HP 3000 Manuals

Logging and Tracing [ NS3000/iX Operations & Maintenance Reference Manual ] MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation


NS3000/iX Operations & Maintenance Reference Manual

Logging and Tracing 

Both logging and tracing services are available to you for use as
diagnostic and debugging aids.

Logging records subsystem events as selected by the way you have
configured logging through NMMGR. Use logging in problem determination
and in monitoring network usage and resources.

Tracing is provided at both the user level and at an internal level.
User-level tracing provides a record of data communications subsystem
intrinsic calls.  Internal level tracing records internal state
transitions and the sequences of module execution within data
communications subsystems.  You should only use internal tracing under
the recommendation of an HP service representative.

The Logging Facility 

Node management services, NMS, provides logging services for Network
Services, NetIPC, network transport, and all data communications links.
Logging is performed at three levels:  network logging, event logging,
and link level logging.  Network logging records the usage of the
communications network resources.  It serves as a tool in resolving
network problems.  Event logging records the major subsystem events.  The
NSCONTROL command with the LOG= option can be used to enable or disable
detailed event logging for the Network Services (see chapter 7 for more
information).  The link level logs to MPE/iX log files only.

You can configure logging to record messages to the console, to a log
file, or to both for each individual subsystem.  See the HP 3000/iX 
Network Planning and Configuration Guide or the NS3000/iX NMMGR Screens 
Reference Manual for information on how to configure logging.

Three commands are available to help you manage log files.  SHOWNMLOG
displays the name of the current log file and shows the space that is
still available in the file.  SWITCHNMLOG allows you to close the current
log file before it is full and open a new one.  RESUMENMLOG allows you to
reactivate logging after a recoverable error.  See chapter 7 for
information on these commands.

The Tracing Facility 

Tracing is provided for the Network Services subsystem, Network
Interprocess Communication (NetIPC), the network transport subsystem, and
the link subsystems.  You enable tracing for the Network Services by the
DSLINE command for each user's services.  Network Service tracing is used
to trace messages generated by your applications.  For more information,
see Using NS3000/iX Network Services.

You enable tracing for NetIPC applications with the NetIPC intrinsic
IPCCONTROL, which is explained in the NetIPC3000/XL Programmer's 
Reference Manual.

You can selectively enable tracing for the network transport with the
NETCONTROL command (see chapter 7).  You can enable tracing at the link
level in the NMMGR configuration for some links, as explained in the
NS3000/iX Screens Reference Manual.  You can also enable link level
tracing with the LINKCONTROL command.

Trace Files.   

Network transport trace records are written to disk files and are of file
type NTRAC. Trace files are named either by explicitly specifying a file
name (in the configuration file or with the NETCONTROL command) or by
using the default trace file filename.  If you explicitly specify a file
name, the contents of the file are overwritten each time a new trace is
started.  No warning is issued.  If you use the default file name, NMS
uses NMTCnnnn.PUB.SYS as a file name.  In the file name, nnnn is a number
from 0000 to 9999.  Each time a new trace is started, NMS opens a new
file and increments nnnn by one, thus creating a new file name.  If this
new trace file name is the name of a file that already exists, NMS
continues to increment nnnn by one until it produces the name of a new
(non-existing) file.  If the NMS trace facility reaches an end-of-file
mark while recording to a disk file, it wraps subsequent entries around
to the beginning of the file and overwrites the previous entries.

To Format Log and Trace Files 

You can format log and trace files into a readable format using the
NMDUMP utility.  You can run NMDUMP by itself or as one of the NETTOOL
tools.  See chapter 6 for step-by-step instructions for running NMDUMP
using NETTOOL.

NMDUMP allows you to select specific subsystems and message types for
formatting.  (Note that you must have configured logging so that messages
of the type you select are recorded.)  For example, you may only need to
see critical error messages for a LAN link.  NMDUMP will let you select
just these messages to be formatted.  See Using the Node Management 
Services (NMS) Utilities for a table of the logging subsystems and
message types that you can select for formatting.

To Format X.25 Log Files 

Messages for X.25 links are not recorded to the same logging file as
messages for other links.  If you need to format log messages for a
host-based X.25 link, you should see Configuring and Managing Host-Based 
X.25 Links for information on using the EVLOG formatter.  If you are
logging messages for an X.25 link with PC-based network management, see
Using the OpenView DTC Manager for information.



MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation