Target Skills:

Ability to view and interpret server logs.

 
 
 

More Info:

Searching and Viewing Log Files (Admin Guide)

Logging and Log Analysis 

Netscape Messaging Server creates log files that record events related to its administration, to communications using any of the protocols that the server supports, and to other processes employed by the server. By examining the log files, you can monitor many aspects of the server's operation.

You can view the server logs by going to the Configuration Tab/Log Files on the Messaging Server Console, then choosing the particular service log you wish to view.

Log Characteristics 

Messaging Server logging is flexible and customizable. You can specify settings that affect which and how many events are logged, and you can use those settings and other characteristics to refine searches for logged events when you are analyzing log files.

All log files created by Messaging Server have identical content formats. Log files are multiline text files, in which each line describes one logged event. All event descriptions, for each of the supported services, have the general format

dateTime hostNameprocessName[pid]: facility logLevel: eventMessage
You'll interpret some log files in the exercise on the following pages.

Setting Logging Options

You can use Netscape Console to set options that control the logging configuration for each Messaging Server service. 

The optimal settings for these options depend on the rate at which log data accumulates. It may take between 4,000 and 10,000 log entries to occupy 1 MB of storage. At the more verbose levels of logging (such as Notice), a moderately busy server may generate hundreds of megabytes of log data per week.

Searching and Viewing Logs 

Netscape Console provides a basic interface for viewing Messaging Server log data. It allows for selecting individual log files and for performing flexible filtered searches of log entries within those files.  For a given service (such as SMTP), log files are listed in chronological order. Once you have chosen a log file to search, you can narrow the search for individual events by specifying a time interval, the logging level, facility category, and a text pattern for matching.
 

In the exercise in the following pages, you'll use the Console to view several logs.
 

 


Produced By Netscape Learning.  Copyright ©1999 Netscape Communications Corporation