Network Registrar Logging and Debugging

This appendix describes the types of logs that Network Registrar keeps and explains how to set and view the debug logging options.

Network Registrar Logging

When you start Network Registrar, it automatically starts logging system activity. Network Registrar maintains all the logs in the \registrar\logs (Windows NT) or /var/nwreg2/logs (UNIX) directory. If you would like to view the contents of these logs while the Network Registrar servers are running, make a copy of the files and move them to another directory.

T

o avoid filling up the Windows NT event log, change the Log Settings to Overwrite Events as Needed. If you do not make this change, you might fill up your disk with log messages and thus prevent Network Registrar from running.

Logging Format

The format for the log entries are the following categories:

Activity---Messages about the activity of your servers.
Info---Logs standard operations of the servers, such as starting up and shutting down.
Warning---Logs events that prevented a particular user from authentication, such as invalid packets, user miscommunication, or an error in a script while processing a request.
Error---Logs events that prevented the server from operating properly, such as out of memory or unable to acquire resources (sockets, logs, backing store or configuration databases).

Note Warnings and errors are also sent to the Windows NT event log on Windows systems or to the Syslog on Solaris systems.

Log Files

Table F-1 shows all the Network Registrar log files.

Table F-1: Log Files

Component File Name Description

Server Agent

agent_server_log

Contains information about when the servers have been started and stopped.

WIN32 GUI

aicwin32gui_log

Contains GUI messages and only logs activity on the server PC not from the remote GUI.

Database Manager

config_mcd_log

Contains the management system configuration and start, stop, and GUI login.

DHCP server

name_dhcp_1_log

Contains server state, new leases, and lease renewal.

DNS server

name_dns_1_log

Contains server state, DDNS updates, and zone transfers.

Component	File Name	Description
Server Agent	agent_server_log	Contains information about when the servers have been started and stopped.
WIN32 GUI	aicwin32gui_log	Contains GUI messages and only logs activity on the server PC not from the remote GUI.
Database Manager	config_mcd_log	Contains the management system configuration and start, stop, and GUI login.
DHCP server	name_dhcp_1_log	Contains server state, new leases, and lease renewal.
DNS server	name_dns_1_log	Contains server state, DDNS updates, and zone transfers.

Each component has a number of log files, each with a maximum size of 1 MB. The first log file is created without a suffix extension. When that file reaches 1 MB in size, Network Registrar renames it to xx_log_1 and begins filling up the current log. When the current log file reaches 1 MB, it renames the current to _01 and _01 to _02, etc.

The DNS server can have a maximum of three log files. The DHCP server can have a maximum of four log files.

Network Registrar Debugging

You can set the debug settings for the Network Registrar DNS and the DHCP servers by clicking the Debug settings button on the Advanced tab of the DNS Server Properties dialog box and the DHCP Server Properties dialog box.

You can set the debug level from 0 to 5 for the Network Registrar DNS server and from 0 to 10 for the Network Registrar DHCP servers, with the higher levels giving you more extensive logging.

Note Each of these servers has different categories for which you can request tracing information. Because setting the tracing level can have a serious impact on the performance of your system, you should contact Technical Support for more information about using debugging.

You can choose from two logging options:

Console---The system screen
Mlog---Add the debug messages to the existing logs

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