# Configuration and User Guide

# Configuring Logging

LiquidVM-based WLS-VE instances have their own local disks where logs are stored. Many organizations use third-party log management products to collect logs from all running machines. This is typically required for SOX-compliance (Sarbanes-Oxley).

The following topics describe the logs that are created when using WLS-VE and how to access them:

- Understanding the Log Files
- Accessing WLS-VE Log Files

## Understanding the Log Files

There are three basic types of log files created when using WLS-VE:

- WLS (Java) logs
- LiquidVM log
- VMware log

### WLS Logs

WLS-VE creates the same WLS log files, such as the server log and the domain log, as non-virtualized WLS. In WLS-VE, the log files are stored on the virtual local disk of the WLS-VE instance under the `/domain` directory. For example:

- Server logs are stored in `/domain/servers/``SERVER_NAME``/logs/``SERVER_NAME``.log`
- Domain logs are stored in `/domain/servers/``ADMIN_SERVER_NAME``/logs/``DOMAIN_NAME``.log`

In this pathname, `ADMIN_SERVER_NAME` is the name of the Administration Server for the domain and `DOMAIN_NAME` is the name of the domain that you provided to the P2V Domain Conversion utility.

For more information about the WLS logs, see “Understanding WebLogic Logging Services” in Configuring Log Files and Filtering Log Messages.

### LiquidVM Log

By default, the LiquidVM output is written to the console and, by default, is recorded in the following log file:

    /domain/vmname.lvm.out

where `/domain` is the current working directory and `vmname` is the server name you assigned to the server when you created the domain, prefixed with `WLS-`, for example `/domain/WLS-AdminServer.lvm.out`.

### VMware Log

The VMware log file, `vmware.log,` is not available directly from LiquidVM, but it is stored on the ESX server in the same directory as the VMware configuration files and local disk. VMware logs record important and critical events from VMware, and warnings and errors reported from LiquidVM.

## Accessing WLS-VE Log Files

There are three basic ways to collect WLS and LiquidVM log file information from LiquidVM-based instances:

- Copy the logs using SSH
- Configure LiquidVM to use remote syslog (not applicable to Java logs)
- Store the log-files on an NFS share

The following sections describe these options in more detail.

### Copying the Log Files Using SSH

The most straight forward approach to collecting logs is to use an SSH-based file transfer client, log into the WLS-VE instance while it is running, and transfer the log files of interest to another machine for inspection. For more information about SSH, see Using the LiquidVM SSH Service. To copy the log files using SSH, follow these steps:

1. Make sure the LiquidVM SSH service is enabled and running. The easiest way to do this is to specify `ssh=on` to the WLS-VE launcher by setting the `LVM_SSH=on` property in the `WLS_VE` start script. For more information, see Copying Domain Artifacts Using the LiquidVM SSH Service.
2. Use an SSH-2 compatible file transfer client of your choice to log into the SSH service on the WLS-VE instance. Note the following:

- If you provided an SSH public key in the start script (recommended), you will be prompted to provide the private key to log into the SSH service.
- Login as the user `liquidvm`. LiquidVM is a single-process, single-user environment; only the user `liquidvm` is supported.

3. Transfer the log files from the WLS-VE instance to a directory on your local machine. You can then view them using any text editor. The logs on the WLS-VE instance are located by default in `/domain`, as described in Understanding the Log Files.

### Configuring LiquidVM to Use Remote syslog

LiquidVM provides a syslog compliant interface for syslog events. Most third-party log management tools can collect log information from syslog compliant devices. LiquidVM implements the syslog standard (RFC3164) as a service that you can configure to publish syslog information to a remote syslog collector. Note that the syslog is subset of all logs. In particular, it does not contain the WebLogic logs. However, it does contain the events that a generic log management product typically collects.

To enable remote syslog in LiquidVM:

1. Ensure that the host that you want to receive the logs is running a syslog collector. On a Linux machine, you typically enable remote syslog collection by adding `-r` to syslog when starting the syslog daemon. If you are using a log management product, such as rSA Envision, review the product manual for configuration requirements.
2. Specify the hostname or IP address of the receiving host using `logReceiver=``hostname` as an argument to the WLS-VE launcher. You can do this by setting `LVM_SYSLOG_RECEIVER` property in the WLS-VE start script. Setting this property guarantees that WLS-VE will send syslog messages to the specified host.

### Storing the Log Files on an NFS Share

You can also configure your environment to store all log files on an NFS share instead of on the local disk. By doing so, the log files are accessible from any other non-virtualized OS machine that can access the NFS share also. BEA does not recommend storing the log files on an NFS share for two primary reasons:

- NFS is less secure and more vulnerable than using the local disk and should be avoided for sensitive data. It is likely that the application log files may contain sensitive information.
- Performance is worse when files are stored on an NFS share than when they are stored on local disk.

For information about how to configure and use an NFS share, see “Preparing for the Installation” in WLS-VE version 1.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.