Process log file overview

Network Manager can create log and trace files for its processes.

Log files provide information about important process events, such as changes in state, warnings, or errors, in a standard format that is compatible with IBM's Common Base Event (CBE) format. Log files help administrators to monitor their systems and are useful to provide to your IBM® Support contact when requested.

Trace files capture low-level system output and technical details. They are intended to aid enhanced problem resolution, and are useful to provide to your IBM Support contact when requested.

Log files can be identified by their .log suffix, and have the following characteristics:
  • Log messages have timestamps.
  • Log messages are graded by level, such as error, warn, info, and debug.
  • Log messages are formatted to be compatible with IBM's Common Base Event format.
  • Log files can be deleted and recreated to enable log file rotation.

Trace files can be identified by their .trace suffix. They can capture different levels of detail, referred to as debug levels. Debug level 4 is the most verbose. Trace files set to the higher debug levels can quickly consume disk space, and therefore should be used only when very detailed information is required to solve a problem.