This site contains the documentation that is relevant to older WSO2 product versions and offerings.
For the latest WSO2 documentation, visit https://wso2.com/documentation/.

Introduction to Logging

Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Last updated: Nov 03, 2016
2 min read

Logging is one of the most important aspects of a production-grade server. A properly configured logging system is vital for identifying errors, security threats, and usage patterns. There are several ways to view the system and application logs of a running instance of a Carbon-based product:

  • In the Management Console.
  • In the log files that are stored in <PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/logs folder. The folder contains current logs in a log file with a date stamp. Older logs are archived in the wso2carbon.log file.
  • Through the command prompt/shell terminal that opens when you started the Carbon server by running wso2server.bat or wso2server.sh.

In WSO2 Message Broker, you also have the option of tracing messages by enabling a trace log file. See the troubleshooting guide for instructions.

WSO2 products use a log4j-based logging mechanism through Apache Commons Logging facade library. The log4j.properties file, which governs how logging is performed by the server, is in the <PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf directory.

There are two ways to configure log4j:

  • Manually edit the log4j.properties file in <PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf.
  • Configure logging through the management console. Changes apply at run time.

The latter is recommended because all changes made to log4j through the management console are persisted in the WSO2 registry. Therefore, those changes will be available after server restarts. Any changes to the logging configuration you make through the management console will get priority over what is defined in the actual log4j.properties file. However, i f you modify the log4j.properties file and restart the server, the earlier log4j configuration that was persisted in the registry will be overwritten. There is also an option in the management console to restore the original log4j configuration from the log4j.properties file.  

Logging functionality is provided by the following feature in the WSO2 feature repository:

Name : WSO2 Carbon - Logging Management Feature
Identifier : org.wso2.carbon.logging.mgt.feature.group

If the above feature is not bundled in your product by default, you can install it using the instructions in Feature Management. Â