The Infrastructure Log Tables - Oracle

The Application Server 10g system contains numerous log files, some of which are stored in flat files while others are stored inside the iasdb instance. Remember that log files and audit trails may exist in many places, and you must become accustomed to looking for error messages and audits in the proper places.

In practice, administrators use shell scripts with SQL*Plus to automate this task, and filter out unwanted messages so they can see only those messages that are germane to their current needs. When the iasdb database is initially loaded, log files are created in the $ORACLE_HOME/config directory. These include the following files:

• schemaload.log This file reports on the iasdb load process.

• useinfratool.log This file reports on all tools whose definitions have been loaded into the iasdb instance.

• infratool_instance_jazn.log This reports on the Java Authorization (JAZN) install using Oracle’s Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS).

• infratool_mod_osso.log This file reports on the mod_osso load process.

After the iasdb initial load, it is a good idea to check these files for errors. Application Server 10g will report on all successful component installations in these logs, and you can easily check the status with a single command:

root> grep -i succeeded $ORACLE_HOME/config/*.log
infratool_instance_jazn.log:Configuration succeeded for IASProperty
infratool_instance_jazn.log:Configuration succeeded for IAS infratool_instance_jazn.log:Configuration succeeded for LDAP
infratool_mod_osso.log:Configuration succeeded for JAZN infratool_mod_osso.log:Configuration succeeded for HTTPD
infratool_mod_osso.log:Configuration succeeded for MODOSSO schemaload.log:Configuration succeeded for SchemaLoad

Of course, there are many other flat files for logs within Application Server 10g, and they are fully discussed in later chapters. Next let’s look at the OEM console interface for displaying Application Server 10g  log messages.

The Oracle Enterprise Manager console contains a graphical log viewer that can be used to display some of the log files, as shown in Figure 2-1. From this screen you can choose any Application Server 10g component and view some of the associated log files. In the example shown in Figure 2-2, we chose Wireless and selected the Search button. Here you see server-side error log messages associated with Oracle Portal. However, this screen can be misleading because the infrastructure database also contains repository logs.

Figure 2-1.  The OEM log file viewer

Figure 2-2.  The OEM Wireless log file viewer 

The repository log viewer is easy to use, and you can select any Application Server 10g component and view the associated repository log messages (Figure 2-3). From this screen you can choose the repository components and specify filter conditions. This OEM screen then generates the SQL statements to query the native iasdb database log tables. In the example in Figure 2-3, we selected the OC4J wireless logs.

When you click the Search button, you see the error messages associated with the OC4J Wireless component displayed in HTML format. Although the OEM console GUI is great for ad hoc queries, administrators often supplement this GUI with custom scripts to extract and e-mail important error messages. Let’s take a closer look at how this works.