WebSphere Application Server log files

The application server has a variety of logs to which messages are written. For example, system message, which can be written by any application server component or application are written to general-purpose logs such as the Java virtual machine (JVM) logs and the IBM Service logs. Other logs are very specific in nature and are scoped to a particular component or activity. For example, the HTTP Server plug-in maintains a component-specific plug-in log.

The general purpose logs, such as JVM and IBM Service, are used to monitor the health of the application server and assist in troubleshooting. Troubleshooting for specific components may require additional log analysis, such as component or product specific log files.

The topics below describe the log files available for the application server and how you can configure and view the log files.

Java virtual machine Log files
This topic describes the JVM log files. All application server message events go to these files as well as System.out and System.err print statements for your applications. This topic also provides information on how to configure, view, and interpret the JVM log files.

Process log files
This topic describes the process log files. Any output for the native code supporting the JVM or native code for an application is written to these files. This topic also provides information on how to configure and view the process log files.

IBM Service log file
This topic describes the IBM Service,or activity, log files. The IBM Service log file is a binary file to which the application server writes the message events for any servers running under and instance (node). This topic provides information on how to configure and view the IBM Service log files.

Set up logs on HTTP Server (powered by Apache)
This topic describes how to configure different log files for the HTTP Server (powered by Apache).