How do I enable Message level debugging in AM 6.x debug files?

Last updated Jan 12, 2023

The purpose of this article is to provide information on enabling Message level debugging in AM debug files. Message level debug files are frequently used for troubleshooting issues but are not recommended generally due to their size.

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Note

This article does not apply to AM 7 and later, because AM 7 and later uses Logback for configuring debug logging. See Debug Logging for further information.

Background information

Note

You can use the Recording facility to capture debug logs. See How do I record troubleshooting information in AM (All versions)? for further information.

You can enable Message level debugging for all debug files or for individual debug files using Debug.jsp. You must have top level admin privileges to do this and be logged in to AM as the admin user (called amadmin by default).

There are four different debug levels available:

Off - disables debug logging.
Error - only logs error messages (default).
Warning - logs both warning and error messages.
Message - logs detailed diagnostic messages and debugging information.

Debug location

Debug files are located in the /path/to/am/debug directory by default. You can check which directory is being used or change it using either the AM admin UI or ssoadm:

AM admin UI: navigate to Deployment > Servers > [Server Name] > General > Debugging > Debug Directory.
ssoadm: enter the following command to view current settings and look for the com.iplanet.services.debug.directory property: $ ./ssoadm list-server-cfg -s [servername] -u [adminID] -f [passwordfile]replacing [servername], [adminID] and [passwordfile] with appropriate values.
ssoadm: enter the following command to update the directory: $ ./ssoadm update-server-cfg -s [servername] -u [adminID] -f [passwordfile] -a com.iplanet.services.debug.directory=[directory]replacing [servername], [adminID], [passwordfile] and [directory] with appropriate values.

Note

In Kubernetes deployments, AM writes its debug logs to stdout. See Pod Descriptions and Container Logs for further information on collecting debug logs in Kubernetes.

Enabling Message level debugging for all debug files

You can enable Message level debugging for all debug files using either the AM admin UI or ssoadm:

AM admin UI: navigate to Deployment > Servers > [Server Name] > General > Debugging > Debug Level and select Message.
ssoadm: enter the following command: $ ./ssoadm update-server-cfg -s [servername] -u [adminID] -f [passwordfile] -a com.iplanet.services.debug.level=messagereplacing [servername], [adminID] and [passwordfile] with appropriate values.

Once you have reproduced the problem and captured the debug logs, you should revert the debug level to Error to avoid filling up the disks where the debug logs are stored.

Caution

Please be aware of the following:

Debug level must be set on a specific server as shown above. Do not set debug level via Server Defaults.
It is possible to configure the logging level at the container level instead, but if you do this it will override whatever is set in the application. Once set, it can only be changed via Debug.jsp. See OPENAM-11411 (stdout debug logging level can not be changed at runtime via the console) and OPENAM-15652 (Debug.jsp does not update all existing appenders when trying to override -Dcom.iplanet.services.debug.level at runtime) for further information.
Increasing the debug level to message will generate large debug logs, so you are advised to look at log rotation to stop disks filling up: How do I rotate AM 6.x debug logs?

Enabling Message level debugging for individual files

You can enable Message level debugging for individual debug files providing you are logged in as follows:

Navigate to: <protocol>://host.fqdn:port/am/Debug.jsp, for example: https://am.example.com:8443/am/Debug.jsp. An example Debug.jsp page looks like this:

Select the required debug file from the Category field, select Message from the Level field and then click Submit to change the debug level.

Once you have reproduced the problem and captured the debug logs, you should revert the debug level to Error to avoid filling up the disks where the debug logs are stored.

Note

The Debug.jsp page always shows the debug level as Error, regardless of its actual setting.

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