root/bin/collector.sh
```
```
profile_root\bin\collector.bat
```
  You should get the same output if you run the collector tool from the bin directory of profile_root as you would if you ran it from app_server_root\bin\collector.bat -profileName profile_name.
  
  Issuing the command from the profile also runs the setupCmdLine.bat/sh file in the profile bin directory. This file sets an environment parameter that the collector uses to determine which profile data to collect.
Run the collector tool.
1. Log on to the system with a user profile that has all object (*ALLOBJ) special authority.
2. Make a working directory somewhere outside of the WAS_HOME directory where you can start the collector program.
  For example, you might create a /tmp/collector-log directory.
3. Run the STRQSH command from the CL command line to prepare to run the collector program.
4. Make the working directory the current directory.
  For example, run the cd /tmp/collector-log command.
5. Run the following command from Qshell:
```
cd workingDirectory
```
  The collector program writes its output JAR file to the current directory. The program also creates and deletes a number of temporary files in the current directory. Creating a work directory to run the collector program avoids naming collisions and makes cleanup easier. You cannot run the collector tool in a directory under the installation root directory for .
6. Run the collector program by entering the fully qualified command from the command line of the working directory.
  Important: Run the tool from the working directory that you created in step 2 by using a fully qualified path in the command, similar to the following example.
```
/usr/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/bin/collector.sh
```
  The tool generates a JAR file that is saved in the current working directory, for example, /tmp/collector-log/collector.jar.
  - Run the following command from Qshell:
```
app_server_root/bin/collector
```
  - Run the following command from Qshell to gather data from a specific profile that might not be the default profile:
```
app_server_root/bin/collector -profileName profile_name
```
7. Optional: You can also run the collector tool from the profile's root directory instead of the app_server_root/bin/ directory.
  Run the following command from Qshell:
```
profile_root/bin/collector
```
  You should get the same output if you run the collector tool from the bin directory of profile_root as you would if you ran it from app_server_root.
  
  Issuing the command from the profile also runs the setupCmdLine file in the profile bin directory. This file sets an environment parameter that the collector uses to determine which profile data to collect.

Results

The collector program creates the Collector.log log file and an output JAR file in the current directory.

The name of the JAR file is composed of the host name, cell name, node name, and profile name:

host_name-cell_name-node_name-profile_name.JAR

The Collector.log log file is one of the files that are collected in the host_name-cell_name-node_name-profile_name.JAR file.

What to do next

Send the host_name-cell_name-node_name-profile_name.JAR file to IBM Support for analysis.